Chapter V: Front Matter (5)

Leon is one of the oldest cities in America, having been founded in 1523 by Fernandez Cordova. Two years before, Pedrarias Divilla, who was Governor at Panama, sent to Leon, on a tour of exploration, a lusty old buccaneer, named Gil Gonzalez, with a few hundred men. He landed at about the centre of the Pacific coast, and marched across to the present city of Rivas. Here he found on the borders of the lake a vast population of Indians under a cacique named Nicaro, and called the country in his reports _Nicaro’s Agua_, or waters; hence the name. The Indians regarded the Spaniards with awe and amazement. They had heard of their appearance at Panama and on the Atlantic coast, but believed that the stories of their presence, which came from their ancient enemies, the Carribs, were false and intended to frighten them. Seeing the chief surrounded by such a multitude of savages, Gonzalez approached with great caution, and having captured a native, sent him to Nicaro with this bombastic message:

“Tell your chief,” said Gonzalez, “that a valiant captain cometh, commissioned to these parts by the greatest king on earth, to inform all the lords of these lands that there is in the heavens, higher than the sun, one Lord, Maker of all

things, and that those believing on Him shall at death ascend to that loftiness, while disbelievers shall descend into the everlasting fire that burns in the bottomless pit. Tell your chief that I am coming, and that he must be ready upon my arrival at his camp to accept these truths and be baptized, or prepare for battle.”

The cacique surrendered, and, with all his warriors and their women, to the number of nine thousand, was baptized. In his report to the King of Spain, the pious old Bombastes Furioso claimed the credit of having converted more heathens than any other man that had ever lived.

In the days of the Spaniards Leon was a splendid city, and there are still existing numerous monuments of its opulence and grandeur. The public buildings are constructed upon a magnificent scale and without regard to cost, and the private dwellings are built in imitation of them, being of imposing exteriors and luxurious in their equipment and adornment. There were seventeen fine churches to a population of fifty thousand, chief of which was the Cathedral of St. Peter, which cost five millions of dollars, and was over thirty-seven years in course of erection. It was finished in 1743, and is still in a good state of preservation, being built of most substantial masonry, with walls of stone eighteen or twenty feet thick. It is of the Moorish style of architecture, resembling the great cathedral at Seville, Spain, and is by far the largest and finest church in Central America. During the frequent revolutions it has always been used as a fortress, and its walls, although still firm and enduring, are much battered by the assaults that have been made upon it.

In 1823, during the first revolution after independence between the aristocrats and the Indians, there was a fire at Leon which destroyed more than a thousand of the finest buildings; and the flames were aided in the work of devastation by thousands of Indian soldiers, who plundered and murdered the inhabitants. This part of the city has never been restored, and long streets, whose pavements are overgrown with weeds and underbrush, are still lined with ruined walls that disclose rich marble columns and artistic carvings. In mockery of the former magnificence which their ancestors destroyed, the Indian peons are living in bamboo huts, enclosed by cactus hedges, on the sites where once lived the proudest hidalgos in Central America. There is a tradition that the town was once cursed by the Pope, because of the murder of an archbishop there, and this accounts for the succession of calamities from which it has suffered.

The ladies of the aristocracy are in youth usually pretty, and at whatever age are always proud. For some reason or other they consider their country far above and beyond criticism, and themselves superior to the rest of Adam’s race. Ancestral pride is so conspicuous as to be ofttimes offensive, and the fact that a person born out of Nicaragua seems to them to have been a misfortune for which no other circumstances can compensate. This is true among both sexes of the upper caste, but more especially among the ladies, whose exalted opinion of their own importance in the universe has never been tarnished by travel. This feeling has gone far to excite the existing prejudice against foreigners, and while the tourists are always most hospitably received, the fact that their stay is only temporary adds to the pleasure of entertaining them. The most rigid restrictions prevent the social intercourse of the sexes, and nowhere in the world is a woman’s honor protected with such great precaution; and for excellent reasons. No lady of caste would think of receiving a call from a gentleman alone, except a priest; and the clergy make the most of their privileges, according to common report.

The ladies are always idle. To do any sort of work other than embroidery is beneath them, and the number of servants they employ is regulated not by their necessities but by their means. They are all uneducated, the privilege of a few years in a convent only being allowed them; and those are spent in learning the lives of the saints, a little embroidery, to drum on the piano, and to dance. There is no distinctive national costume. The aristocracy imitate the Parisian fashions, while the common masses wear whatever they can get. The Nicaraguans are much more social in disposition than the citizens of the other Central American countries. They have _tertulias_, which is a near relation of a “high tea,” and balls more frequently, and are much more given to dinner-parties, at which one of the greatest of imported luxuries is codfish.

