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Rh the shores of the Atlantic; five on the Pacific; and five in the interior. These were governed by inferior officers, who reported to the audiencia. Spiritual affairs were under the direction of the archbishop of Guatimala and three suffragans. The ecclesiastical division of the country consisted of four bishoprics, and comprised two hundred and twenty curacies; twenty-three collected curacies of regulars; seven hundred and fifty-nine parochial churches; and four establishments for the conversion of infidels. A military force could scarcely be said to have existence; not more than from thirty to fifty soldiers being required for the internal security of the kingdom.

Such was the state of things in Guatimala when the present century dawned upon its sons, a century pregnant with events more important perhaps to a succeeding than the present generation. About this period the contraband trade with the English settlers in the bay of Honduras began rapidly to increase, and to assume the shape of regular commerce. The young and enterprising eagerly entered into a traffic which not only produced considerable profit, but as it were opened before their eyes a new world. Knowledge, and a fresh thirst for it, entered with their merchandise, and books of various descriptions clandestinely found their way into the very heart of the isthmus.