Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/101

CH. VI.] buches. At the base of the mountain in question is a sulphureous lake, where, they say, these invalids are in the habit of going, at certain seasons of the year, to drink the waters, which are considered a specific cure: if they are so, there appear to be very few of these unfortunate people who have availed themselves of this easy method of getting rid of this disgusting malady.

The Intendancy of San Salvador, being now united to the Alcaldia Mayor of Sonsonate, forms one of the five states of the federal constitution, under the title of San Salvador. The Alcaldia of Sonsonate contains twenty-one settlements, with 45,000 souls distributed through eleven parishes, being twenty leagues from east to west, and twelve from north to south. Notwithstanding that the ecclesiastical establishment is larger and richer in this country, in proportion to its size and population, than in Mexico, the cures are very badly provided.