Salvador

“ The economic life of Salvador is too greatly dependent upon European markets and financial centres; upon the export of coffee thereto; upon the elevation or depression of such markets—a [80] condition, of course, common to many Spanish American States, but which a better-ordered regimen will seek to rectify.
We might wander long through the beautiful scenery of Salvador, enjoying the grand and imposing aspect of its volcanoes, the beauty of its valleys and streams, for this part of Central America is famed, or rather should be famed, for the beauty of the landscape. ”

“ I believe he would let us freeze.”
“Salvador does not know you,” said the commandant. “He is too wise an Indian to open his doors to strangers in this country after nightfall. Salvador is reputed wealthy, and it behooves him to be careful what nocturnal visitors he receives. I think I can get Salvador to open. Is Señor Don Salvador within?” asked the commandant, in Spanish.
“Is it the Señor Comandante who is without?” asked Don Salvador, in the same language, with the usual Pueblo peculiarities of pronunciation—the use of l for r, etc. ”

“ To her astonishment, her guide at once took up the strain, and from him Elena and her guide, and then Dylar. They sang:—
“San Salvador, San Salvador,
We live in thee!
62’Tis love that holds the threads of fate;
Death’s but the opening of a gate,
The parting of a mist that dims the sky.
We live in thee! We live in thee!
San Salvador,
We live in thee!” Tacita held her breath to listen. Was she indeed riding through mountain paths and morning air, or lying in a dream in some strange land? Dylar’s was the voice that had sung beneath their window when her grandfather was dying! ”

“ I saw where the sun rises over the rim of the round earth, and where it sinks again. How I breathed! This is a dear home, I know. I have seen men and women fall on their knees and thank God, weeping with joy, that they were permitted to return after having been long away. But I cannot love San Salvador as it deserves till I have seen something different.”
Tacita took in hers the boy’s trembling hand. ”

“ It must be acknowledged, however, that the people of Salvador are entitled to the first rank in Central America for their industry, general intelligence, and love of order. Individual rights are respected among them, and well-behaved foreigners are at all times made welcome. The Salvadorans seem to understand what are the duties of republicans. [XXVIII-69]
The population of Salvador consists of Indians, ladinos, and zambos. The ladinos comprise the whites, of which class the proportion is small, and the several mixtures of white and Indian. ”

“ So we upped anchor with the morning tide, and set all sail for San Salvador.
Of course I had no idea where San Salvador really was. I haven't now, for that matter. But it seemed a right-sounding sort of name for a place that was to have a bay that was to hold a French frigate that was to be cut out; so, as I said, we sailed for San Salvador, and made the bay about eight bells that evening, and saw the top-masts of the frigate over the headland that sheltered her. And forthwith there was summoned a Council of War.
It is a very serious matter, a Council of War. ”

“ I expect you will have read in the Herald about the opening of the new chapel at San Salvador, which Mr. Lewis had just finished before we left, and also about our arrival here. We were very sorry to leave all our dear friends, and on the day we parted we felt very sad indeed. But we are glad to be allowed to tell of God’s love to those who have none others to tell them of it, and we often have nice letters from our old girls and boys in San Salvador, and sometimes some of the men come as carriers with our mails, so we do not forget one another.... ”

“ According to the natives of San Salvador, there was a powerful king in this island, but the admiral for several days awaited in vain the advent of this great personage; he did not show himself. The island of Isabella was beautiful of aspect, with its clear lakes, and thick forests; the Spaniards were never tired of admiring the new type of nature presented to their view, and of which the intense verdure was wonderful to European eyes. Parroquets in innumerable flocks were flying amongst the thick trees, and great lizards, doubtless iguanas, glided with rapid movements in the high grass. ”

“ Salvador is also a small district of Guatimala to the southward of the former, which produces sugar-canes and indigo in great abundance, the soil being very fertile; the capital of this province is Cuzcatlan or St. Salvador, which is situated in 13° 40ʹ north latitude, 89° 20ʹ west longitude, twelve miles from the coast of the Pacific Ocean, and 140 miles east-south-east of Guatimala; it has a little trade, and is the residence of a governor: many maps have absurdly made this town the capital of Spanish North America. Its population is about 5,000 Indians, whites and Castes. ”

“ The anchors being dropped, the boats manned, he, richly attired in scarlet and holding the royal standard, accompanied by the Pinzons in their own boats, approached the shore.
On landing he threw himself on his knees, and kissing the earth, returned thanks to God, the rest following his example. He then, drawing his sword, took possession of the island, which he named San Salvador, in the names of the sovereigns of Castile. The crews now thronged round the Admiral, some embracing him, others kissing his hands, expressing their joy; the most mutinous becoming the most enthusiastic and devoted. ”

“ Eight hundred and fifty paces distant, on the road which leads to the hermitage of St. Salvador, stands, in a solitary and deep wood, the hermitage of the Holy Trinity. Every part of the building is neat, and the simplicity of the whole prepares you to expect the same simplicity of manners from the man who dwells within it: and a venerable man he is ”

“ He was the chief of San Salvador when that province so strenuously resisted the tyranny of Iturbide, and prevented, by force of arms, the violent union which the then emperor desired to effect between the two kingdoms of Mexico and Guatemala. He is of a mild, calculating nature, of a clear, penetrating genius, and is esteemed and respected even by those who differ from him in politics. ”

“ Tacita said dryly.
“Should I not!”
Iona began walking to and fro. “I have had visions of what might be done,” she said, her manner warming as she proceeded. “The time is past when San Salvador can be long hidden, when it should hold itself only a refuge for a few, and a nursery for a few. I think that the time is come when it should prepare, prudently, yet with energy, to practice a Christian aggressiveness. We have our little circles in every part of the world. They are silent and true, and they are not poor. We have no weak hearts. The children of San Salvador are baptized with fire. ”

