108 SPORT AND TRAVEL PAPERS 



Fuego" (fire volcano) this time, in 1773, wrecked it utterly. 

 It was rebuilt, but after repeated misfortunes the seat of 

 Government was finally removed to a safer distance, to 

 where Guatemala "la Nueva " now stands (1776). Our 

 visit to Antigua was a most interesting one. The town 

 has now about 15,000 inhabitants living in houses built 

 among and partly with the ruins of the old city. Once 

 away from the fearful pavement it is very charming walking 

 among the many gardens, where coffee, oranges, roses and 

 flowers innumerable flourish, and in the long avenues of amate- 

 trees, where beautifully carved capitals of ancient pillars are 

 placed as seats ; to wander among the old monasteries and 

 churches now in ruins, half overgrown with trees and 

 brushwood; to climb to the top of one of the cracked walls 

 and gaze upon the utter desolation of what was once a 

 magnificent city with over fifty churches. What a terrible 

 force it must be which shattered these stout walls, so solidly 

 constructed of thin bricks and unstinted mortar, and which 

 hurled far away those enormous masses of solid masonry as if 

 they had weighed pounds instead of tons ! People soon came 

 back after the catastrophe and built fresh houses with the debris 

 of the old, and now once more Antigua is a flourishing city ; 

 but the destroyer " Fuego" smokes on, growls now and then 

 and makes the earth tremble, to remind the inhabitants of his 

 terrible power, as if they who live surrounded by ruins were 

 ever likely to forget it. The houses which formed part of the 

 old capital were two-storied, those of the present city for 

 greater safety have but one, low, flat-roofed buildings collected 

 in square blocks. The gardens around are fenced in with stone 

 walls, by rows of eucalyptus-trees or hedges of the prickly 

 chichicasta; everything looks green and fresh. Here and 

 there from among the coffee or rose bushes rise the white 

 walls of a ruined church in striking contrast to the rich 

 colouring of all around. Very beautiful the ruins are even 

 in their utter desolation, rent and torn by many an earthquake. 

 In style, these monuments of the foreign dominion resemble 

 each other greatly, judging from some photographs in my 

 possession ; it is said to be corrupt Italian renaissance with 

 bits of Moorish architecture brought from Spain, such as pointed 

 horseshoe arches; most graceful " corkscrew" pillars are very 



