Scene after the Earthquake.

357

the cautious and prosaic will discern some maltreated Indian or negro who thought that the earthquake and the flood had come at last to revenge the cruelties inflicted on his race.

The trees of primæval

The real terrors of the night, however, were great enough, and, when the morning broke, an almost unparalleled scene of devastation presented itself. The Volcan del Agua was quite altered in form, having lost a large portion of its summit. Huge stones covered the slopes of the mountain. forests were in the streets. had been so fertile, and the many feet deep with mud. first things which the survivors cared to notice. The father found his son dead, the brother his brother, the husband his wife, the mother her child. In all, the killed and wounded amounted to nearly six hundred persons: the town was, in parts, a heap of ruins.

The lower lands, which town itself, were covered But these were not the

It will show the influence of the good bishop that he contrived to persuade the people to bury Beatrice de la Cueva, though all attributed the earthquake to her blasphemy, and thought that the fate of Jezebel would have been good enough for her. The death of the Governadora and the partial destruction of the city rendered it necessary to renew the government. Upon the advice of the chief lawyer there, Francisco de la Cueva gave up his delegated authority, which was considered to be canceled by the death of Beatrice. A council was summoned of all the persons connected with the government of Guatemala. Its sitting was short, for men feared that the building would come down upon them. The result of its deliberations was, that the Bishop of Guatemala and Francisco de la Cueva should be nominated as joint

358

Question as to Change of Locality.

governors. The people, terrified at the late earthquake, began to quit the city; but this was interdicted. Then the old question arose respecting a change in the site of the city. It was finally resolved that the site should be changed. Some thought that it

should be in the valley of Petapa, and many were of opinion that it should be in that of Mixco; but so rooted were the majority of them to that particular locality, and so desirous were they of being near their

Foundation of the Second Town.

359

farms, that, after the first alarm had worn off, they did not move to a greater distance than a league or half a league from their former position, choosing the driest part of the valley to the northeast of the old town.* One circumstance that helped to confirm them in their determination was, that the Indians were accustomed to come to the valley of Panchoy with provisions, and to render personal services, and that it might be difficult to get them to come to another spot.† At no time were the personal services of the Indians more precious than at the building of a town, for all the burdens fell upon their much-vexed shoulders. Some humanity was shown at this period by the authorities of Guatemala in limiting the weight that any Indian was to carry to two arrobas.‡

The 4th of December, 1543, was the day on which the Spaniards took possession of their new quarters. The former town was now called the Ciudad Vieja.

X According to JUARROS (Hist. de Guatemala, tom. ii., trat. 6, cap. 4), a government engineer arrived most opportunely at this juncture, and it was by his advice, and contrary to the first wishes of the majority of the inhabitants, that the second site of the town was chosen. I do not give credit to this statement, notwithstanding its being supported by many probable details; and I suspect that Antoneli's report had reference to some other occasion on which a change of site was in discussion.

The investigation of the earth's surface was a study not known in those times, and the second town of Guatemala remained to be a mark for earthquakes for a hundred years, until, after the great one of 1773, a new spot was chosen, at a distance of twenty-six miles from the old city. + ".. los Indios de la tierra acostumbrados á venir en ya aquella parte, con la provision y servicio, y fuera muy dificultoso llevarlos á otra parte."-REMESAL, Hist, de Chiapa y Guatemala, lib. vii., cap. 2.

y

estar

‡ An arroba is twenty-five pounds, Castilian measure. In the other provinces of Spain the weight slightly varied. See Jos. GARCIA CaVALLERO, Breve Cotejo y Valance de los pesos, y medidas de varias naciones, c. Madrid, 1731.

360

"Audiencia" for Guatemala appointed.

The joint government of the bishop and of Don Francisco de la Cueva did not subsist long, being superseded by an Audiencia appointed in the ensuing year, 1542, which was to govern both Nicaragua and Guatemala, and for that purpose to have its seat of government on the confines of these two provinces, on which account it was called "La Audiencia de los Confines. The president named was Alonzo de Maldonado,* an auditor of the royal Audiencia of Mexico, already well known to the readers of this history as having signed, when governor, the agreement with Las Casas and the Dominicans, by virtue of which the spiritual and peaceful conquest of "the Land of War” had been accomplished.

* BERNAL DIAZ, speaking of another Maldonado, describes the Governor of Guatemala as " Alonzo Maldonado the Good." "No es este el Licenciado Alonso Maldonado el bueno, que fué Governador de Guatemala."-Cap. 196.

OF WAR" IS CALLED "THE LAND OF PEACE."-THE FINAL LABORS AND DEATH OF DOMINGO DE BETANZOS.

THE

Hr oscilates "HE history of Guatemala oscillates curiously between Church and State. Now, amid the crowd of wild men and in the progress of strange events, a steel-clad personage stands forth pre-eminently, marshaling the order of battle; now a cowled and sandaled figure, strong only in its humbleness, is seen to prevail over enemies not less fierce, and to exercise a sway compared with which that of the warrior is poor, transitory, and superficial. Something of this kind of alternation is visible throughout the early annals of the New World, but its character is more distinctly marked in Guatemala than elsewhere. Having shown what the civil government of Guatemala had finally settled down into, our narrative returns to the deserted Dominican monastery in that city, which happily was not long left uninhabited this time, as Pedro de Angulo came back from the chapter of his order, which had been held in Mexico in the year 1538, bringing with him four other Dominican monks, two of whom afterward became very celebrated for their zeal, namely, Father Juan de Torres and Father Matthias de Paz. Among other things for which the latter is much praised was his introduction of the use of the rosary, in order to extirpate, it is said, the superstiVOL. III.-Q