The great annual holiday of the people is known as _El Paseo al Mar_, (the Excursion to the Sea), but is often alluded to as the festival of St. Venus, because of the excesses that are committed there by the people, who are most discreet when at home. But as nobody cares what occurs at the carnivals at Rome, so can a party of fashionable Nicaraguans be allowed liberties at their watering-places. In the latter part of March, when the dry season is far advanced and everything is buried in dust, after the harvests are gathered and the crops are sold and carried to Corinto, the seaport, everybody feels like taking a little relaxation. Preparations are made long in advance, but as soon as the March moon comes carts are packed with a little furniture and a good many trunks, and the exodus begins. It is only about fifteen miles to the beach, but the journey occasions as much planning and preparation, and is anticipated with as much pleasure, as a tour through Europe. Everybody goes, the peon as well as the hidalgo, and for two weeks during the full moon the city is deserted. There are no hotels, but each family takes a tent or builds a hut of bamboo, and lives _à négligé_ under the shade of the forest trees, which extend almost to the ocean. The Government sends down a battalion of troops, ostensibly to keep order and do police duty, but really as an excuse for giving the officers and soldiers a holiday. Social laws are very much relaxed during the _Paseo_, and it is really the only time when lovers can do their billing and cooing without the interfering presence of a duenna. Flirtations are the order of the day, and Cupid is king.

There are no bathing-houses, and no bathing-dresses are worn. The people go into the surf as Nature equipped them--the women and the girls on one side of a long spit of land that reaches into the sea, and the men and boys on the other. This annual Paseo is the perpetuation of a semi-religious Indian custom.

Another peculiar Nicaraguan religious custom is the baptism of the volcanoes, a ceremony which is believed by the superstitious to be very effective in keeping them in subjection and making them observe the proprieties of life. This observance is said to be as old as the Conquest, having originated after the first eruption succeeding the invasion of Nicaragua by the Spaniards, and is repeated on the anniversary of the last disturbance caused by each particular volcano. The priests of the nearest city take the affair in charge, and, followed by a large company of the faithful, ascend to the crater, and with great ceremony sprinkle holy water into it. Each of the volcanic peaks in Nicaragua has been repeatedly sanctified in this way except Momotombo, the grandest but most unregenerate of them all, who has never permitted a human foot to reach his summit or a human eye to look into his crater. Two hundred years ago, after old Tombo, as the master is familiarly called, had been acting very badly, three brave monks determined to try the effect of holy water upon him, and started for the summit with a large cross which they proposed to erect there; but they were never heard of again, and the people look upon the mountain with greater reverence.

From the tower of St. Peter’s Cathedral in the city of Leon thirteen volcanoes can be seen, several of which are active. There are eighteen standing in a solemn procession around the lakes of Nicaragua and Managua. They are not so high as certain peaks in Guatemala or Costa Rica, but look higher from the fact that they rise immediately from the level of tide-water, and can be seen from the sea in their full grandeur, old Tombo looking to be about the height of Pike’s Peak as seen from Colorado Springs. This gigantic mountain rises boldly out of the waters of Lake Nicaragua, its bare and blackened summit, which has forbidden all attempts to scale its sides, being always crowned with a light wreath of smoke, attesting the perpetual existence of the internal fires which now and then break forth and cover its sides with burning floods. At its base are several hot sulphur springs, and at frequent intervals heavy rumbling sounds can be heard from within its walls. In the middle of the lake, only a few miles away, is an exact duplicate of the mountain; in miniature, however, being but one-fourth its size. This is called Momotombita, the three last letters expressing the diminutive. It forms an island, from which its peak rises a perfect cone. Its crater has been extinct for hundreds of years; but the island was a sacred place to the aborigines. In the forests which now cover it are the ruins of vast temples and gigantic idols hewn out of the solid rock. The last serious earthquake, in 1867, occurred without much damage to the city, whose walls have been several times shaken down in the three centuries and a half since it was founded.

The most fearful eruption on record in Nicaragua, and one of the most serious the world ever saw, was that of the volcano Cosequina, near Grenada, in 1835. It continued for four days, and covered the country for hundreds of miles around with ashes and lava, causing a panic from which the people did not recover for many years, and resulting in great destruction of life and property. The explosions were of such force that ashes fell in the city of Bogota, Colombia, fifteen hundred miles away in a direct line, and at an altitude eleven thousand feet above the sea. Ashes fell in the West India islands, also far in the interior of Mexico, and showers of them that obscured the sun caused great consternation in Guatemala and the neighboring republics, while the people in Nicaragua thought the end of the world had come. Vessels sailing in the Pacific had their decks covered with lava and ashes, and several sailors were injured by falling stones; while the ocean for a hundred and fifty miles was so strewn with floating ashes and pumice-stone that the surface of the water was concealed. The anniversary of this horrible catastrophe is always observed by the people as a great fast-day, business being suspended throughout the whole republic, and the people gathering in the churches to pray for deliverance from further eruptions. Since that date the volcano has continued active, but has caused no damage.

