GUATEMALA: 
THE LAND OF THE QUETZAL. 
CHAPTER I. 
THE KINGDOM OF GUATEMALA. 
T HAT part of the North American continent usually 
known as Central America was included by the 
Spanish conquerors in the kingdom of Guatemala; and 
while my purpose is to describe the republic of Guate¬ 
mala, — a portion only of the ancient kingdom, I may 
be pardoned if I call the attention of my readers briefly 
to the geography and history of all that country which 
once bore the name and is still closely allied with the 
interests of Guatemala. 
Central America should extend from the Isthmus of 
Tehuantepec to that of Darien; from the Caribbean Sea 
on the northeast, to the Pacific Ocean on the southwest. 
Mexico, however, has taken Chiapas and Yucatan, on 
the west and north, Great Britain has seized the east 
coast of Guatemala (British Honduras), and the Isthmus 
of Panama is included in the territory of South America. 
The present independent republics of Guatemala, San 
Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, con¬ 
stitute what is known as Central America, — a territory 
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