best-built town in the district is San Pedro Matapas, situated about two leagues from the lake Guija, which communicates with the river Lempa, the largest in the kingdom. At its lowest ebb, that river is said to exceed 140 yards in breadth. The lake is about eight leagues in length and three in width, and abounds with fish. In the environs of Matapas are five iron founderies. The church is handsome and richly endowed: the population exceeds 4,000.

The city of San Salvador, which gives its name to the principal district, as well as to the whole intendaney, stands in a delightful valley, surrounded by mountains covered with wood, which terminate towards the north-east in a volcanic summit, that has caused at different periods great devastation by its eruptions: it is in lat 13° 36′ Ñ.; long 89° 46′ W. The town was founded in 1528, with the view to keep the province of Cuscatlan (land of riches), as it was then called, in subjection. It was created a city by Charles the Fifth in 1545. Besides the church of San Salvador, there are four oratories, three convents, Dominican, Franciscan, and Mercedarian, a custom-house, a postoffice, a tobacco-factory, and a town-house. The streets are laid out in right lines, the houses are commodious, and the markets are well supplied. The inhabitants, in 1778, were nearly 12,000, of whom 600 were Spaniards. The population has doubtless considerably increased since that time. The distance from Guatimala is 60 leagues E.S.E. The other principal towns of the district, are Nejapa, Tejutla, San Jacinto, Suchitoto, Cojutepec, Texacuangos, Olocuilta, Tonacatepec, Chalatenango, and Masagua. The trade of this district, which contains half the population of the intendancy, is chiefly confined to indigo, to which, indeed, the inhabitants devote their attention almost exclusively, so as to neglect the culture of other articles of prime necessity. "The cultivation of indigo," Humboldt says, "which is very general in

Guatimala and Caraccas, is neglected in Mexico; and indigo is annually imported from Guatimala, where the total produce of the plantations amounts to the value of twelve millions of livres. Raynal is wrong when he maintains that the Europeans introduced the cultivation of this valuable plant into America. Several species of indigofera are peculiar to the New Continent. Ferdinand Columbus, in the life of his father, mentions indigo among the productions of Hayti. Hernandez describes the process by which the natives separated the fecula from the juice of the plant; a process different from that now employed. The small cakes of indigo dried by fire, were called mohuitli or tleuohuilli: the plant was designated by the name Xiuhquilipitzahuac.* In Guatimala, the plant is called Giquilite, and the indigo prepared from it añil: the former is the native name; the latter has passed into the Spanish language from the Arabic word niz or nil. Hernandez calls the Mexican indigo, aniz.

The district of San Vicente has a climate more intensely warm than San Salvador: its trade consists chiefly in tobacco and dyeing materials. The head town, San Vicente de Austria, otherwise called Lorenzana, is situated on the skirts of a lofty mountain, at the base of which are several caverns, wherein are some warm springs; the waters are extremely fetid, and "burst forth with an incredible noise." In different parts of the valley there are mineral springs of different temperature, and the whole region bears marks of volcanic phenomena. Two deep rivers, the Acaguapa and the Amapulta, nearly surround the town; the one skirting the northern side, the other flowing on the south; and at a short distance is a third river, called the San Christobal. These three

streams are said to vary most remarkably in temperature. The waters of the Acaguapa are particularly cold, those of the Amapulta are warm, while the San Christobal is always of the temperature of the human body. The climate is warm and humid, but healthy. Besides the principal church of San Vicente, there is a very handsome one dedicated to Nossa Senhora del Pilar, erected at the sole cost of a private individual; it has three vaulted aisles of beautiful architecture, and is richly decorated. There is also an oratory of Calvary, and a Franciscan convent. It is 74 leagues from Guatimala, 14 leagues east of San Salvador, and 23 west of San Miguel. At the base of the volcano of San Vicente, and directly opposite the town of the same name, is the village of Sacatecoluca, one of the finest in the kingdom," with a population of upwards of 5,000 persons. About a league from San Vicente, on the skirts of the same mountain, in a mild climate, is the large village of Apastepec, noted for its annual fair, held on the 1st of November, for the sale of dyeing woods, &c. The village of Ístepec is celebrated for its tobacco; and at the adjoining village of Tepetitan, there is a royal tobacco-factory.