A great part of the surface of the country is covered with beds of lava and scoria, lakes of bitter water that have no bottom, yawning craters surrounded with blistered rocks, and pits from which sulphurous vapors are constantly rising that the people appropriately call _infernillos_.

The city of Grenada stands at the eastern end of the inhabited valley of Nicaragua, as Leon does at the western end, the two rival cities being about seventy miles apart. Until its almost total destruction by Walker and his filibusters in 1857, it was a beautiful town, filled with fine mansions, and proud of its appearance. The population was reduced during the civil war, in which the American adventurers played so conspicuous a part, from thirty-five thousand to fifteen thousand; and although that was nearly thirty years ago it has scarcely begun to recover. Grenada was the seat of the “aristocratic” government which Walker and his allied Nicaraguans overthrew, and was besieged for two years, during which time the inhabitants endured not only great hardships, many dying of starvation and epidemics which broke out among them, but suffered the destruction of almost their entire property. During the days of Spanish dominion it was one of the most wealthy and prosperous cities in Central America, and its commerce was enormous. The old chronicles relate that nearly every day caravans of eighteen hundred mules laden with bullion and merchandise arrived from the surrounding country, and carried away European goods in exchange.

One of the largest monasteries on the continent was situated here, erected and occupied by the Franciscan Friars, who owned extensive estates in the surrounding country, and continued to acquire great wealth until they were expelled and their property confiscated in 1829. It is still standing in a good state of preservation.

The actual capital of Nicaragua, the city of Managua, sits on the southern shore of the lake of the same name, about sixty miles from the Pacific Ocean, and is reached by an overland journey of three days from Leon, which is connected with Corinto, the chief seaport, by a railroad. The population of Managua is about eight or ten thousand, at a guess, for no census has been taken since 1870. It has increased since that date, when the inhabitants numbered six thousand seven hundred. The rich residents are mostly planters who have estancias in the neighborhood, and live in houses of one or two stories without any pretension to architectural beauty or elegance. They are more modern in construction than those of Leon and Grenada, for it is only since the seat of government was located at Managua that it has been of any commercial or political importance. A large portion of the standing army of the republic, consisting of two thousand men, is stationed at Managua, occupying an old monastery as a barracks, and the streets are always crowded with military men in resplendent uniforms. There are about three officers to every ten privates in the army, and positions in the military service are actively sought by the sons of the aristocratic families, who prefer them to professional or commercial careers. The privates are exclusively Indians or half-breed peons, who wear a uniform of dirty white cotton drilling with a blue cap. They are supposed to be voluntarily enlisted, but when troops are needed they are secured by sending squads of impressarios into the country, who seize as many peons as they want, bring them, bound with ropes, to the capital, and then compel them to sign the enlistment rolls.

The National Palace is a low, square edifice, with balconies of the ordinary Spanish styles, and was formerly the home of one of the religious orders. The only handsome rooms are the headquarters of the President and the chambers in which the two Houses of Congress meet annually. They are fitted up with fine imported furniture, and the walls are covered with portraits of men distinguished in the history of the republic.

The peons live in the outskirts of the city, in huts of bamboo thatched with palm-leaves and straw, surrounded with curious-looking fences or hedges of cactus. They are apparently very poor, and are surrounded with filth and squalor; but the real, which is worth twelve and a half cents, will sustain a whole family for a week, for they need little more than nature has supplied them with--the plantains and yams that grow profusely in their little gardens. They seldom eat meat, and never wash themselves. They appear to be perfectly happy, and sit at the doors of their huts, women and men, both nearly naked, smoking cigarettes, and chatting as contentedly as if all their wants in life were fully supplied. Densely ignorant and superstitious, they know nothing of the world beyond their own surroundings, and care less.

The environs of Managua are very picturesque. On one side is the beautiful lake, sixty miles long and thirty miles wide, surrounded by volcanoes, and on the other are fertile slopes, on which are coffee plantations and cocoa groves, both yielding prodigious crops. The peons of the city work upon the estancias when there is anything to be done, travelling five or six miles each day in going to and returning from the scene of their labor. The country about Managua must have been densely populated by the aborigines, and is full of most curious and puzzling relics of a prehistoric race, which the natives regard with great veneration. The geologist, as well as the ethnologist and antiquarian, finds here one of the most abundant fields for investigation, which was explored and described by Stephens, Squier, and many earlier writers.

The Government consists of a President, who receives a salary of two thousand five hundred dollars, and is elected for four years, during which time, if he is not overpowered by some political rival, he usually manages to amass an immense fortune. A common argument in favor of re-electing presidents is that they are able to steal all they want during their first term. There are two Vice-Presidents, generally the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the Lower House, and either of them may be designated to perform the duties of the Executive when he so elects. There is a cabinet, or council, of four ministers. One has the finances in charge; another foreign affairs, agriculture, and commerce; a third military affairs and public works; and a fourth justice, public instruction, and ecclesiastical affairs.

