Chapter 1 shows the varied ways in which colonial administrative traditions approached the study of landscape. Through the case study of the discovery of Maya ruins near Palenque in Chiapas in the 1780s, it examines the way officials and scholars within the Guatemala City government understood and recorded information about manmade and natural landscapes. It argues that concerns about Central American environments, including the threat of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, informed the explorations of this site, illuminating the extent to which concerns about natural factors influenced day-to-day understandings of landscapes and the practice of governance in Central America. These practices in turn established powerful models for the work of later reformers. The methodologies of information-gathering and the debates about the site also highlighted the idea of economic improvement through harnessing existing natural resources. This was central to the economic thought of the Bourbon reforms, which was clearly widespread across Guatemala at this time. Officials, engineers, and scholars ‘read’ from the landscape: Palenque’s landscapes were seen throughout the period as key to questions of its past glory and future potential.