254 



MEXICO, CENTRAL AMEEICA, WEST INDIES. 



Economic Condition of Salvador, 



Despite its foreign wars and civil strife, Salvador is a prosperous country, as 

 shown by tlie rapid increase of population unaided by any foreign immigration. 

 Since 1778, when it was originally returned at 117,436, the population has 

 certainly more than quadrupled, the census of 1886 yielding over 651,000, and the 

 estimate for 1890 being at least 675,000, or about 70 inhabitants per square mile. 

 At the same proportion the United States would have a population of from 

 340,000,000 to 350,000,000, instead of 63,000,000 according to th& census of 

 1890. 



Recently Salvador has given a striking proof of its vitality by the ease with 

 which it has accomplished a great economic revolution. Till lately its revenue 



Fi-. 110 



Density of the Population of Salvador. 

 Scale 1 : 2,700.000. 



D 



to 40. 



luhibitants to the Square Mile, 

 ffl 



ffl 



40 to 60. 60 to 80. 80 to 120. 



Each squire represents a populaion of 500. 



• Towns of over 20,000 inhabitants. 



60 Miles. 



120 and upwa ds. 



depended mainly on indigo, its only article of export. But since the discovery of 

 the various coal-tar dyes superseding the use of indigo, the Salvador planters have 

 had to abandon its cultivation and replace it chiefly by coffee and suo-ar. The 

 yield of the silver mines has also contributed to pay for the textiles, hardware, 

 corn, and other articles imported from abroad. The total value of the exchanges 

 is about £4 per head of the population, amounting in 1890 to over £2,250,000. 



Inland traffic is facilitated by carriage-roads with a total length of 2,700 

 miles in 1890, but in the same year there were only 36 miles of railways. The 

 telegraph and postal services are also in a backward state, though education, now 

 gratuitous and obligatory, is making considerable progress. In 1889 the schools 

 were attended by Qver 40,000 scholars, or one-eighteenth of the whole population. 



