232 MEXICO, CENTEAL AMERICA, WEST INDIES. 



Antigua was never completely abandoned, and it now rank» for size as the fifth 

 city of the republic The population even continues to increase, its thermal waters 

 attract numerous invalids, the inhabitants of Guatemala have their country resi- 

 dences here, and many of the demolished structures have been rebuilt. 



This third Guatemala, at present the largest city of Central America, lies on a 

 gentle slope in a depression of the plateau about 5,000 feet above the sea on the 

 divide between the two oceans. Guatemala is dominated by a little porjDhyry 

 eminence, the Cerro del Carmen, where stands the old hermitage, whence the place 

 takes the namB of Ermita still in use amongst the Cakchiquels. From this knoll 

 a view is commanded of the whole city, which covers a considerable space. The 

 surrounding landscape is unattractive owing to the absance of trees on the scrubby 

 watershed of Las Yacas, or the " Cows," which throughout the Spanish occupation 

 has been used as a c ittle ranche. But the vast panorama stretching beyond this 

 district, and limited southwards by the two lofty volcanic cones, presents a superb 

 prospect : no other c ipital occupies a more marked central and commanding position 

 over the region sloping in all directions at its feet. Guatemala, which is laid out 

 with the perfect regularity of a model city, presents in the interior a somewhat 

 monotonous aspect. According to the original munici^Dal regulations, inspired by 

 the memory of the disasters that had overtaken Antigua, the builders were for- 

 bidden to erect any houses exceeding 20 feet in height, and although this law is 

 no longer observed, the churches having here as elsewhere their domes and belfries, 

 most of the structures are very low, gaining horizontally what they lose verticxlly. 

 Hence the population is somewhat scattered, except in the suburbs, where every 

 narrow cabin is occupied by an Indian family. Towards the middle of the century, 

 when it was scarcely half its present size, travellers were wont to compare Guate- 

 mala to a city of tombstones. Form3rly all the large buildings were convents or 

 churches. Now the Jesuits' establishment has been transformed to a national 

 institution with an observatory. The city also possesses a polytechnic and other 

 schools, learned societies, libraries and a museum. But the industries only suffice 

 to supply the local wants, and provisions are mostly brought from the surrounding 

 villages and plantations on the Pacific slop3. Water is also brought from a con- 

 siderable distance by the two aqueducts of Mixco and Piaula. On the plateau 

 itself, covered with volcanic scoriae in some places to the depth of 600 or 700 feet, 

 the rain water is rapidly absorbed, reappearing lower down in remote valleys. 

 But to this very circumstance, preventing the accumulation of stagnant waters, 

 Guatemala probably owes its complete immunity from the ravages of typhus. 

 Still the place is not very health}^, and all malidies affecting the respiratory organs 

 are aggravated by the clouds of dust raised by every breeze from the loose igneous 

 soil. Hence most of the well-to-do citizens remove during the dry season to some 

 umbrageous rural retreat the most fashionable places at present are the towns and 

 villages situated farther south in the neighbourhood of Antigua. 



The railway descending from Guatemala towards the Pacific branches off from 

 the valley of Antigua southwards in the direction of Lake Amatitlan, which it 

 skirts on the west side. The town of Amatitlan, situated on the lake at the outlet 



