which ranked next to Mexico City among the capitals of 
Spanish America. Their buildings were from time to time 
Shattered by earthquakes, but were immediately recon- 
structed, until on July 29, 1773, one more violent than 
usual occasioned greater disaster; and then it was 
decided by fne Civil authorities to remove the capital 
to its present site, twenty-seven miles away from the 
overthrow. To this point the civil and military author- 
eran came the same year, but had difficulty in prevail- 
ing on the ecclesiastical authorities and people to quit 
the old home, hallowed by two centuries of struggle and 
achievement. But in 1776, when the United States of 
America was in the throes of its movement for indepen- 
dence, the present city of Guatemala was formally 
inaugurated. There was already a small village here 
known as La Ermita, so named after the Carmelite Hermi- 
tage erected in 1620, and still standing solid as a 
rock on the Cerro del Carmen, where for nearly three 
hundred years it has defied time and earthquakes. The 
original roof of wood and tiles was replaced in 1720 
by the present one. Several sites for the new capital 
had been considered by the authorities, but the detere 
mining factor in. the selection of La Ermita was the 
‘fact that the Hermitage on the Cerro del Carmen had 
