Although during the dry season a strong and cool wind blows for several hours of the day, and at sunset changes to a pleasant land-breeze, blowing sometimes steadily, and at others decidedly gustily, during the night, the hours of darkness never seem so long nor so trying, on account of the heat, the dryness, and the mosquitoes, as is the case in so many parts of South and Central America. Some day, maybe, this place will be taken in hand by the speculative builder, and as great improvements effected as have been introduced at Panamá, at Puerto Limón (Costa Rica), and at San José, in the same Republic, but on the Pacific side of that Republic. Acajutla is just as open to, and capable of, improvement and reformation; between the enterprise of the Salvador Government and the Salvador Railway Company there is no reason why this port should not eventually become one of the most important in Central America.
La Libertad is the second of the three Salvadorean ports, as already mentioned, Acajutla and La Unión being the other two. It is a small but well-formed roadstead, but does not invariably offer good shelter to the largest vessels, since sudden rollers come in which are apt to snap ship's cables unless with a long range. The foreshore is narrow, and is backed up by some lofty hills—scarcely high enough to be called mountains, however—which are partially cultivated, and form a pleasing setting to the Port itself. The buildings are few as yet, but such as there are they seem to be well constructed and of superior character both outwardly and inwardly; the usual style of Latin-American architecture is followed in regard to the one-story edifice, except in the case of the Comandancia—official residence and office of the chief authority—which is a large wooden edifice of two stories, the lower portion forming the quarters of the garrison, and the upper part the residence of the Comandante. About 100 men form the garrison, the regiment quartered there being the 5th Artillery. They possess several pieces of modern ordnance, which they know how to handle with great expedition and efficiency. The guns are kept exceedingly clean, and frequent drills serve to keep the artillerymen both smart and interested. The Comandante of the Port, Captain Angel Esteves, is quite a young man, possessed of a very pleasing face and figure, as well as of charming manners. He has travelled in the United States, and speaks English fairly well. He expressed to me his intention of shortly visiting England in order to study military matters, and "to see a country of which he had always heard great accounts, and for which he entertained a profound admiration."
The streets of La Libertad are mostly paved with hewn stones, and the whole place, consisting of but 700 or 800 inhabitants, is kept in excellent sanitary order. A market is held here every week, and a considerable amount of local trade is carried on from day to day. The extensive warehouses and Customs sheds are also well filled with foreign goods received from different ports of Europe and the United States; but while as many as three or four ships call there every week, I understand that these do not include any British bottoms other than the steamer Salvador, belonging to the Salvador Railway Company. The Comandante informed me that during the two years that he had been in La Libertad he had not seen another British vessel at the Port, the vessels calling there being either American, German or French.
A large amount of coffee is exported from La Libertad, the bags arriving out-bound from San Salvador, the capital, which is only eight leagues (about twenty-four miles) distant, and the journey usually being performed in a day and a half by ox-waggon, or in three or four hours on mule-back.
Between the Capital and the Port are situated two towns—Zaragosa and Santa Tecla—both of some importance. Around both also are located many coffee and sugar fincas, such as that of La Laguna, near San Salvador, the property of Herr Fédor Deininger, of whom I have made mention elsewhere in this volume, and who is one of the wealthiest, as well as one of the most enterprising, coffee-planters and sugar-manufacturers living in Salvador.
La Libertad possesses a strong and well-designed iron pier, some 450 feet in length, with two large covered warehouses, steam-cranes, and all the necessary apparatus for loading and unloading lighters. There is a double set of rails running from the pit-head to the Customs-house, and a fair equipment of flat-cars and platforms-cars. The warehouses are kept scrupulously clean and airy, everything being maintained in admirable working condition.
The pier and the wharf were constructed by a local company some forty years ago, and the concession which covered that period having only expired last year (1910), the pier and everything connected with it have now become the property of the Salvadorean Government. It is not intended, however, to make any additions or alterations to the structure, which is in all respects equal to the port's requirements at the present time. In all probability La Libertad will not much increase in importance as a port, in view of the extensions at Triunfo and at Acajutla, which already possesses a railway to the Capital, and of La Unión, which ere long will also have one to the interior of the Republic.
La Libertad must nevertheless always count as of some consequence, if only on account of its being the one cable-station in the Republic of Salvador, and which serves at the same time as a receiving-station for Costa Rica, the one Central American Republic which has no cable-station of its own. La Libertad shares with Colón the monopoly of despatching and receiving all the cable-messages from Central America and the United States. Its cable extends to Salina Cruz, in Mexico, messages being thence transmitted to Galveston, U.S.A. La Libertad's cable, although in constant use, is regarded more as a "stand-by" in the event of a breakdown on the Panama line, an eventuality of by no means infrequent occurrence, especially in time of political trouble and when the fierce Atlantic storms prevail. A full equipment is therefore always maintained, although the active staff employed consists of but two individuals—Mr. A. H. Hooper, an American of great linguistic ability and remarkable literary judgment, and a young Danish telegraphist, Fédor Michaelson. Both officials are expert instrument-operators, and in depending upon the La Libertad station as a substitute or a "stand-by," the Cable Company are leaning upon no hollow reed. Messrs. Hooper and Michaelson are highly competent officers, the latter, indeed, being one of the quickest and most accurate operators that I have met with in any part of the world.
In La Libertad a number of press and Government messages from all parts of the world are received every day, and sometimes almost all day. The instruments used include Muirhead's automatic transmitter, which will send 200 letters per minute, and Sir William Thompson's patent recorder, as well as a complete fault-finding apparatus, which enables the officials to at once trace the seat of any breakdown which may occur to the cable, and thus despatch the repair-ship to the necessary spot. While visiting the La Libertad cable-station, I witnessed several messages being despatched and received (and actually corresponded with Salina Cruz, Mexico), the average speed being a little over fifty words in three minutes, or, say, seventeen words a minute received and recorded.
At this cable-station above mentioned, a service of cablegrams received for the Salvadorean Government averages 2,000 words a day. The service is supplied free of all charge by the Government to the Salvador newspapers, and is greatly appreciated by the reading public. The source of supply is New York, and the Correspondent responsible is the New York Correspondent of La Prensa, the great Argentine daily newspaper, which enjoys the proud position of possessing the most palatial offices of any newspaper in the world. The news-cables are very informative, and are at the same time commendably free from political bias or personal opinions—a rare recommendation indeed, considering the land of their origin.