Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/288

Rh 268 A N S A N in alternate prose and verse the scenes and occupations of pastoral life are described. His now seldom read Latin poem De Partu Virginia, which gained for him the name of the "Christian Virgil," appeared in 1526, and his collected Sonetti e Canzoni in 1530. SAN REMO, a town and seaport of northern Italy, at the head of a circondario in the province of Porto Maurizio on the Western Riviera, 16| miles by rail east of Mentone and 84J south-west of Genoa. Climbing the slope of a steep hill, it looks south over a small bay of the Gulf of Genoa, and, protected towards the north by hills rising gradually from 500 to 8000 feet, has the reputation of being in climate one of the most favoured places on the whole coast. The narrow stair-like streets of the old town, with their lofty houses, arched gateways, and flying buttresses, form a fine contrast to the modern districts of villas and hotels which have sprung up since about 1860. Besides the Gothic cathedral of San Siro, the buildings of most interest are the Madonna della Costa, crowning the highest part of the old town, the town-house, and the hospital for cutaneous diseases founded by Charles Albert. The port, formed by two moles, both lengthened since 1880, was at one time much more important, its annual movement having sunk from about 1000 in 1866 to 388 small vessels in 1884. The population of the commune (10,012 in 1861) was 16,055 in 1881, 12,285 in the city proper, and 1717 in the suburbs Poggio and Verezzo. San Kemo, identified by Girolamo Rossi (Storia della Cittd) with a Greek Leucothea and a Roman Matistra, was Christianized by St Ormisdas and his pupil St Sirus. Rebuilt after the expulsion of the Saracens from Liguria, it took the name of San Romolo from its 6th-century bishop whose death-day, 13th October, is still a local fete. In what way Romulus was supplanted by Remus is not clearly ascertained. In 1544 the town was attacked by Barbarossa, and in 1625 by the French and Savoyards. The Genoese, against whose encroachments it had long defended its independence, sub- jugated it in 1753 ; and in 1797 it was incorporated in the district of Palms of the Ligurian republic. SAN SALVADOR, or SALVADOR (Reptiblica del Sal- va< ^ )r )' *ke smallest but most densely peopled of the republics of Central America, has a coast-line of 160 miles along the Pacific from the mouth of Rio de la Paz to that of the Goascoran in the Gulf of Fonseca, and is bounded inland by Guatemala on the west and Honduras on the north and east. Its length from east to west is 140 miles, and its average breadth about 60 miles. Its area is estimated at 7225 square miles, and in 1883 it contained 613,273 inhabitants (290,870 males, 322,403 females). With the exception of a comparatively narrow seaboard of low alluvial plains, the country consists mainly of a plateau about 2000 feet above the sea, broken by a large number of volcanic cones, geologically of more recent origin than the main chain of the Cordillera which lies farther to the north. The principal river of the republic is the Rio Lempa, which, rising near Esquipulas in Guate- mala and crossing a corner of Honduras, enters Salvador north of Citala. After receiving from the right the surplus waters of the Laguna de Cuija, a vast lake belonging partly to Guatemala and partly to Salvador, it flows for nearly a degree of longitude eastward through a magnificent and luxuriant valley between the plateau and the Cordillera, and then turning somewhat abruptly south skirts the base of the volcano of Siguatepeque and reaches the Pacific in 88 40' W. long. Among its numerous tributaries are the Rio Santa Ana, rising near the city of that name, the Asalguate, which passes the capital San Salvador, the Sumpul, which forces its way like the Lempa itself athwart the mountains from Honduras, and the Torola, draining the north-eastern corner of Salvador and part of Honduras. The Lempa is even in the dry season a considerable river with a rapid current, and for two-thirds of its course it could easily be made navigable for steamers. The Rio San Miguel drains the country between the Gulf of Fonseca and the basin of the Lempa. The volcanic mountains do not form a chain but a series of clusters : the Izalco group in the west including Izalco (formed in 1770), Marcelino, Santa Ana, Naranjos, Aguila, San Juan de Dios, Apaneca, Tamajaso, and Lagunita ; the San Salvador group, about 30 miles to the east ; Cojute- peque to the north-east and the San Vicente group to the east of the great volcanic lake of Ilopango ; the Siguate- peque summits to the north-east of San