The Senate is composed of fourteen members, two from each of the Departments, or Provinces, elected for four years; and the House of Deputies of twenty-four members, or one for each ten thousand of population, elected for two years. They are paid one dollar and fifty cents per diem during the sessions of Congress. No Senator or Deputy can be elected more than two consecutive terms, and no official of the Government or member of Congress can be a candidate for election or appointment to any other office during his constitutional term of service. Ecclesiastics are ineligible for civil positions, and all candidates for every post of honor under the Government must have proper qualifications; while all persons accepting pensions from the Government, and performing the duty of house or body servants, are denied the right of suffrage or of holding office. There are three courts, State or Department judges being elected by the people. District Federal judges and members of the Supreme Court being appointed by the House of Representatives and confirmed by the Senate, to serve during life unless impeached and convicted by the Deputies before the Senate for malfeasance in office. It requires a two-thirds vote in the House to enact legislation, but only a majority vote in the Senate. The President has the power of issuing decrees during the recess of Congress, which decrees have the force of law, but must be affirmed or reversed by Congress at its next session.

Since the charter of the Interoceanic Canal Company by the Congress of the United States, and the actual commencement of work upon the long-projected enterprise, under the direction of Chief-engineer Menocal, the republic of Nicaragua assumes a position of more prominence among nations, and of greater interest to the public at large, than it has ever had before. The failure of the Panama Canal Company, and the apparent impossibility of piercing the Isthmus at its narrowest part, has also given the Nicaragua Company increased importance, but Mr. Menocal and the company of capitalists who stand behind him feel no doubt of ultimate success.

SAN SALVADOR.

THE CAPITAL OF SAN SALVADOR.

Whoever visits the little republic of San Salvador, and lands at La Libertad, its principal seaport, must expect to undergo a novel and alarming experience. There is no harbor in the country, although it has one hundred and fifty-seven miles of sea-coast. The shore of the Pacific is a line of bluffs, with a fringe of beach at the bottom, and upon the sand a mighty surf is always beating. Ships anchor several miles off the coast, to avoid being driven ashore by the winds that sometimes rise very suddenly, and no boat can survive the breakers. An iron pier, or mole, twice as long and twice as high as the famous pier at Coney Island, extends from the bluff for three-quarters of a mile into the sea. A tramway runs from the town of La Libertad, connecting its monster warehouses with the pier, and cars loaded with coffee, sugar, and other products of the country are shoved out by peons or drawn by mules. The freight is piled upon the pier until the steamer arrives, when it is carried out to the anchorage in large lighters rowed by a dozen naked boatmen. The cargo is hoisted and lowered by means of a huge iron crane and derrick, operated by a small steam-engine. Bags and boxes are tumbled into great nets of cordage holding two tons or more, which are jerked up into the air by the derrick, swung around to be clear of the pier, and then dropped into the lighter.

Live cattle are hoisted and lowered by the horns, a lasso being thrown, one end of which is attached to the derrick, and the animal finds himself suddenly jerked into the air, and hangs kicking and struggling until his feet touch the bottom of the lighter, when he shakes himself to see if he is still alive. It is a wicked way to treat beasts, but under the circumstances there seems to be no other method. Sometimes, when the rope is carelessly adjusted, and the animal is young and heavy, his horns are torn out by the roots, and he falls sixty or seventy feet into the lighter, breaking his neck or legs, when one of the boatmen, drawing a knife from his belt, severs the jugular, and hangs his head over the side of the boat to let his life-blood run into the sea.

Horses are lifted and lowered with greater care by means of a strong harness of wide leather, with an iron ring in the saddle to which a rope’s end is hooked.

Humankind are treated with less consideration. When passengers arrive by a vessel they come to the pier on a lighter with freight, which rises and sinks with the heavy swell in a manner that is not only very alarming, but is almost certain to cause sea-sickness. One may have come all the way from New York or Europe to Aspinwall, and then from Panama up the coast, without a symptom of the distressing malady, but he is pretty sure to succumb to the rocking of the lighter at La Libertad, as it rubs and pounds against the iron trestle of the pier, while he is awaiting his turn to land. The officers of the vessels, accustomed to the motion, spring from the gunwales of the boat to the rounds of ladders that hang down the sides of the mole, and climb them as the boatmen do; but ladies and gentlemen unacquainted with this method, and untrained to clamber among the rigging of a ship, are treated to a sensation that is apt to make a timid person apprehensive.

