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IN'I'ERNATIONAL AMERICAN CONFERENCR.

TIIE MESA OF SALVADOR.

Disco\ ering, during a tbree days' sojourn at La LiLertad, at tbe sea level in Sal–

vador, how fatal to nnacclimaterl persons wa,s the breatb of tbe sea at the very sbore,

drenched as it is each day by tides

bich leave heaps of sbell and otber fisbes to rot

instantly beneath tbe r:1ys of tbe equatorial sun, and learning tbat Pauama was tllus

made a grave-yard, because ships cau not touch the

sbo~e

and passengers must in–

hale yellow cleath tbrougb weary deadly days and

nigb.ts

whi1e tugs and

lighter~

discbarge tedious tasks-seeing and learning this at La Libertad nearly two years

ago, I sougbt a perfect harbor on the Pacific coast whence to extend a railway to

auotber on the Atlantic.

is tbe foul breath of tbe sea-shore at tbe sea level at

points nnswept by winds from boundless seas that makes the word "Panama" the

synonym of pestilence and deatb. To avoid detention at tbe sea-shore in hot lati–

tndes sbips mnst anchor at wbarves within land-locked harbors whence passengers

may be tmusfcrret.l instantly by railways to the mesa or elevated platean frorn 2,000

3,000

feet above the sea level, and extending from one to tbe other ocean.

A COXFESSED FACT.

The Nicaragua Canal and the Ship Railway and De Lesseps Canal each and all are

a.t the sea level. No soft., cooling winu from the Pacific may :find its way into either

canal or follow gigantic locomotives tugging at ships crossing Tehuantepec, and the

acclimatet.l alone rnay cross the continent in safety at the sea leve]; but t here is per–

fect immnnity from climatic diseases tbe instant thc traveler reaches an elevation of

1,000

feet al>ove the sea. Commerce, tberefore, will traverse the sbip railway and

the canal; men and women will prefer this t ransisthmain raílway

having a perfectly

land-locked barbor at each terminus and an eJevation at no point after leaving tbe

coast of l ess than 2,000 feet above the plane of the two oceans.

W0:8DER8 01:" TIIE INTERIOR.

Eighty miles from tbe harbor of La Union, going north through the greatest length

of Salvador, the traveler will rest at the fathomless lake of llopango, 25 miles long

aud 8 to 10 miles wide. Its tepid waters occupy m·aters of extinct volcanoes. In

1870,

when Salvador was shaken violently by earthqnakes, the water of the Ia,ke

sank in the night 9 feet, and along its shores were gathered earthen vessels curiously

coloreu, and images carved out of porpbery, and others precisely like those at the

mnseum at Washington taken from Egyptian tombs. A few miles southeast ñ ·om

the railway tbe ever-active volcano !zaleo rises 6,000 feet, a perfect cone, from the

p1ain about Armenia. The railway crQsses the State of Santa Ana, a district of

~alva

dor 50 miles square, produoing, it is stated, more cofl:"ee tban any equal g,rea of land

in the world. In truth, evecy..acre of the

11~esa

of Salvador is cultivated, eacb pro–

dncing from two to fonr crops annually. The products are rice, tobacco, índigo, sea–

island cotton, co:ffee, sugar, cocoa (chocolate), india rubber, and Peruvian gum-so

called becanse

i~.

w·lts ori:ginally sent from Salvador to Peru ami thence to European

markets. Tbe railway' lffl_netrates from La Union to Puerto Barrios, orto Port Izabal,

wbichever harbor may béits northern terminus, a very paradise. The average densi–

ty of popnlation

alo~g

the whole route exceeds

100

for eacb square mile. Here vil–

lages and towns ate almos't conterminous, and tbe population-.Aztecs 92 per cent. and

Spanish 8 per cent-t9ihp.ost int.lustriously. Labor costa 20 to 25 cents, and food

cents per diem. The-tha,tch-roofed, floorless adobe huts of the natives (.A.ztecs) are

the cheapest possib1e, arid only useful in protecting the occnpants against rain-storms

of July, Angust, and September (tbe rainy season), when the country is fl.ooded al–

most every day. Tbere is not a stove or :fire-place in any house in the Republic;

none are needed wbere the thermometer never falls below

or rises above

de–

grees. So great is the annual production of fruits, as well as of índigo, tobacco,

sugar, and coffee, and so short the distance from Port Barrios

Mobile

that it

be–

líeved tha,t most delicate and delicious tropical frnits, never seen in the United

States, will be distributed everywhere from

~Iobile;

and so redundant are the crops of

Salvador and of the districts of Guatemala penetrated by this railway, that it must

have two tracks-one for immense local, the other for interoceanic, freights and

travel.

POLITICAL RESULTS.

Bnt the great good to be achieved by tbis transisthmian

ro.ad

cons1sts not so mneh

tbe fact that it will enable traveling multitudes to cross the continent wbere nar–

rowest, without possible danger from dead:ly fevers and plagues incident to detention

the sea-level, bnt with its branches, binding togethe.r these five Central American