COMAYAGUA  , the

capital of the department of Comayagua in central Honduras, on the right bank of the river Ulua, and on the interoceanic railway from Puerto Cortes to Fonseca Bay . Pop.., (1900) about 8000 . Comayagua occupies part of a fertile valley, enclosed by mountain ranges . Under Spanish rule it was a city of considerable size and beauty, and in 1827 its in-habitants numbered more than 18,000 . A fine cathedral, dating from 1715, is the chief monument of its former prosperity, for most of the handsome public buildings erected in the colonial period have fallen into disrepair . The present city chiefly consists of low adobe houses and cane huts, tenanted by Indians . The university founded in 1678 has ceased to exist, but there is a school of jurisprudence . In the neighbourhood are many ancient Indian ruins (see CENTRAL, AMERICA: Archaeology) . Founded in 1540 by Alonzo Caceres, who had been instructed by the Spanish government to find a site for a city midway between the two oceans, Valladolid la Nueva, as the town was first named, soon became the capital of Honduras.' It received the privileges of a city in 1557, and was made an episcopal see in 1561 . Its decline dates from 1827, when it was burned by revolutionaries; and in 1854 its population had dwindled to 2000 . It afterwards suffered through war and rebellion, notably in 1872 and 1873, when it was besieged by the Guatemalans . In 188o Tegucigalpa (q.v.), a city 37 M. east-south-east, superseded it as the capital of Honduras .