An iron cage, capable of holding six persons, is lowered to the lighter, and you are invited to step in. As soon as it is full a boatman shuts the door and gives a signal to the engineer above. There is a sudden, startling jerk, you shut your eyes, cling to the bars of the cage, and feel your heart in your throat. The cage stops as suddenly as it started, whirls around swiftly for an instant or two, then swings over the pier, and drops with a thump. The door is opened, you step out,

uninjured, but trembling like a frightened bird, and register an unuttered vow that you will never land at La Libertad again. But this feeling leaves you when you enjoy a laugh at the demonstrations of alarm made by your fellow-passengers who have to follow you, and when you are assured, as people always are, that thousands have landed and embarked in the same manner without receiving a bruise or having a bone broken. It is not so pleasant, but quite as safe, as scrambling up a gangway from a dock to the deck of a vessel.

Although San Salvador is the smallest in area of the group of republics, and only a little larger than Connecticut, it is the most prosperous, the most enterprising, and the most densely populated, having even a greater number of inhabitants than the land of wooden nutmegs. The population averages about eighty to the square mile--almost twenty times that of its neighbors. The natives are inclined to civilized pursuits, being engaged not only in agriculture, but quite extensively in manufacture. They are more energetic and industrious than the people in other parts of Central America, work harder, and accomplish more, gain wealth rapidly, and are frugal, but the constantly recurring earthquakes and political disturbances keep the country poor. When the towns are destroyed by volcanic eruptions, they are not allowed to lie in ruins, as those of other countries are, but the inhabitants at once clear away the rubbish and begin to rebuild. The city of San Salvador has been twice rebuilt since Leon of Nicaragua was laid in ruins, but the débris in the latter city has never been disturbed.

San Salvador has always taken the lead in the political affairs of Central America. It was the first to throw off the yoke of Spain, and uttered the first cry of liberty, as Venezuela did among the nations of the southern continent. The patriots of San Salvador received the cordial co-operation of the liberal element in the cities of Grenada, Nicaragua, and San José of Costa Rica, but were suppressed by the Imperial power. Its provisional congress was driven from place to place, but remained intact; it had the sympathy and support of the people, and defied the invaders of the country. Finally, as a last resort, the congress, by a solemn act passed on the 2d of December, 1822, resolved to annex their little province to the United States, and provided for the appointment of commissioners to proceed to Washington and ask its incorporation in the body politic of “La Grande Republica.” Before the commissioners could leave the country the revolution in the other Central American States had become too formidable to suppress, as the example of San Salvador had spread like an epidemic among the people, and its demand for liberty had found an echo from every valley and from every hill, from the Rio Grande to the Chagres. The five States joined in a confederacy one year after the act of annexation to the United States was passed, and the resolution was never officially submitted to our government. This was before the days of the Monroe Doctrine, and if the rise of Liberalism in Central America had not been so rapid, the political divisions of the North American continent might have been different now, and the destiny of several nations changed.

Some time before the organization of the confederacy the people of San Salvador had adopted a constitution and formed a State government, being always foremost, and their example was followed seven months later by Costa Rica, then by Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua in succession. Salvador was the first of the republics also to throw off the shackles of the Church. Indignant at the interference of the archbishop of Guatemala, who had charge of the Church in Central America, they defied his authority and elected a liberal bishop of their own. The archbishop denounced the act and appealed to the Pope, who threatened to excommunicate the entire population. But the threat was received with indifference, and the example of the Salvadorians was shortly after imitated by the people of Costa Pica, in like disregard of the will of the successor of St. Peter.

The President is elected for four years, the members of the Senate for three, and of the House of Deputies for one, all of them directly by the people. There is a senator for every thirty thousand of the population, and a deputy for every fifteen thousand. The exercise of suffrage is guarded by some wholesome restrictions. All married men can vote, except those who are engaged in domestic service, those who are without stated occupation, those who refuse to pay their legal debts, those who owe money past due to the Government, those who have accepted pay for any service from foreign powers, and those who have been convicted of felony. Unmarried men, to exercise the right of citizens, must be property owners, and be able to read and write. All voters have to show receipts for the payment of taxes the year previous if they are property owners, and bankrupts are entirely disfranchised, the idea being that none but a producer--one who adds to the wealth of the State or pays taxes--shall have a voice in its government. None but property owners are eligible to office.

The President has a cabinet of four ministers. They have in charge the Departments of Finance, War, and Public Works, Internal Affairs and Public Instruction, and Foreign Affairs. The Judiciary are appointed by the Deputies and confirmed by the Senate. Education is free and compulsory. There is a school for every two thousand inhabitants, supported by the general government, and a University at the capital with three hundred and fifty students, studying law, medicine, and the applied sciences, and one hundred and forty pursuing a classical course.

The standing army consists of twelve hundred men, but all able-bodied citizens between the ages of eighteen and forty are organized as a militia, and are subject to be called upon for service at the will of the President.

The capital, San Salvador (“The City of our Saviour”), is

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.

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.

