160 
GUATEMALA. 
left stood the roofless cathedral, and dotted thickly over 
the plain were other ruined churches, — eighty, it is said, 
— which looked as if recently demolished. We had our 
bestias saddled, and rode over to Ciudad Vieja, distant 
about a league. This was the second city founded by 
Alvarado (Tecpan Quatemalan being the first), and de¬ 
stroyed, together with the widow of the Conquistador, in 
1541, by the earthquake and torrent of water from the 
ancient crater of Agua. The town is small enough now. 
After watching a man make roquetas (rockets), 1 we 
rode to the Banos de Medina, which we had some diffi¬ 
culty in finding; we took, however, at last a short cut 
through a coffee plantation where the berries were large 
and ripening. The baths are in a small house of several 
rooms. The one Frank and I occupied had a large tank, 
deep enough for a swim ; the water was slightly sulphu¬ 
rous, and but a few degrees warmer than the atmosphere. 
It was well worth the real it cost us. 
In the afternoon we strolled among the ruins of Anti¬ 
gua, which are very fascinating. All the churches were 
of solid masonry, with vaulted roofs, — some still entire,, 
and supporting a mass of vegetation, among which the 
Phytolacca was common. The outlay of money in build¬ 
ing all these elaborate churches must have been enor¬ 
mous for material and transportation (many of the tiles 
being Spanish), although the actual labor was by unpaid 
slaves. We were told strange stories of the skeletons of 
mother and child found walled in a church ; tunnels 
1 The cases of these rockets were of bambu, and usually three were 
attached to one stick. As they were fired in daylight, and valued for their 
effect upon the ear rather than the eye, the proportion of explosive powder 
was increased, each discharge giving three sharp cracks. 
