Early Sunday morning we went to the Plaza, and from the second story of the cabildo photographed both the great volcanoes Agua and Fuego. Directly before us were the ruins of the palace of the Viceroy, the arms of Spain carved in the stone, which still stands firmly, a century after the terrible earthquake which shattered the rest of the building and ruined the whole city. On the left stood the roofless cathedral, and dotted thickly over the plain were other ruined churches,—eighty, it is said,—which looked as if recently demolished. We had our _bestias_ saddled, and rode over to Ciudad Vieja, distant about a league. This was the second city founded by Alvarado (Tecpan Quatemalan being the first), and destroyed, together with the widow of the Conquistador, in 1541, by the earthquake and torrent of water from the ancient crater of Agua. The town is small enough now. After watching a man make _roquetas_ (rockets),[22] we rode to the Baños de Medina, which we had some difficulty in finding; we took, however, at last a short cut through a coffee plantation where the berries were large and ripening. The baths are in a small house of several rooms. The one Frank and I occupied had a large tank, deep enough for a swim; the water was slightly sulphurous, and but a few degrees warmer than the atmosphere. It was well worth the real it cost us. In the afternoon we strolled among the ruins of Antigua, which are very fascinating. All the churches were of solid masonry, with vaulted roofs,—some still entire, and supporting a mass of vegetation, among which the Phytolacca was common. The outlay of money in building all these elaborate churches must have been enormous for material and transportation (many of the tiles being Spanish), although the actual labor was by unpaid slaves. We were told strange stories of the skeletons of mother and child found walled in a church; tunnels connecting the churches and nunneries just outside the city; infant skeletons in a vault of one of the nunneries, etc. With these romantic associations in mind, we poked hither and thither among the mighty ruins; but we found only the curiosities of architecture (of these there were enough to occupy me many days) and the traces the treasure-hunters had left in the walls. Frank found in one of the vaults a well-drawn fresco covered with a thick coat of whitewash, and we tried to pry off a portion; but could not succeed without too much damaging it. Horses were pasturing on the grass-grown roof of a part of one of the churches, and a few had portions still in use as places of worship, while another was occupied by a blacksmith. In one of these we saw some finely carved wooden panels. All about the city eucalyptus-trees had been planted. The roads are very good, and the _alameda_, or public promenade, is attractive. The corner houses often had most comfortable projecting windows, so placed that one could see in both streets at once. [Illustration: Ruined Church in Antigua.]