GUATIMALA.
Guatimala is a general name for a portion of the territory on the narrow part of the continent, which reaches from Oaxaca and Vera Cruz, southward to Veragua, on the isthmus of Darien. This tract of land is subject to the government of a captain-general, and is called the Capitania General of Guatimala, or as it is sometimes written, Gualtimala. The officer who exercises this command is independent of the viceregal court of Mexico, and is appointed by the king of Spain, consulting the viceroy on important occasions only; in what regards the immediate government of the captain-generalship, he is perfectly independent of any of the viceroys of the New World, acting solely on behalf and in the name of His Catholic Majesty. Of his power and resources, with his emoluments, &c. very little can be said, as this interesting portion of Spanish America has not attracted the serious attention of any contemporary writers.
The territory of Guatimala is subdivided into numerous provinces or districts, of which the following names are given as a list: Soconusco, Suchitepec, Sonsonate, St. Salvador, St. Miguel, Tiguesgalpa, Choluteca, or Keses, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Vera Paz and Chiapa. The first seven of these are denominated Guatimala, in the most modern maps, which is however an error.
The general appearance of the soil, (excepting the neighbourhoods of the volcanoes,) is fertile in the extreme; and Guatimala abundantly produces corn, cochineal, honey, wax, cotton, the sugar-cane, indigo, maize, pimento and chocolate. There are plenty of cattle and sheep in the farming districts. The climate differs greatly, according to the situation of the provinces on the eastern or western coasts; the western side is in general the best and healthiest, as may be observed, throughout the whole of North America. The whole country is mountainous, of which the particular ridges are very little known. In the Guatimala of the maps, that is to say, on the western shore from Guaxaca to Veragua, the country is dreadfully subject to tremendous convulsions of the earth, which has at times involved whole cities in ruin, exterminated complete tribes of people, and reversed the order of peaceful nature. The volcanoes are extremely numerous, and some of them terrific; no less than twenty are known to exist, which are constantly in action. The captain-general is commander of the troops, and Guatimala, the chief city, is the seat of a royal audience, which governs twenty-five districts. This Audienza Real, or Supreme Court of Justice, was first established in 1554.
The capital of this extensive country is Guatimala, which is situated in 14° 28ʹ north latitude, and 92° 40ʹ west longitude. It is built near the Pacific Ocean, on the Rio Vaccas, and has a good harbour. It is the see of an archbishop, which was established in the year 1742, and seat of the Audienza Real, with that of the government of the Capitania General. This renders it a place of nearly as much importance as Mexico, or any other chief city of the Americas. It has an university, and its chief trade consists in chocolate, pitch, and naptha.
When this city was first built, it was founded on the declivity of a mountain, at whose summit was a volcano, in a beautiful valley of three miles in width, and was then called St. Jago. This valley opened to, and fronted the Pacific Ocean, and the town contained about 7000 families.
In the year 1751, this unfortunate city was overwhelmed by an earthquake, and by the matter from the volcano, which is called the Volcan de Guatimala. Notwithstanding this awful calamity, the surviving inhabitants ventured to rebuild their favourite abode; but direful to relate, another and a more tremendous convulsion again destroyed the devoted place in the year 1775. The greater part of the inhabitants were buried in the ruins, and the whole circumstance was one of the most tremendous and calamitous ever known. The city was again rebuilt shortly afterwards, on the spot on which it now stands, which is twenty-five geographical miles to the southward of the Old Town. It is a magnificent place, adorned with churches and monasteries, and an university reckoned one of the best in the empire. The women have been celebrated for their beauty, and the people altogether for their suavity of manners and courteous disposition. The moisture of the climate has been stated as a cause of the beauty and delicacy of the females.
The number of inhabitants in this city has been computed at about 19,000.