Guatemala is a republic modelled in form after the United States. It is made up of twenty-two provinces, termed _departmentos_, whose chief officer is called a _jefe politico_ and who is appointed by the president. The _departmentos_ are again subdivided into municipal districts, of which there are three hundred and thirty-one, at the head of which is one or several _alcaldes_, or mayors. Again, for political purposes, the country is divided into thirty-eight electoral districts. There is a congress of deputies elected by the people on the basis of one deputy for each twenty thousand inhabitants. The President is elected by an electoral college for a term of six years. He is not supposed to be re-elected without one term intervening, but this little matter never seems to trouble an ambitious President, for, if Congress is favourable, the law can easily be changed. He has six secretaries and an additional advisory body of nine members of whom a majority are selected by the House of Deputies and the remainder appointed. There has never been a real President, for each one has been a practical dictator, and made the attempt, at least, to run everything his own way. A dictator, however, like Porfirio Diaz, one who was far-sighted enough to see what was for the best interest of his country and had the ability to carry into effect his ideas for the upbuilding of his country, would do far more for Guatemala in her present condition than a man elected president by popular suffrage.
It was curiosity, the mother of science, that became the mother of the new world, gave birth to continents, islands and seas, and gave form as well as boundary to the earth. After the first few discoveries were made the sea soon carried the Spanish galleons to the newly-discovered lands filled with the cavaliers and peasants of that country. These adventurers who carried the flag of Spain into the New World were men of great physical endurance, but possessed of little character, and that little dwarfed by the lust of gold. They were soldiers of fortune who came to destroy and not to create. Even Columbus, who ranked high above the other _conquistadores_ in character, was led to make his first landing on the American mainland by the sight of natives wearing pieces of pure gold suspended around their necks along the shores of the Caribbean Sea. In looking for the source of this gold supply he made an expedition of several weeks in what is now the republic of Honduras, but without profitable results. No serious attempts at colonizing were made until the chief lieutenant of Cortez, Pedro de Alvarado, made his memorable and historic expedition against the Quiché tribe, of the wealth of which people marvellous reports had been brought. Alvarado was a past graduate of the Cortez school of intrigue, deception and duplicity, and soon made himself master of the province which was designated as the Kingdom of Guatemala. He was reckless, impetuous, and merciless; lacking in veracity if not common honesty, but zealous and courageous. His forces comprised one hundred and twenty horsemen, three hundred infantry, including one hundred and thirty cross-bowmen, and twenty thousand picked native warriors. Spain was at once declared the sovereign power and Alvarado was established as the representative of that government. The incidents of the conquest of Mexico were repeated in a smaller and less impressive way since the number of the natives was not so great, and no powerful and advanced tribe such as the Aztecs held sway.