LXXXV. BOOK place is Guaguetlan, produces the best cocoa of all America; but very little of it is met with in commerce.* In the district of Quesaltenango, very fine alum and sulphur are found. Solola produces the best figs in the kingdom, and a good deal of cotton is spun there. Two volcanoes are met with in the vicinity, the one called Atitan, and the other Solola. The district of Suchitepec, fertile in annotto, is subject to excessive rains. Province of Ancient CO. In the interior of the kingdom of Guatimala, is situated the province of Chiapa. The Indians of Chiapa once formed a state which was independent of the emperors of MexiThis republic perhaps merited the second place after that of Tlascala for its progress in civilization, and still more especially for its manufacturing industry. The Chiainhabitants panese adopted the calendar and chronological system of the Mexicans; but their mythology is distinguished by a deified hero named Votan, to whom one day of the week was consecrated. This is almost the only resemblance which this Chiapanese divinity bore to the Woden of the Saxons, and the Odin of the Scandinavians. This people defended themselves with courage against the Spaniards, and obtained honourable terms of capitulation from their conquerors. Happily the soil of Chiapa is not rich in mines, a circumstance which has secured to the natives the preservation of their liberty, and the privileges which had been granted them. Modern travellers have not visited this isolated country, where, two centuries ago, Thomas Gage found a happy, social, and industrious people. Chiapa of the Indians reckoned four thousand families, while its woollen manufactories, its trade in cochineal, and its naumachia, or mock fights, celebrated on the river, all combined to render it an animated and delightful town. The Chiapa of the Spaniards, ten times less populous, was the seat of a governor and of an archbishop. These relations are repeat The Bishop of La Vega, quoted by M. de Humboldt. Views and Moruments, p. 148. ed in every geographical work for want of something better. It is proper, however, to make known their date. BOOK LXXXV. Province of tions. A Spanish geographical dictionary gives recent and curious details respecting the province of Vera Paz, which, on Vera Paz. the north, borders that of Yucatan, and on the west, Chiapa. The capital of Vera Paz is called Coban. It rains nine months in the year in this province; and the country Remarkaabounds in fruit and flocks of sheep. In the forests very ble produc large trees are met with, from which a fragrant odour is diffused, and odoriferous resin distils. Different varieties of gum, balsam, incense, and dragon's blood are also collected. Canes of a hundred feet long are found, and of such a thickness, that from one knot to another twenty-five pounds of water are contained. The bees of this region make a very liquid honey, which, after becoming acid, is made use of, they say, instead of orange juice. The forests are infested with wild animals, amongst which Alcedo distinguishes the Tapir or Danta. When enraged, the animal shows his teeth like the wild boar, and, it is asserted, cuts through the strongest tree. Its skin is six fingers thick, and, when dried, resists every kind of weapon. Very large bears are also met with. vince of The province of Honduras is very little known. It ex- The protends from that of Vera Paz to that of Nicaragua. The Honduras. first Spanish navigators perceiving a great number of pompions floating down the banks of the river, called it the Coast of Hibueras, that is to say, the Coast of Pompions. The most western part of this province contains the little Spanish towns of Comayagua and of Truxillo. The latter of these has been built near a lake, where floating is- Floating lands, covered with large trees, move from place to place at the discretion of the wind. Near the river Sibun caverns have been discovered, or rather immense subterranean galleries, which run under several mountains, and appear to Dictionary of Alcedo, at the word Vera Paz. Probably the hardest wood, in the Spanish original. Ed. islands, BOOK have been hollowed out by ancient currents.* The inteLXXXV. rior of the country is inhabited by a savage and ferocious Indians, nation, the Mosquito-Sambos. The coasts, especially near Cape Gracias a Dios, are occupied by another tribe of Indians, whom the English navigators denominate the Coast Mosquitoes. This appellation originates in the insupportable cloud of musquitoes, or stinging flies, that here torment the wretched inhabitants, and compel them to pass one Mosquito part of the year in boats on the river. The Mosquito Indians of the coast, a tribe governed by aristocratic chiefs, do not reckon more than fifteen hundred warriors. We are unacquainted with their notions of religion; but, according to the older voyagers, they divided the year into eighteen months and twenty days, and they termed the months Ioalar, that is to say, a moveable thing,-a very remarkable denomination, because it evidently approaches the word Iol, by which the ancient Scandinavians designated the feast that terminated the year,—a term apparently analogous with wheel or cycle. Similar divisions of the year into