ESQUIPULAS AND QUIRIGUA. 
203 
First, of course, we wanted to see the famous black 
Christ, “ Our Lord of Esquipulas.” This miraculous im¬ 
age, to whose shrine devout pilgrims have gathered even 
from distant Mexico and Panama, — pilgrims numbered 
in former years as many as fifty thousand at a single fes¬ 
tival,— was made in Guatemala City in 1594 by Quirio 
Catano, a Portuguese, at the order of Bishop Cristobal de 
Morales, on the petition of the pueblo of Esquipulas. 
The sculptor was paid “ cien tostones,” — a testoon being 
of the value of four reals, or half a dollar; and to meet 
this expense the Indios planted cotton on the very land 
where the sanctuary now stands. For more than a cen¬ 
tury and a half the image stood in the village church, 
where the miracles wrought spread its fame very far. 
The first archbishop of Guatemala, Pedro Pardo de 
Figueroa, laid the foundation of the present temple, 
which he did not live to finish, but died Feb. 2, 1751, 
praying with his last breath that his bones might rest 
at the feet of this image of his Lord. In 1759 Senor D. 
Alonso de Arcos y Moreno, President of the Real Audiencia 
of Guatemala, completed the great work, at a cost, it is said, 
of three million dollars ; and on January 6 of that year the 
image was translated with all the pomp of the Romish 
Church. Twelve days later, the remains of the pious arch¬ 
bishop followed. The founder established a brotherhood 
of worthy people who should take upon themselves the 
material support of the edifice; but Padre Miguel Munoz, 
writing in 1827, says that this laudable custom had died 
out among the whites, only the Indios holding to the com¬ 
pact. Those of Totonicapan furnish a certain amount of 
wax and provide for some offices of the Church; those 
of Mexico visit the shrine in Holy Week with offerings 
