File:Incidents of travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatán (1853) (14775921464).jpg

Identifier: gri_incidentsoft01aste (find matches)
Title: Incidents of travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatán
Year: 1853 (1850s)
Authors: Stephens, John Lloyd, 1805-1852 Harper & Brothers, publisher
Subjects: Mayas
Publisher: New York : Harper & Brothers
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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convents,and private residences, large and costly, some lying inmasses, some with fronts still standing, richly orna-mented with stucco, cracked and yawning, roofless,without doors or windows, and trees growing insideabove the walls. Many of the houses have been re-paired, the city is repeopled, and presents a strange ap-pearance of ruin and recovery. The inhabitants, likethe dwellers over the buried Herculaneum, seemed toentertain no fears of renewed disaster. I rode upto the house of Don Miguel Manrique, which was oc-cupied by his family at the time of the destruction ofthe city, and, after receiving a kind welcome, in com-pany with Senor Vidaurre walked to the plaza. Theprint opposite will give an idea, which I cannot, ofthe beauty of this scene. The great volcanoes ofAgua and Fuego look down upon it; in the centre isa noble stone fountain, and the buildings which face it,especially the palace of the captain general, displayingon its front the armorial bearings granted by the Em- V
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ACCOUNT OF LA ANTIGUA. 267 peror Charles the Fifth to the loyal and noble city, andsurmounted by the Apostle St. James on horseback,armed, and brandishing a sword ; and the majestic butroofless and ruined cathedral, three hundred feet long,one hundred and twenty broad, nearly seventy high,and lighted by fifty windows, show at this day that LaAntigua was once one of the finest cities of the NewWorld, deserving the proud name which Alvarado gaveit, the city of St. James of Gentlemen. This was the second capital of Guatimala, foundedin 1542 on account of the destruction of the first by awater volcano. Its history is one of uninterrupted dis-asters. In 1558 an epidemic disorder, attended witha violent bleeding at the nose, swept away great num-bers of people ; nor could the faculty devise any meth-od to arrest the progress of the distemper. Many se-vere shocks of earthquake were felt at different periods;the one in 1565 seriously damaged many of the prin-cipal buildings; those of 1575, 76

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