Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/256

236 cloth. We then passed into an adjoining room, where there was a table laid out with liqueurs and cigars, where we spent another hour very socially; and about six o'clock in the evening, we took our leave.

Monday, 20th June. About five o'clock this morning I mounted my horse with a view of visiting the former city of Santiago de Guatemala, now called the "Antigua": it lies about nine leagues to the s.w. of the new capital, towards the South Sea; and is the town where the congress of the State is held. Although it has been often visited by dreadful earthquakes, its population has, always, within a short period of each successive calamity, reached 8000 or 12,000 souls. The canon Dighero, who was devoting his scientific labours towards the effecting of a good communication, either by road or canal, between the present capital and the Pacific, informed me that he remembered the earthquake which took place on the 29th of July, 1773, and which was succeeded by a further shock on the 2d of