REVIEWS — NOTES ON OEFTBAL AVEEICA. oG5 



" Those who have seen the -coriaceous beds which caver Pompeii can form 

 an accurate idea of the soil on which San Salvador was built. The channels of the 

 streams are worn down to a great depth through this light and yielding material, 

 and constitute immense ravines, which render the approaches to the town almost 

 impassable, except at the places where graded passages are cut down on either side 

 paved with stone, and sometimes walled, to keep them from washing out and be- 

 coming useless. Some of these approaches are so narrow that it is customary, 

 when mounted, to shoot loudly on entering, so as to avoid encountering horsemen 

 in the passages, which are frequently so restricted as to preclude either passing or 

 turning back. San Salvador has more than once owed its safety in time of war, to 

 these natural fortifications, which confounded the enemy with their intricacies and 

 difficulties, while affording means o; defense to the inhabitants. 



"The facility with which the soil above described washes away has been the 

 cause of several disasters to San Salvador. During a heavy rain of several days' 

 duration, called a ' Temporal,' which occurred in 1852, not only were all the 

 bridges which crossed a small stream flowing through one of the suburbs of the 

 town undermined and ruined, but many houses destroyed in the same manner. 

 One of the principal streets, extending into the suburbs, began to wash at its lower 

 extremity, and the excavation went on so rapidly that no effort could arrest it. A 

 considerable part of the street became converted into a huge ravine, into which 

 the houses and gardens on either side were precipitated. The extension of the 

 damage was guarded against, when the rain ceased, by the construction of heavy 

 walls of masonry, like the faces of a fortification. How serious an undertaking 

 this was regarded may be inferred from the fact that its completion was deemed of 

 sufficient importance to be announced in the annual message of the President. 



" San Salvador, like all other Spanish towns, covered a large area in proportion 

 to its population. The houses were built low, none being of more than one story, 

 with very thick walls, designed to resist the shocks of earthquakes. Each was 

 built around an inner court, planted with trees and flowers, and frequently con- 

 taining a fountain. To the- circumstance of the existence of these courts the peo- 

 ple of San Salvador owe their general preservation in the late catastrophe. They 

 afforded ready and secure places of refuge from the falling dwellings. 



The population of San Salvador was estimated in 1852 at twenty-five thousand. 

 Including the little towns in its environs and which were practically a part of it, 

 such as Soyopango, San Marcos, Mexicanos, etc., its inhabitants might have been 

 estimated at thirty thousand. It was the seat of a bishopric, with a large and beau- 

 tiful cathedral church, and of a large and flourishing university, the buildings for 

 which were only finished about a year ago. It had also a female seminary, several 

 hospitals, and numbered some eight or ten churches. In 1852, a very large and 

 beautiful cemetery, with a line facade and dependent chapels, was constructed. Two 

 aqueducts, one of which is five miles in length, supplied the city with water. It 

 was also a place of considerable and improving trade. Under the auspices of the 

 late president, Duenas, a cart-road was surveyed, and curried nearly, if not quite, 

 to a successful conclusion, from the city to its port on l he Pacific, called La Libcr- 

 tad, a distance of about twenty-two miles. This, in a country where the best roads 

 are hardly equal to wh il we would here call cattle-paths, was certainly no inconsid- 

 erable advance. 



"The market of San Salvador was well supplied from the numerous Indian vil- 

 lages around it. On i ;.ud oa the occasion of the fairs, such as that 



