eighteen miles from the sea-coast, and has an elevation of 2800 feet. It is surrounded by a group of volcanoes, two of which are active, one, Yzalco, discharging immense volumes of smoke, ashes, and lava at regular intervals of seven minutes from one year’s end to the other. San Salvador is reached by coaches over a picturesque mountain-road, but the journey is not pleasant in the dry season on account of the dust, nor in the rainy season on account of the mud. The city was founded in 1528 by George Alvarado, a brother of the renowned lieutenant of Cortez, who was the discoverer, conqueror, and the first viceroy of Central America. The situation it occupies is one of the most beautiful that can be imagined, being in the midst of an elevated _mesa_, or tableland, which overlooks the sea to the southward, and is surrounded by mountains upon its three other sides. As the prevailing winds are from the ocean, the climate is always cool and healthful, and the mountain streams are so abundant that the foliage is fresh during the entire year. Through each street runs an _asequia_, or irrigating ditch, which is always filled with water. Pipes lead from it into the gardens of the people, and supply hydrants for their use. [Illustration: SPANISH-AMERICAN COURTSHIP.] There is very little architectural taste shown in the construction of the dwellings or of the public buildings. This is because of the frequency of earthquakes. The walls are of thick adobe, with scarcely any ornamentation, and the streets are dull and unattractive; but within the houses are gardens of wonderful beauty, in which the people spend the greater portion of the time, more often sleeping in a hammock among the trees in the dry season than under the roofs of their houses. The public buildings are of insignificant appearance, and even the cathedral and the other churches are painfully plain and commonplace compared with those of other cities of its size. All this is owing to the fact, as has been stated, that the danger of their destruction at any moment forbids a lavish expenditure in construction or unnecessary display. The women of San Salvador are neater in appearance, more careful in their dress, and are therefore more attractive than their sisters in Nicaragua, where, if there is any difference between the sexes, they are less tidy than the men. The girls in the rural districts always bathe in the _asequias_ every morning at daylight, and the traveller who starts out early generally surprises groups of Naiads disporting in the streams. They plunge into the bushes or keep their bodies under the water until the intruder passes by, but do not hesitate to exchange a few words of banter with him, and good-naturedly bid him godspeed.