There is more freedom between the sexes in San Salvador than in the sister republics; and it is not at the cost of morals, for, as a rule, in countries where social restrictions are the most severe there is the greatest amount of licentiousness. The education of the masses has proved to be the greatest safeguard, and the number of illegitimate births is reduced as the standard of intelligence is elevated. The constitutional provision in San Salvador which confers superior advantages upon married men, together with a law limiting the marriage fees of the priests, have proven to be wise and effective policy. The girls marry at fifteen and over, and very few peons reach their majority without taking a lawful wife.

There is a public theatre, subsidized by the Government, at which frequent entertainments are given, and nearly every season an opera company comes from Italy or France. The performances are liberally patronized, at high prices of

admission. But the most popular _funcions_, as they are called, are by local amateurs, the programmes being made up of vocal and instrumental music, recitations, and original poems and orations. The latter are always the popular features of the occasion, and the _funcions_ are usually arranged to give some young orator an opportunity to show his talents before the foot-lights. There is a great deal of rivalry, too, among the local poets, each aspirant for honors having his clique of admirers, or _faccions_, who feel it their duty to applaud no one else, however meritorious, and to hiss all others down. When two of these popular idols appear upon the platform on the same evening, as they often do, there are scenes of sensational excitement and sometimes mob violence. The subjects of all the orations and poems are usually patriotic--the praise of San Salvador--for the love of country is a theme of which the people never tire. The programmes of all public entertainments are mostly composed of local compositions, national airs, and patriotic songs. The musicians prefer the scores of their own composers, and everything foreign is to a degree offensive, to be tolerated only as a matter of variety.

The Salvadorians have a dozen or more “Fourths of July”--memorial days--sometimes two patriotic celebrations occurring in a month, on the anniversary of historical events. All classes of people join in the demonstrations, closing their places of business, decorating the streets, attending high-mass in the morning, engaging in processions and hearing patriotic orations during the day, and in the evening closing the festivities with fireworks, banquets, and balls. But the two great days of the year are Christmas and the Feast of San Miguel (St. Michael), the patron saint of the republic. The latter is celebrated very much like our Independence Day was in ancient times, except that the hours from sunrise to noon are devoted to solemn religious services in all the churches, the bishop himself officiating at the cathedral, and the rest of the time to the next morning to holiday festivities. There is much powder wasted in fire-crackers, or _bombas_, as they are called, fireworks, and salutes by the artillery.

The annual fair of St. Miguel, which is held in February, is always a notable event, being not only a national anniversary, but the greatest market season of the year, and the occasion of general and prolonged festivities. It lasts about two weeks, and is attended by buyers and sellers from all parts of Central America. The importing houses always have their representatives present on such occasions. The days are occupied with trading, and the nights with balls, concerts, theatrical performances, and gambling. Everybody plays cards, and no one, man or woman, ever sits down to a game without stakes. Women play at their residences with or without their gentlemen friends, and large sums of money often pass across the table. At the fairs, and in fact on all occasions which bring people together, the peons are entertained with cock-fights and bull-fights, although the latter cruel sport is nominally forbidden by law. The bull-rings and cock-pits are invariably crowded every Sunday afternoon, and always on saints’ days, and often the best people are found among the spectators, particularly the young men, who ruin themselves with reckless betting. It is the fashion for the swells to keep gamebirds, and employ professional cock-fighters to train and handle them.

The Christmas festivities commence about midnight, and the explosions of cannon and fireworks always begin as soon as the clock in the cathedral tower strikes twelve. Everybody is up and dressed before daylight to attend early mass, and when the sun rises the streets are full of people saluting each other by exchanging the compliments of the day, and throwing egg-shells filled with perfumed water. From morning till night the air is full of the noise of fireworks, cannonades, the shouts of people, and the music of military bands, while processions are continually passing through the principal streets. In nearly every house preparations have been going on for weeks, not for the exhibition of Christmas-trees or the exchange of gifts, but for the representation of the _naciamiento_, or birth of Christ. The best room in the house is often fitted up to resemble a manger, asses being brought in from the stable to make the scene more realistic. Several incidents in the life of the Saviour are portrayed in a like manner. In other residences are different representations. Sometimes the parlor is arranged like a bower, filled with tropical plants and flowers, moss-covered stones and sea-shells, and draped with vines. Within the bower are figures of the Virgin and Child, surrounded by the kneeling Magi and the members of the Holy Family.

It is the ambition of the mistress of the house to surpass all her friends and neighbors in the realism of her representation and in the elegance with which the puppets are dressed. During the day there is a general interchange of calls to see the displays, to criticise them, and make comparisons. The grandest display is always made in the cathedral, the cost often amounting to many thousands of dollars, while the subordinate churches enter into an active and expensive rivalry, raising funds for the purpose by soliciting subscriptions in the parish. The ceremonies usually begin before daylight, and last for a couple of hours, high-mass being sung by the leading vocalists of the country, assisted by orchestras and military bands.

