Salvador, the smallest but the most densely populated of the republics of Central America, about one-sixth the size of England and Wales; has a western foreshore between Guatemala (N.) and Nicaragua (S.), fronting the Pacific for 140 m.; slopes up from rich alluvial coast-lands to high plateaus, which stretch, seamed and broken by rivers and volcanoes, to the Cordillera frontier of Honduras on the E.; soil is extremely fertile and naturally irrigated by numerous streams, and produces in abundance coffee and indigo (chief exports), balsam, tobacco, sugar, cereals, &c.; has a warm, healthy climate. The natives are chiefly Indians of Aztec descent, but speaking Spanish. The government is vested in a president and chamber of deputies. Education is free and compulsory. Broke away from Spanish control in 1821; was a member of the Central American Confederacy, but since 1853 has enjoyed complete independence. Capital, San Salvador (q.v.).
Population (circa 1900) given as 780,000.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Saltus, Edgar * Salvation Army