The Spanish inhabitants formed the belief that this unusual disaster must have been caused by movements of a miraculous nature, and that the eruption of a volcano throwing out floods of water was a punishment inflicted upon them on account of their sins. They thought that evil spirits had been permitted to cast loose upon them the penalties of fire, water and earthquake. Bernal Diaz who a few years afterwards resided at La Antigua Guatemala, gives in his History of the Conquest a vivid but imaginative description of the horrors of that night, based upon statements made by the bishop of the diocese. He reports that during the tempest great stones were rolled down the mountain and into the city by numbers of demons (muchos demonios,) and that many people heard shouts, yells, and voices, and saw two monstrous black men moving in the rolling waters, calling out, “Forsake everything, for the end of all things is at hand.”[58] Various theories have been suggested in explanation of this outburst of water from the volcano. It is supposed that the crater may have contained a large volume of water, which after the excessive rainfall of the year exerted such pressure as to burst open the inclosing sides and that the contents were suddenly set free. If this theory is accepted as being correct, it must be granted that the interior of the crater was sufficiently compact to enable it to be water-tight, and consequently capable of becoming a small reservoir or lake. It is possible that the Volcan de Agua may have been for a long time extinct, and that consequently the sides of the interior of the crater gradually became impermeable. Under ordinary circumstances the materials of which volcanic cones are formed, would not be capable of retaining great quantities of water.[59] I believe that the destruction of La Vieja Guatemala by the action of a vast torrent of water issuing from a volcano is the only instance that is known of such an extraordinary event, and it can be well understood how it happened that the superstitious residents in that capital felt assured that such a catastrophe must have been the work of demons and the powers of darkness. The second city was placed in a position where there was less liability to injury from any eruption, but it suffered so constantly from the shocks of numerous and successive earthquakes, that it was abandoned after having been occupied for more than two centuries. The present capital was established in 1775. The Volcan de Fuego is still occasionally active, and not many years before I passed near it, flames and dense volumes of smoke were reported to have come out of the crater, but no serious eruptions have taken place in this century. In the last century several occurred, and upon one occasion the city was enveloped in complete darkness during the greater part of the day. At the present time the volcanoes look down upon the ruined cities with grandeur and repose.