2l6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I02 



necessities and luxuries needed for human life. It has over i,ooo 

 Spanish residents, plus many Negro and mulatto slaves and many 

 service Indians, not counting the numerous transients, this being a 

 city with active trade with all New Spain and Mexico City and the 

 local provinces, with Spain, Peru, and Nicaragua; they come here 

 with silver and merchandise to exchange for cacao, indigo, cochineal, 

 and other products which this country offers in abundance. 



608. It covers the area of a very large and thickly settled city ; 

 the greater part of its houses are well designed and constructed, and 

 the streets are straight and well laid out ; it has a main plaza which 

 is square in form and attractive. At the ENE. corner stands the 

 Cathedral, which is very large and capacious, among the finest in the 

 Indies. The episcopal establishment is on that same corner, and at 

 the opposite corner, about due S., are the Royal Apartments, which 

 are very large and spacious. This is where the President lives and 

 where the Judges of the Circuit Court have their headquarters ; they 

 are Alcaldes de Corte and usually carry rods of office. Besides its 

 President, this Circuit Court has five Associate Judges, an Attorney, 

 two Secretaries, a Relator, and the other officials. The State Prison 

 is on the same corner. 



609. Opposite this corner with the royal establishment, and ap- 

 proximately on the N. side, is a whole block of arcades of excellent 

 construction, occupied by the scribes and various shops of merchan- 

 dise. The other corner, across from the Cathedral, is likewise filled 

 with well-built arcades, occupied by shops and grocery stores. On 

 one side of the plaza is a fountain of excellent water which is 

 patronized by a large part of the residents, although the city is 

 abundantly supplied with water. Each corner engages two of the 

 chief streets, so that from one angle of the plaza one sees the con- 

 vents of the Mercedarians, of Santa Catalina, and of the Jesuits ; 

 from another, the Augustinian convent ; from another, the nunnery 

 of La Concepcion, and the General Hospital of the city. 



610. This city has splendid convents : the Dominican is very 

 sumptuous and well built, with a magnificent and beautifully decorated 

 church and cloisters ; it has very pious and learned friars, but in 

 consequence of the humility and the great reform in dress and man- 

 ners which they observe, they do not wear academic costume 

 (graduan). This is the mother convent for the whole province within 

 the district of this Circuit Court, although they have convents estab- 

 lished only in this Diocese of Guatemala, in that of Chiapa, and in 

 Vera Paz, which latter was given up. In this splendid convent they 

 give courses in Arts and Theology, which they teach with great care 



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