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The fourth and most easterly district of the intendancy is that of San Miguel, the climate of which is intensely hot and insalubrious: the produce consists chiefly of indigo and tobacco. On the coast are two ports; one called Jiquilisco, the entrance of which is six leagues eastward of the bar of the river Lempa; it is shut in by several islands, that shelter and defend the anchorage. The other, called Conchagua, is a large bay, capable of receiving ships of any tonnage; it is situated on the confines of the province towards the district of Cholulteca. The city of San Miguel de la Frontera, situated in lat 12° 50′ N., and long 88° 46′ W., contains a good church, two convents, Franciscan and Mercedarian, an oratory, and a town-house; the population exceeds 6,000 souls. It was formerly

much more populous. "Indeed," says Juarros, "the commercial advantages it enjoys, would render it one of the most numerously peopled places in the kingdom; but the insalubrity of the climate keeps down the number of the native residents, and deters others from taking up their abode in it." The inhabitants are said to be wealthy. It is 12 leagues from the sea, 37 from San Salvador, and 97 from Guatimala. The other towns are San Alexis, Chapeltic, and San Juan Chinameca. The last of these situated in an elevated region, enjoys a mild and salubrious climate, and the soil produces all the species of grain, fruit, and vegetables peculiar to the temperate zone, with which it supplies the city of San Miguel. At Estanzuelas, a small village of Indians and Mulattoes, there is a mineral spring which has petrifying properties.

The whole of this fine province invites the especial attention of the geologist and naturalist, from the very circumstances which render it an undesirable residence. The violent earthquakes by which it has repeatedly been visited,* the three volcanoes of San Salvador, San Miguel, and San Vicente, (from the former two of which eruptions have happened within the memory of the natives,) the sulphureous springs in the valley of San Vicente, and other circumstances, indicate that the shores of the Pacific here form but an immense vault over the subterranean depositories of combustible matter which feed the volcanic furnaces. There seems to be a repetition here of many of the phenomena which occur on the coast of Valladolid.† The volcanoes of San Salvador tower far above the neighbouring mountains, especially that of San Vicente. No account exists of any eruption from this

*Those from which it has suffered the greatest injury, took place in the years 1575, 1593, 1625, 1656, and 1798, † See p. 118 of this volume.

volcano, but the numerous springs of warm water that descend from its sides, are all impregnated with sulphur; and on its northern flank is an aperture, called the Infernillo, which emits smoke or vapour like the hornitos of Jorullo. In this direction also are many other openings, filled with very hot water, in which may be heard a noise resembling that of a fluid in a state of ebullition, (a circumstance observed also in the Malpays,) and this noise is increased by the slightest agitation of the air, even by the human voice. On some parts of the mountain, we are told, is found a very white earth, commonly used for painting in distemper; in other parts are yellow, rosecoloured, purple, and blue earths; green copperas is also met with. These are doubtless pyrites. No information of a scientific kind is to be obtained from the vague accounts of the native writers. The altitude of the volcan is said to be so great that, in the upper regions, the cold is excessive; but, whether it rises into the region of snow, is not stated. Among the animals who inhabit it, are the wild boar and the danta or tapir.

The lakes of Guija (or Guixa) and Metapa form one of the most interesting features of this intendancy. They are said to communicate by a subterranean channel. The lake of Metapa, which is fed by the rivers Langue and Languetuyo, and has, apparently, no other outlet, by this means discharges its superfluous waters.* The lake Guija, which is twenty leagues in extent, is also fed by the large river Mitlan, which, augmented in its long course by many tributary streams, discharges itself into the lake under the name of the river Ostua, near the village so called. The river Guija, a large and powerful stream, in no part fordable, flows out of the lake, and, after a wind

*We say apparently, because the vague statement of Juarros requires to be verified by actual investigation.