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1838.] windows, sculpture, &c., of the ruins of the city, (destroyed in a late revolutionary struggle,) Leon must have been a city of great opulence, consideration, and grandeur. So long as the old Spaniards remained, affairs prospered, for capital was not wanting; but they are now rare as one of their palaces, for such their ruins would bespeak them. Society has entirely changed, and become nearly native. The population is stated at thirty thousand, including the suburb Sultiaga, which almost entirely consists of huts inhabited by native population.

Cholera has made great ravages in the states of central America during the last year, and particularly in that of San Salvador. At Leon, three thousand fell victims to this disease alone.

It is a curious fact, and one which I suspected would result from my inquiries, that wherever I have been able to obtain positive information, it appears that the mortality has invariably been greatest on the S.W. angle, (or lee quarter.) This may in some measure be accounted for, by the preference which the better classes would take advantage of, by selecting more airy situations on the weather-side, where also the population would be less crowded. Their streets are wide, and mathematically regular; and in the meridian and at right angles, presenting the appearance, from the summits of the mountain, of complete chequer boards. The lower orders suffered most. My authority has generally been a padre or an official, aided by my cicerone, who