This highroad continually needs very large sums of money for maintenance. The repairs which in former years have been carried out have proved anything but lasting, owing to the serious mistakes in construction of an engineer who put into practice certain untried experiments, which completely failed.
It is necessary now to remedy this mistake, and drains and aqueducts have had to be constructed on the road where none previously existed, to avoid, in the rainy season, destruction by the strong currents of water rushing over it. The official engineer, Don Alberto Pinto, was occupied during a good part of the year 1908 upon road works, having made many alterations, improvements and widenings in the roads of the Departments of San Miguel, La Unión, Usulután, Chalatenango, Santa Ana and Cabañas.
On the way from Mercedes to Jucuapa, and also upon the road to San Miguel, it is proposed to construct a bridge of stone and mortar, at the place called Barrancas de Jucuapa; the chief engineer, Señor Pinto, has already made an estimate and sent in the corresponding plans. The cost will amount to a little more or a little less than $10,000.
Early Days of independence--"Central American Federation"-- Constitutional Presidents--Executive power--Chamber of Congress--The Cabinet--Justice--The courts--Prisons and prisoners--Employment and treatment--Police force--How distributed--Education--Colleges and schools--State-aided education--Teaching staffs--Primary education--Posts and telegraphs--Improved interstate parcels post.
The breaking away from Spanish dominion (although the seeds of revolution were laid as far back as 1811) did not take place until ten years later, and coincided with the successful termination of the struggle for liberty which occurred in Mexico under the patriot priest Hidalgo. Salvador gained its freedom, comparatively speaking, without bloodshed; and on September 15, 1821, it was declared a free and independent State. In the year following an attempt was made to annex the country to the Mexican Empire, under the rule of the ambitious and unscrupulous Emperor Agustin Yturbide, during his very brief reign, in 1822. As history relates, this presumptuous Mexican was born in Valladolid (now known as Morelia) on September 27, 1783, and he was sentenced to death and shot on July 19, 1824.