THE KINGDOM OF GUATEMALA. 
11 
Salvador. — The smallest in extent, but by far the 
most populous, having no less than sixty-three inhabitants 
to the square mile. The central part is an upland of a 
mean elevation of two thousand feet above the sea, bounded 
on the Pacific side by a chain of volcanic peaks; beyond 
these a strip of lowland from ten to twenty miles wide. 
Eastward and westward are two great depressions, San 
Miguel and Sonsonate, “the place of a hundred springs” 
(centsonatl). The Gulf of Fonseca, fifty miles long and 
nearly thirty wide, is said to be the most beautiful harbor 
on the Pacific coast. On the southwest side is the prin¬ 
cipal port of La Union, a town of little more than two 
thousand inhabitants, and unhealthful, as are all the Pacific 
ports. The mean temperature is 80° Fahr.; and were it 
not for the capital commercial facilities of the town, its in¬ 
habitants would be few. Libertad has an open roadstead, 
and a population only half that of La Union. Acajutla 
lies between the headlands of Eemedios and Santiago, and 
has but five hundred inhabitants ; as the port of Sonsonate 
(distant five leagues), however, it is much frequented, and 
is provided with an iron pier, as is Libertad. In 1882 the 
first railway in the republic was opened, from Acajutla to 
Sonsonate, a distance of fifteen miles; and work has since 
been slowly progressing in the direction of Santa Ana. 
Mines of gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, and anthracite 
coal are found within the borders of Salvador, the prin¬ 
cipal being those of Loma-Larga, Corozal, Devisadero, 
Encuentros, and Tabanco. 
The capital was founded April 1, 1528, by Jorge de 
Alvarado, brother of the conqueror of Guatemala ; but 
ten or twelve years afterwards it was removed to its 
present site in the valley De los Hamacas, where it has 
