“At the bottom of the crater could be seen a place perfectly round, and large enough to contain a hundred cavaliers, who could play at fencing and have more than a thousand spectators; it would hold even more than that, were it not for another crater in the middle of it, inclining a little to the south, which can be very distinctly seen. It appeared to me to be from forty to sixty fathoms in depth and fourteen or fifteen paces in circumference. It might be much more; for I viewed the opening from a very high point, and the depth from a still higher point. On the north side, the crater is three times as far from the interior wall of the volcano as on the south side. “Happening to be at Valladolid in 1548, at the court of the prince N. S. Don Rodrigo de Contreras, who was once governor of this province, he told me that the depth of the volcano had been measured in his presence, and found to be one hundred and thirty fathoms; and from the bottom to the burning fluid, forty fathoms more; but a circumstance, mentioned to me by the commander, Fr. Francis de Bobadilla, still more astonished me, viz.: that when he ascended to the crater of Masaya, with some other persons, the holes were in the middle of the place, and the burning matter had risen to within four fathoms of the top; and yet six months had not elapsed since my journey. I am of the opinion, however, that he told the truth; for besides his being a man worthy of belief, I have heard Machuca say that he had seen the burning matter rise even with the top. “I said that I beheld at the bottom of the second crater a fire, which was as liquid as water, and of the color of brass. This fire appeared to me more violent than any I had ever seen before, and entirely covered the bottom of the crater. From time to time this matter rose into the air with great force, hurling large masses to a height of many feet, as it appeared to me. Sometimes these masses were arrested on the sides of the crater, and remained there, before becoming extinguished, time enough to repeat the _credo_ six times, and then looked like the scoriæ of a forge. I cannot believe that a Christian could behold this spectacle unmindful of hell, and unrepentant of his sins; particularly whilst comparing this vein of sulphur with the eternal grandeur of everlasting fire which awaits those who are ungrateful to God!