TOPOGRAPHY OF GUATEMALA. 



2S1 



ruiiiSi Nothing remained except a magnificent tree, under wliose shade the 

 Spaniards had assembled before the building of the cit}'. Its site is at present 

 occupied by a few little houses lost amid the surrounding plantations. To avoid 

 another such disaster — which, however, could not have been repeated in the same 

 way — it was decided to remove the town farther north, and in 1542 Alvarado 

 supervised the foundation of a second capital — Santiago de los Cahalleros la Nticva, 

 the " new," but now called Antigua, the " ancient," to distinguish it from the 

 modern Guatemala. The city flourished to such an extent that in a few years it 

 became the most populous place in Central America, and this despite a succession 



Fig. 97. — Successive Displacements of G-tjatem-ila. 



Scalt 1 : 750,000. 





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- '-/^ A^ 



^'Ti 



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sr-io' 



. o? breenwich 



12 Miles. 



of storms, floods, earthquakes, and epidemics. Its inhabitants, remaiked Gage, 

 dwell between " two mountains which liold their ruin in suspense : the Agua 

 volcano threatens them with tlie deluge, and Fuego opens to them one of hell's 

 gates." The people had many a time made every preparation for flight, and 

 then, the danger over, had done nothing but repair their dwellings, M'hen nearly 

 all the buildings were overthrown by the terrific earthquakes of 1773. 



At last it was decided to select a third site for the capital, and choice was 

 made of the hamlet of Ermita on the elevated Las Vacas plateau, about 25 miles 

 farther to the north-east. The work of reconstruction began immediately after 

 the disaster that had overtaken Antigua, but the oflicial transfer was not made till 

 the year 1779. The first house of Guatemala, the hacienda de la Yirgen, still 

 exists, and is pointed out to strangers as a historic monument. Nevertheless, 