“ This island of Guanahani was the first discovered by Columbus on his first voyage, and which he called San Salvador." This is the substance of the remarks of Herrera, and is entirely conclusive as to the location of San Salvador. The latitudes, it is true, are all placed higher than we now know them to be; that of San Salvador being such as to correspond with no other land than that now known as the Berry Islands, which are seventy leagues distant from the nearest coast of Cuba: whereas Columbus tells us that San Salvador was only forty-five leagues from Port Principe. ”

“ Salvador (780) , the smallest but the most densely populated of the republics of Central America, about one-sixth the size of England and Wales; has a western foreshore between Guatemala (N.) and Nicaragua (S.) , fronting the Pacific for 140 m.; slopes up from rich alluvial coast-lands to high plateaus, which stretch, seamed and broken by rivers and volcanoes, to the Cordillera frontier of Honduras on the E.; soil is extremely fertile and naturally irrigated by numerous streams, and produces in abundance coffee and indigo (chief exports) , balsam, tobacco, sugar, cereals, &c. ”

“ The town was founded in 1854, and intended to replace the capital, San Salvador, which was ruined by an earthquake in that year but soon afterwards rebuilt. Nueva San Salvador is an attractive town with a large and growing trade. ”

“ Now, far, far, I saw land, saw San Salvador, Cuba that might be the main, Hayti, Jamaica, San Juan, Guadaloupe, Trinidad, Paria that again seemed main. Vast islands and a world of small islands, vast mainlands. Then no sail was seen on far Ocean-Sea; now out there might be ships going from Cadiz, coming, returning from San Domingo. Eight years, and so the world was changed!
I thought, “In fifty years—in a hundred years—in two hundred? What is coming up the long road?” ”

“ Salvador, like Guatemala, is mainly a coffee country. It is not, however, a country of large estates, but of small holdings. Patches of farm-land cover every available space. This is the most thickly populated republic not only in Central America but in the entire hemisphere. Into its 7,225 square miles were packed some 1,500,000 people. As everywhere, over-crowding, by intensifying the struggle for existence, had developed among the Salvadoreans an energy and industry greater than that of their neighbors. ”

“ Politicians in all the countries favor the present multiplicity of offices. Wherefore each little nation staggers under the burden of supporting a president, and a congress, and a complete diplomatic corps, although the whole five could be lost in Texas.
Salvador, the smallest, is so tiny that from its center one could sometimes look westward to the Pacific Ocean, and eastward to the mountains of Honduras. ”

“ Salvador; which he takes possession of in the name of the Castilian sovereigns; the surprise of the natives: gold first discovered; reconnoitres the island; takes seven of the inhabitants to teach them Spanish that they might become interpreters; discovers Santa Maria de la Conception; discovers Exuma; discovers Isabella; hears of two islands called Cuba and Bohio: sails in search of the former; discovers it; takes formal possession; sends two Spaniards up the country; coasts along the shore; return of the Spaniards with their report; goes in search of the supposed island of Babeque ”

“ Smaller than the State of New Jersey, Salvador has an importance out of proportion to its size because of the dense population and large amount of cultivable land together with a smaller amount of Negro mixture than in the adjoining Republics. With a population estimated at a million and a half (such a thing as a real census is almost unknown in Latin American countries) , its people are largely of mixed blood with the Indian predominating, but the number of pure-blooded Indians is not large compared with Guatemala. ”

“ And concerning Salvador monuments nothing further is to be said, although Mr Squier heard of ruins in that state rivaling in extent and interest the famous Copan. [III-3]
On the other side of the continent, reaching also across to the Pacific at the gulf of Fonseca, north of Nicaragua, the Mosquito coast, and Salvador, is the state of Honduras. It extends over three hundred and fifty miles westward along the Atlantic shore, from Cape Gracias á Dios nearly to the narrowest point of the isthmus where America is a second time so nearly cut in twain by the gulfs of Honduras and Dulce. ”

“ Salvador (i. e. Cat Island) . Now the Fortunate Isles, St. Salvador, and the first point "touched at Florida," are all within thirty degrees North latitude, and nearly on an exact line with each other,—St. Salvador and Florida Point are directly so, and only about 100 leagues from each other. The Tyrians, therefore, passed by this Island and landed on the Continent,—Columbus landed on the Island, and reached the Continent in his third voyage. ”

“ Here at San Salvador should be their stronghold, as now, and their inmost sanctuary. But they would live outside, on a hill, or going from place to place. When all was well ordered without, they would come back for a while, and she would lead Dylar to some height, to the summit of the North Peak, where there should be a mirador, and pointing to their colonies embossing the whole circle even to the horizon, she would say: “Behold the marriage-portion I brought you!” ”

“ In Salvador its effects are plainly visible in the almost universal infidelity which prevails, and among the middle classes of Guatimala the same epidemic malady is rapidly spreading. The spiritual part of the controversy commenced when the people of San Salvador, claiming their right to create a bishopric, appointed Dr. Delgado to the office. The archbishop of Guatimala declaring the appointment to be a privilege of Rome, refused to own his new brother, and appealed to the Pope. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The residence of Dulac has in its care, among many others, the two large villages called Dagami and San Salvador (which is Paloc) , both populous; their people are well instructed and submissive, and our fathers have labored among them with great success. Father Melchior Hurtado writes that in San Salvador, during the celebration of the Christmas feast, almost eight hundred infidels were baptized, and that the confessions and communions were such as might be expected in España—so many, that the fathers could not attend to them all. ”