and other city buildings; on the third the custom-house and palace of the ci-devant Marquisate of Aycinena; and on the fourth side is the Cathedral, a beautiful edifice in the best style of modern architecture, with the archiepiscopal palace on one side, and the College de los Infantes on the other. In the centre is a large stone fountain, of imposing workmanship, supplied with pipes from the mountains about two leagues distant; and the area is used as a market-place. The churches and convents correspond with the beauty of the Plaza, and their costliness and grandeur would attract the attention of tourists in Italy or old Spain.
The foundation of the city was laid in 1776, a year memorable in our own annals, and when our ancestors thought but little of the troubles of their neighbours. At that time the old capital, twenty-five miles distant, shattered and destroyed by earthquakes, was abandoned by its inhabitants, and the present was built in the rich valley of Las Vaccas, in a style commensurate with the dignity of a captain generalship of Spain. I have seldom been more favourably impressed with the first appearance of any city, and the only thing that pained me in a two hours' stroll through the streets was the sight of Carrera's ragged and insolent-looking soldiers; and my first idea was, that in any city in Europe or the United States, the citizens, instead of submitting to be lorded over by such barbarians, would rise en masse and pitch them out of the gates.
In the course of the morning I took possession of the house that had been occupied by Mr. De Witt, late United States chargé-d'affaires. If I had been favourably impressed with the external appearance of the houses, I was charmed with the interior. The entrance was by a large double door, through a passage paved with small black and white stones, into a handsome patio or court-yard paved in like manner. On the sides were broad corridors paved with square red bricks, and along the foot of the corridors were borders of flowers. In front, on the street, and adjoining the entrance, was an ante-room with one large balconied window, and next to it a sala or parlour, with two windows. At the further end a door opened from the side into the comedor or dining-room, which had a door and two windows opening upon the corridor. At the end of the dining-room was a door leading to a sleeping-room, with door and one window, and then another room of the same size, all with doors and windows opening upon the corridor. The building and corridor were continued across the foot of the lot; in the centre were rooms for servants, and in the corners were a kitchen and stable completely hidden from sight, and each furnished with a separate fountain. This is the plan of all the houses in Guatimala;
