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.
CHAPTER II
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.
It is to the credit of Salvador that it was the one Central American State which firmly resisted the invasion of the Mexican troops; but in the end it had to submit to a far superior force, commanded by General Filisola, and was then formally incorporated into the Mexican Empire. This humiliation endured, however, for a very brief time, since in the following year Yturbide met his violent death, after which a Constitutional Convention was called, and in 1824 a Federal Republic was declared bearing the name of the "Central American Federation." This was composed of the five States—Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica—the first President being General Manuel José Arce.
Party jealousies and personal ambitions, however, soon brought about disintegration, and in spite of the efforts of some far-seeing patriots, who considered that in union alone lay the hope of peace, security and prosperity for their country, the form of government proved wholly impracticable. Nevertheless it continued for a few years to struggle along, General Francisco Morazán, doing his best to maintain order and to save the union from disruption. Notwithstanding all his efforts, the Federation was dissolved in 1839, and the five States again became independent Sovereign Republics. Three years later General Morazán unwisely made another effort to reunite the countries; but his attempt was treacherously rewarded by a conspiracy against his life, followed by his execution in San José, Costa Rica, in the month of September, 1842.
Since his death various attempts have been made from time to time, to reunite the several Republics, the last effort of this kind having been prosecuted by General Zelaya, perhaps one of the most unscrupulous and dishonest, as well as one of the cruellest, Spanish-Americans who has ever attained supreme power. Whatever chances of success a United Central America might have had, under the auspices of a Zelaya it could have never met with anything but failure. General Zelaya, in spite of frantic efforts to maintain his position, was himself chased from Nicaragua in 1909, and is now said to be living in Europe upon the proceeds of the money which he is declared to have filched from his country during his long and oppressive reign.