The favorite incident for portrayal is the Adoration of the Magi, and human figures are usually trained by the priests to play the various characters. The most beautiful woman in the city is selected to act the part of the Virgin, and some young infant is volunteered to represent the baby Christ. The church is always crowded, and illuminated by thousands of candles. At the proper moment the curtain is drawn, and the choir breaks out in a glorious anthem; the bells of the churches ring, and the vast audience, rising to their feet, join in the exultant song, “Jubilate! jubilate! Christ is born!” Processions of priests enter, and at the close of the anthem the bishop sings high-mass to a living representation of the Virgin and Child.

The people are not so priestridden as those of some of the Spanish-American countries, being naturally more self-reliant and independent. They know what liberty is, and insist upon being allowed to enjoy it, both civil and religious. They choose their own priests, and the latter elect their own bishop, without regard to the Pope or the College of Cardinals. The clerical party in politics, or the Serviles, as they were called, because of their slavery to the Church, has long been extinct in San Salvador, and the political struggles are more personal than over abstract issues. There is a considerable degree of superstition among the people, and they believe in all sorts of signs and omens, but the priests do not attempt to humbug them with bogus miracles or wonder-working images.

Much of this superstition relates to the earthquakes and volcanic disturbances to which the country is so subject. Within view of the capital are eleven great volcanoes, two of which are unceasingly active, while the others are subject to occasional eruptions. The nearest is the mountain of San Salvador, about eight thousand feet high, and showing to great advantage because it rises so abruptly from the plain. It is only three miles from the city, to the westward, very steep, and its sides are broken by monstrous gorges, immense rocky declivities, and projecting cliffs. The summit is crowned by a cone of ashes and scoriæ that have been thrown out in centuries past, but since 1856, subsequent to the greatest earthquake the country has known, the crater has been extinct, and is now filled with a bottomless lake. Very few people have ever ascended to the summit, because of the extreme difficulty and peril of making the climb, while even a smaller number have entered the chasm in which the crater lies. Some years ago a couple of venturesome French scientists went down, but became exhausted in their attempts to return. Their companions who remained at the top lowered them food and blankets by lines, and they were finally rescued, after several days of confinement in their rocky prison, by a detachment of soldiers, who hauled them up the precipice by ropes.

The two active volcanoes, or _vivos_, as the people call them, are San Miguel and Yzalco, and there are none more violent on the face of the globe. They present a magnificent display to the passengers of steamers sailing by the coast, or anchored in the harbor of La Libertad and Acajutla, constantly discharging masses of lava which flow down their sides in blazing torrents, and illuminating the sky with the flames that issue from the craters at regular intervals. Yzalco is as regular as a clock, the eruption occurring like the beating of a mighty pulse every seven minutes.

It is impossible to conceive of a grander spectacle than this monster. It rises seven thousand feet, almost directly from the sea, and an immense volume of smoke, like a plume, is continually pouring out of its summit, broken with such regularity by masses of flame that rise a thousand feet that it has been named _El Faro del Salvador_--“The Light-house of Salvador.” Around the base of the mountain are fertile plantations, while above them, covering about two-thirds of its surface, is an almost impenetrable forest, whose foliage is perpetual and of the darkest green. Then beyond the forest is a ring of reddish scoriæ, while above it the live ashes and lava that are cast from the crater so regularly are constantly changing from livid yellow, when they are heated, to a silver gray as they cool.

Yzalco is in many respects the most remarkable volcano on earth; first, because its discharges have continued so long and

with such great regularity; again, because the tumult in the earth’s bowels is always to be heard, as the rumblings and explosions are constant, being audible for a hundred miles, and sounding like the noises which Rip van Winkle heard when he awakened from his sleep in the Catskills; and, finally, it is the only volcano that has originated on this continent since the discovery by Columbus.

It arose suddenly from the plain in the spring of 1770, in the midst of what had been for nearly a hundred years the profitable estate of Señor Don Balthazar Erazo, who was absent from the country at the time, and was greatly amazed upon his return to discover that his magnificent coffee and indigo plantation had, without his knowledge or consent, been exchanged for a first-class volcano. In December, 1769, the peons on the hacienda were alarmed by terrific rumblings under the ground, constant tremblings of the earth, and frequent earthquakes, which did not extend over the country as usual, but seemed to be confined to that particular locality. They left the place in terror when the tremblings and noises continued, and returning a week or two after, found that all the buildings had been shaken down, trees uprooted, and large craters opened in the fields which had been level earth before. From these craters smoke and steam issued, and occasionally flames were seen to come out of the ground. Some brave _vaqueros_, or herdsmen, remained near by to watch developments, and on the 23d of February, 1770, they were entertained by a spectacle that no other men have been permitted to witness, for about ten o’clock on the morning of that day the grand upheaval took place, and it seemed to them, as they fled in terror, that the whole universe was being turned upside down.