Vicente ; and the great south-eastern or San Miguel group San Miguel, ( 'hinameca, Buenapa, Usulatan, Tecapa, Taburete. Caca- guateque and Sociedad volcanoes in the north-east belong to the inland Cordillera. The volcanic forces in Salvador have not as yet spent themselves. The Izalco vent still acts as a safety valve, and the neighbourhood of the capital is so subject to tremblings and rockings of the earth as to have acquired the name of the swinging mat or ham- mock. The city itself has been destroyed by earthquake in 1594, 1658, in 1719, and in 1854. San Miguel is described as one of the most treacherous burning mountains in America, sometimes several years in complete repose and then all at once bursting out with terrific fury (Scherzer). In 1879-1880 the Lake of Ilopango was the scene of a remarkable series of phenomena. With a length of 5$r miles and a breadth of 4, it forms a rough parallelogram with deeply indented sides, and is surrounded in all directions by steep mountains except at the points where the villages of Asino and Apulo occupy little patches of level ground. Between 31st Decem- ber 1879 and llth January 1880 the lake rose four feet above its level. The Jiboa, which flows out at the south-east corner, became, instead of a very shallow stream 20 feet broad, a raging torrent which soon scooped out for itself in the volcanic rocks a channel 30 to 35 feet deep. A rapid subsidence of the lake was thus pro- duced, and by the 6th of March the level was 34 feet below its maximum. Towards the centre of the lake a volcanic centre about 500 feet in diameter rose 150 feet above the water, surrounded by a number of small islands. A number of villages were ruined by the accompanying earthquakes. The lake, originally stocked by the early Spanish settlers, had become the great fish-pond of the republic. On the outbreak of the volcanic forces, the fish fled towards the sides, and on the receding of the waters their dead bodies were left behind in such quantities that at Asino several hundred men were employed for days burying them to avoid a pestilence. It is less to these natural catastrophes than to political instability that the comparative backwardness of Salvador to develop its resources of soil and minerals must be ascribed ; and considerable progress has in many respects been made since the middle of the century. Coffee is now the principal export (to the value of 1,056,000 in 1873,$3,416,104 in 1883). Indigo, for along time the staple of the country and exported to the annual value of 20,000,000, is still extensively cultivated (exports in 1883 $1,812,594). As this indigo is generally quoted in the market as Guatemalan, so another valuable product of Salvador is always designated Balsam of Peru (see vol. iii. p. 293), though the tree from which it is obtained grows naturally nowhere else in the world except in a limited part of the Salvadorian seaboard known as the Balsam coast It was exported in 1883 to the value of $53,612. Other productions of less importance are tobacco, sarsaparilla, india-rubber, and sugar. The silver mines have been and may again be of some account ; and coal has been discovered inland. On the whole the trade of the country has greatly in- creased : the imports and exports, $1,306,378 and 1,991,650 respectively in 1859, were $2,401,463 and $5,861,053 in 1883. At the time of Dr Seherzer's visit, there was not a bridge in the country ; there are now a considerable number of good iron bridges on the new roads between the principal cities. The first railway, that from Acajutla to Sonsonate (15 miles) was opened in 1882, and has since been continued in the direction of Santa Ana, the chief commercial town. Telegraphic communication has been estab- lished between the more important towns, and in July 1882 the Central and North American Company landed its cable at La Libertad. Acajutla, La Libertad, and La Union or San Carlos de la Union (in the Gulf of Fonseca) are the principal harbours. Besides the capitalSan Salvador, with 14, 059 inhabitants, there were in 1878, according to the census, 68 places in the republic with over 2000 each Santa Ana (29,908), Nahuizalco (9988), San Vicente (9957), San Miguel (9842), Metapan (9782), Chalchuapa (8171), Ahuachapan (7930), Nuevo San Salvador (7337), &c. There are three universities San Salvador, Santa Ana, and San Miguel, with funds partly provided by a quarter of the customs, a girls' college at Santa Ana, and a fair number of secondary and primary schools. Salvador received this naine from Pedro Alvamlo, who, when he conquered it for Spain in 1525-26, found it a rich and populous country. Its independence of the Spanish