_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 principal 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 inhabitants would be few. Libertad has an open roadstead, and a population only half that of La Union. Acajutla lies between the headlands of Remedios 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 principal 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 been many times ruined by the terrible earthquakes to which this region is especially subject. The republic is divided into fourteen departments, twenty-nine districts, and two hundred and twenty-eight towns. Departments. Principal Cities. Santa Ana. Santa Ana (25,000). Ahuachapan. Ahuachapan. Sonsonate. Sonsonate (8,000). La Libertad. Nueva San Salvador (Santa Tecla). San Salvador. San Salvador (30,000). Chalatenango. Chalatenango. Cuscatlan. Cojutepeque. La Paz. Santa Lucia (Zacatecoluca). San Vincente. San Vincente (10,000). Cabañas. Sensuntepeque. Usulutan. Usulutan. San Miguel. San Miguel. Gotera. Gotera. La Union. San Carlos (La Union).