ESCUINTLA  , the

capital of the department of Escuintla, Guatemala; on the southern slope of the Sierra Madre, 45 M . S.W. of Guatemala city . Pop . (1905) about 12, 000 . Escuintla is locally celebrated for its hot mineral springs . It is the commercial centre of a fertile district, which produces coffee, cane-sugar and cocoa; it has also a brisk transit trade in most of the products or vuatemala, owing to its position on the interoceanic railway between Puerto Barrios on the Atlantic and San Jose (30 M . S.) on the Pacific . A branch railway which goes westward to San Augustin meets this line at Escuintla .