Note XXXVII‑63 — Chapter XXXVII · GUATEMALA AND CHIAPAS. 1701-1800.

According to Escamilla, Not. Cur., MS., 25-7, the soldiery were guilty of pillaging the convents. Succecion chronologica de los Presidentes que han governado este Reyno de Goatha. Obispos de Goathemala y Noticias Curiosas Cronologicas destas Indias is the title of a manuscript volume in folio of 78 pages, usually attributed to José María Escamilla. It was begun in 1777. It opens with a list of the governors up to that date, taken from the cabildo records of the city of Guatemala. This is followed by a list of bishops and archbishops, though from what source is not stated. Beginning with the dates of the discoveries of America and the South Sea and with the conquests of Mexico, Guatemala, and Peru, a brief chronological list is given of the more important events in Guatemala and its dependent provinces from 1525 to 1762. From the latter date until 1779 the events are described with more fulness, especially the account of the destructive earthquake in 1773, the consequent removal of the city, and the bitter controversy to which it gave rise. It is uncertain whether the author was in Guatemala previous to 1777, as the minuteness with which he describes the events of the preceding four years may have been the result of information obtained from the residents of the city. Nor is there anything to indicate the name of the compiler. The manuscript was presented to the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg in 1856 by Escamilla, according to notes in the handwriting of the abbé on the title-page, and at the end of the volume, and in his Bibliothèque Mexico-Guatemalienne, p. 60. Its chief value is the account of the destruction and rebuilding of Guatemala City.