Salvador', the smallest but by far the most thickly populated of the Central American Republics, consists of a strip of territory stretching between Honduras and the Pacific. It is 140 miles in length by about 60 in average breadth, and has an area estimated at 7225 sq. m., with a pop. (1901) of 1,006,84S. Except for a narrow seaboard of low alluvial plains, Salvador consists of a plateau, some 2000 feet above the sea, furrowed by river valleys and broken by numerous volcanic cones, and bounded on the N. by the Central American Cordillera. Of the volcanoes (4900 to 6900 ft.), many are extinct; earthquakes are fre-quent(see San Salvador). The Lempa (140 miles) receives the surplus waters of the Laguna de Cuija, and the San Miguel drains the south-east portion of the republic. The climate is equable, very healthy in the interior, and even along the coast less unwholesome than on the Atlantic side of Central America. The land is well watered, and the soil exceedingly fertile. The principal products are coffee, indigo, and balsam (on the Balsam Coast); also tobacco, sugar, maize, rice, beans, india-rubber, vanilla, and ornamental woods. Gold and silver are mined, and coal and iron worked. The exports (mainly coffee and indigo) range in value from 8 to 12 million dollars per annum; the imports from 4 to 7 millions. Of the imports (cotton goods the principal item) 35 per cent. is from Great Britain and 25 per cent. from the United States. The population consists mostly of (Aztec) Indians and mixed races: the whites number 20,000. The Indians almost all speak Spanish and profess the Roman Catholic religion. The government is carried on by a president, four ministers, and a congress of seventy deputies. The revenue, varying from 5 to 8 million dollars, shows a slight excess over the expenditure; the internal debt is returned at $10,000,000, and the external debt is about £750,000. There is an army of 4000 men and 18,000 militia. Railways connect Acajutla (the chief port) with Santa Ana and Ateos, and nearly to the capital, San Salvador (q.v.). Salvador, originally called Cuscatlan, was conquered by Alvarado in 1525-26. In 1821 it threw off the Spanish yoke, and from 1823 to 1839 it belonged to the Central American confederacy. Since 1853 it has been an independent republic disturbed by frequent pronunciamientos. See books on Central America by Bates (1879) and Squier (1868).