JOURNEY TO GUATEMALA. 



151 



CHAPTER XIX. 



City of Guatemala. — The Plaza, — Public Buildings. — The Hermitage. 

 —Account of the Old City. — Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions. 

 — Cosiguina. — Character and Customs of the Natives. — Peculiarities of 

 Language. — Procession of Corpus Christi. 



The cities of Central America are twenty-nine in num- 

 ber ; but those entitled to any notice, are only the follow- 

 ing : Guatemala, in the State of that name, with a popula- 

 tion of about twenty-five thousand souls, Antigua, or old 

 Guatemala, and Chiquimula ; St. Salvador, in the State so 

 called, which is now the Federal district, comprising a cir- 

 cle around the city twenty miles in diameter, and the resi- 

 dence of the Government ; Santana and Sonsonate, in the 

 same State ; St. Jose, in Costarica ; Leon and Granada, in 

 Nicaragua ; and Comayagua and Truxillo, in Honduras. 



The city of Guatemala stands in the middle of a large 

 and beautiful plain, surrounded by mountains. In the 

 suburbs and environs there are numerous groves and gar- 

 dens. The streets cross each other at right angles, and, 

 being rectilinear, present at eaeh extremity a charming 

 prospect of the adjacent country. The houses consist of 

 only one story, which rarely exceeds twenty feet in height^ 

 in order to their more easily resisting the shock of an 

 earthquake.* They are all provided with inner courts 

 and corridors. In the centre of these courts there is gen- 

 erally a fountain or some ornamental trees, or both; 



* Although the houses in Guatemala are of a construction enabling 

 them to resist an ordinary earthquake, the possibility of a shock so vio- 

 lent as to make it dangerous to remain within doors has not been over- 

 looked. Thus, in some of the houses, may be seen standing in the cen- 

 tre of the court, a pavilion, as a place of refuge in the contingency just 

 alluded to. 



