Nicaraguan Antiquities

SWEDISH SOCIETY OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY
CARL BOVALLIUS
STOCKHOLM, 1886 KONGL. BOKTRYCKERIET P. A. NORSTEDT & SÖNER
TO THE ROYAL ANTIQUARY OF SWEDEN
Dr. HANS HILDEBRAND
THIS WORK, THE PUBLICATION OF WHICH HAS BEEN POSSIBLE ONLY BY HIS KIND EXERTIONS, IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR.

Although this sketch is certainly not the place for an account of the history of Central America or Nicaragua, yet I may be permitted to give a brief statement of those few and disconnected notices that we possess with regard to the nations inhabiting Nicaragua at that period, when the antiquities here spoken of were probably executed. The sources of our knowledge of these people and their culture are, besides the above quoted work of Squier, the old Spanish chroniclers, Oviedo, Torquemada, Herrera, and Guarros, the memoirs of Las Casas and Peter Martyr, the relation of Thomas Gage, and scattered notices in the works of Gomara, Ixtlilxochitl, Dampier a. o.
At the time of the Spanish invasion under the command of Don Gil Gonzales de Avila in the years 1521 and 1522, the region now occupied by the republic of Nicaragua and the north-eastern part of the republic of Costa Rica, was inhabited by Indian nations of four different stocks, which very probably may be considered as being of different origin and having immigrated into the country at widely separated periods.
Between this strip of country on the eastern shore and the two great lakes, Xolotlan (Managua) and Cocibolca (the lake of Nicaragua), the intermediate highland, which shelves gradually towards the lakes, was inhabited by los Chontales, as they are denominated by Oviedo. The name is still preserved in «Departemento de Chontales». They lived in large villages and towns and were agriculturists. Possibly they were of the same stock as, or closely related to, the large Maya-family which extended over the eastern parts of Honduras and Guatemala and furnished the population of Yucatan. This guess acquires a certain probability by the fact of several words in their language being similar to the corresponding ones in some Maya-dialects. The Poas, Toacas, Lacandones, and Guatusos may possibly be their descendants. These also are living at a decidedly lower stage of civilization than their supposed ancestors.