eighteen months prevailed among the Aztecs of Mexico. Each month consisted of twenty days, and five complimentary days were added at the end of the year, which was denominated Cempohualilhuitl, from cempohualli, twenty, and ilhuitl, festival. The cazique of these Mosquitoes who inhabit the coast between Black River and Cape Gracios a Dios, lately sold or transferred that territory to a person of the name of Gregor MacGregor, who had attained some notoriety in the late Columbian struggle for liberty. His feeble attempts at colonising this dreary region have ended in disappointment, and in the total ruin of the settlers, many of whom sunk under the combined effects of climate and the horrors of despair. At Balise the English keep up establishments, which render them masters of the country. In 1800 and 1801, the Spaniards attacked these posts, but found them too well defended and English establishments. * Henderson, Account of Honduras. Humboldt, Researches, Eng. vol. I. p. 281. too well supplied to be taken by surprise, as they had vain- BOOK ly flattered themselves. It is to the unfortunate Colonel LXXXV. Despard, and to the great Nelson, that England is indebted for the systematic arrangement which is established in these little colonies. In 1769 they exported 800,000 feet of mahogany, 200.000 lbs. of sarsaparilla, and 10,000 lbs. of tortoise shell, besides tiger and deer skins. The province of Nicaragua would deserve, for itself Province of alone, a more extended topographical account than we can Nicaragua, devote to all Mexico together: but when recent and authentic materials are wanting, a judicious criticism would never think of idly repeating all the details that are met with in the ancient narratives. The elevation and direction of the mountains, in this part of the Mexican isthmus, are still very little known. According to the respectable testimony of Gomara,* and almost all the accounts and maps that have been published, the great lake of Nicara- Lake of gua, covered with beautiful and populous islands-amongst Nicaragua. which only one contains a volcano, named Omo, that always continues burning-has no outlet towards the South Sea; all its waters descending by the river St. John, in the direction of the North or Atlantic Sea. This river, the scene of Nelson's earliest exploits, forms about thirty inconsiderable falls before it reaches the marshy shores of the sea, where a pestilential air, and Indians, distinguished alike for their perfidy of character, and the ferocity of their disposition, fill the most intrepid navigators with alarm. The lake, then, is situated on a plateau, but at what elevation? "The coast of Nicoya," says Dampier, "is low, and covered with shrubs. To reach San Leon de Nicaragua one must walk twenty miles across a flat country, covered with mangroves, pasture land, and plantations of the sugar cane." These remarks of a judicious observer appear to indicate that there is no considerable chain of mountains between the Lake of Nicaragua and the Pacific Ocean.§ *Gomara, Historia de las Indias, ch. 202. Dampier, Voyage, I. p. 231-233. + MS. Notes of M. Dubécé. See page 283, above. Volcano of BOOK The physical geography of this country is unquestionably LXXXV. possessed of great interest, and yet it is totally neglected. Among the numerous volcanoes of this country, that of Masaya. Masaya, three leagues (Castilian,) from Granada, and ten from Leon, appears to be the most considerable. Its crater, which is half a league in circumference, and 250 fathoms in depth, ejects neither cinders nor smoke. The matter, which is perpetually boiling within it, diffuses so intense a light through the air that it is visible at the distance of twenty leagues. So much, in fact, does it resemble gold in a state of fusion, that the first Spaniards actually supposed it to be this metal, the object of their anxious search; and stimulated by their avaricious temerity, vainly attempted to seize, with iron hooks, some of this very singular lava.* Productions. Indigenous their idi No mines have as yet been discovered in the province of Nicaragua; but it is fertile in every description of fruit, and abounds in large and small cattle, especially in mules and horses. They also carry on a great trade in cotton, honey, wax, anise-seed, sugar, cochineal, cocoa, salt, fish, amber, turpentine, and petroleum, together with different balsams and medicinal drugs. The palm trees grow to a colossal size. Leon, the capital, is situated on the marginof a lake, which empties itself into the Nicaragua. Its inhabitants, rich, voluptuous, and indolent, derive but little advantage from the excellent port of Realejo, formed by a bay of the south sea. The town of Nicaragua, not far from the gulf of Papagaio; that of Granada, on the lake of Nicaragua; and that of Xeres, near the gulf of Fonseca, covered with wooded islands, have the reputation of being considerable towns; but we have no recent and authentic description of them. The indigenous natives of Nicaragua speak five differnatives; ent languages. The Chorotec, seems to be that of the oms, laws, principal indigenous tribe. It bears no kind of affinity with the Aztec or Mexican, which had been rendered and cus toms. Gomara, chap. CCIII. |