First there were a series of terrific explosions, which lifted the crust of the earth several hundred feet, and out of the cracks issued flames and lava, and immense volumes of smoke. An hour or two afterwards there was another and a grander convulsion, which shook and startled the country for a hundred miles around. Rocks weighing thousands of tons were hurled into the air, and fell several leagues distant. The surface of the earth was elevated about three thousand feet, and the internal recesses were purged of masses of lava and blistered stone, which fell in a heap around the hole from which they issued. These discharges continued for several days

at irregular intervals, accompanied by loud explosions and earthquakes, which did much damage throughout the entire republic; the disturbance was perceptible in Nicaragua and Honduras. In this manner was a volcano born, and it has proved to be a healthy and vigorous child. In less than two months from a level field arose a mountain more than four thousand feet high, and the constant discharges from the crater which opened then have accumulated around its edges until its elevation has increased two thousand feet more. Unfortunately, the growth of the monster has not been scientifically observed or accurately measured, but the cone of lava and ashes, which is now twenty-five hundred feet from the foundation of earth upon which it rests, is constantly growing in bulk and height by the incessant discharges of lava, ashes, and other volcanic matter upon it.

The capital of San Salvador has been thrice almost entirely, and eleven times in its history partially, destroyed by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions coming together. These catastrophies occurred in 1575, 1593, 1625, 1656, 1770, 1773, 1798, 1839, 1854, 1873, and 1882. The most serious convulsions took place in 1773 and 1854, when not only the City of Our Saviour, but several other towns were entirely ruined, and nearly every place suffered to a greater or less degree; but the restoration was rapid and complete.

The chief products of the country are coffee, cocoa, sugar, indigo, and other agricultural staples, which are raised by the same process that prevails in other States, with the addition of a balsam that is very valuable, and is grown exclusively on a little strip of land lying along the coast between the two principal seaports, La Libertad and Acajutla. Lying to the seaward of the volcanic range is a forest about six hundred square miles in extent that is composed almost exclusively of balsam-trees, and is known as the “Costa del Balsimo.” It is populated by a remnant of the aboriginal Indian race, who are supported by the product of their forest, and are permitted to remain there undisturbed, and very little altered from their original condition.

The forest is traversed only by foot-paths, so intricate as to baffle the stranger who attempts to enter it; and it is not safe to make such an attempt, as the Indians, peaceful enough when they come out to mingle with the other inhabitants of the country, violently resent any intrusion into their

strong-hold. They live as a community, all their earnings being intrusted to the care of _ahuales_--old men who exercise both civil and religious offices, and keep the common funds in a treasure-box, to be distributed among the families as their necessities require. There is a prevailing impression that the tribe has an enormous sum of money in its possession, as their earnings are large and their wants are few. The surplus existing at the end of each year is supposed to be buried in a sacred spot with religious ceremonies. Both men and women go entirely naked, except for a breech-clout, but when they come to town they assume the ordinary cotton garments worn by the peons. They are darker in color, larger in stature, more taciturn and morose, than the other Indians of the country, but are temperate, industrious, and adhere to their ancient rites with great tenacity. They are known to history as the Nahuatls, but are commonly spoken of as “Balsimos.”

Agriculture is carried on by them only to an extent sufficient to supply their own wants, and usually by the women, while the men are engaged in gathering the balsam, of which they sell about twenty thousand dollars’ worth each year. They number about two thousand people, and including what they spend at their festivals, which are more like bacchanalian riots than religious ceremonies, and are accompanied by scenes of revolting bestiality, their annual expenses cannot be more than one half of their incomes.

The balsam is obtained by making an incision in the tree, from which the sap exudes, and is absorbed by bunches of raw cotton. These, when thoroughly saturated, are thrown into vats of boiling water and replaced by others. The balsam leaves the cotton, rises to the surface of the water, and at intervals is skimmed off and placed in wooden bowls or gourds, where it hardens, and then is wrapped in the leaves of the tree and sent to market. In commerce it is known as Peruvian balsam, because in early times Callao was the great market for its sale, but the product comes exclusively from San Salvador.

There is one railroad in San Salvador, extending from Acajutla to the city of Sonsonate, the centre of the sugar district, and it is being extended to Santa Ana, the chief town of the Northern Province. It is owned by a native capitalist, and operated under the management of an American engineer. The plan is to extend the track parallel with the sea through the entire republic, in the valley back of the mountain range, with branches through the passes to the principal cities. It now passes two-thirds of the distance around the base of the volcano Yzalco, and from the cars is furnished a most remarkable view of that sublime spectacle. The entire system when completed will not consist of more than two hundred and fifty miles of track, and the work of construction is neither difficult nor expensive.

SAN JOSÉ.

THE CAPITAL OF COSTA RICA.