The Chontales of Oaxaca lived on the Pacific coast on the Cordillera in that State, in the Sierra Quiegolani. They were brought under instruction in the latter part of the sixteenth century by Father Diego Carranza, who labored among them for twelve years with gratifying success, and wrote a Doctrina, Sermones and Ejercicios Espirituales in their language.[186] Unfortunately these works are no longer to be found, and the only specimen of their idiom which I have obtained is a vocabulary of 23 words, collected by John Porter Bliss in 1871. This is too limited to admit of positive identification; but it certainly shows several coincidences with the Yuma linguistic stock.[187] Provisionally, however, I give it the name of Tequistlatecan, from the principal village of the tribe, where Father Carranza built his church. The Chontales of Guerrero were immediately adjacent to those of Oaxaca, in the same Sierra, and there is every reason to believe that they belonged to the same family; and from their location, history and associations, I do not doubt that Orozco y Berra was right in placing the Triquis in the same family.[188]
The Chontales of Tabasco occupied most of the basin of the Rio Grijalva. Herrera states that their language was that in general use in the province, being richer in words than the Zoque, or the provincial Mexican which has been introduced.[189] This leads us to believe that it was a Maya dialect, a supposition confirmed by a MS. vocabulary obtained by the late Dr. C. H. Berendt. By this it is seen that the Chontal of Tabasco is a member of the numerous Maya family, and practically identical with the Tzendal dialect.[190]
In Nicaragua two entirely different peoples have been called Chontales. The first of these is also sometimes mentioned as Popolucas. Their tongue is, or a generation ago was, current in and around the city of Matagalpa and in various hamlets of the departments of Matagalpa, Segovia and Chontales. The only specimen I know of it is a vocabulary, obtained in 1874 by the Rev. Victor Noguera, and supplied by him to Dr. Berendt. It contains a small percentage of words from the neighboring dialects, but in the mass is wholly different, and I consider it an independent stock, to which I give the name Matagalpan.
The second Chontales of Nicaragua are those mentioned as Chontal-lencas by M. Désiré Pector, and are none other than the Lencas described by Mr. E. G. Squier.
The Chontal of Honduras is located geographically in those regions where the Chorti dialect of the Maya stock prevails, and there is no reasonable doubt but that it is Chorti and nothing more.
The Chontales described by Mr. E. G. Squier as living in the mountains north of Lake Nicaragua, about the sources of the Blewfield river, and of whose language he gives a short vocabulary,[191] are proved by this to be members of the extensive family of the Ulvas.
Of the various tribes called Popolocas, that living at the period of the conquest in and near Puebla was the most important. Their chief city was Tecamachcalco, and they occupied most of the old province of Tepeaca. We can form some idea of their number from the statement that in the year 1540 Father Francisco de las Navas visited their country for missionary purposes, and in less than two months converted (!) and baptized 12,000 of them, and this without any knowledge of their language.[192] The first who did obtain a familiarity with it was Francisco de Toral, afterwards first bishop of Yucatan. He described it as most difficult, but nevertheless succeeded in reducing it to rules and wrote an Arte y Metodo of it, now unfortunately lost.[193] Its relationship has remained obscure. De Laet asserted that it was merely a corrupt dialect of the Nahuatl;[194] while Herrera was informed by his authorities that it was a wholly different tongue.[195] In this opinion he was right. In 1862 Dr. Berendt succeeded in obtaining a short vocabulary of it as it is still spoken at Oluta, Tesistepec, San Juan Volador and the neighboring country. A comparison shows that it belongs to the Mixe family. The ancient province of Tepeaca adjoined directly the territory of the Mixes, and this identification proves that their tongue was more important and extended much more widely than has hitherto been supposed. It was spoken, therefore, by the Tlapanecos, Coviscas and Yopes, who were located in this region.
The Popoloca of Oaxaca is an entirely different tongue. It is mentioned as identical with the Chochona, and some have supposed this dialect, in which we have a Catecismo by Father Roldan, was the same as the Popoloca of Tepeaca. This is an error. As I have said, the first missionary to master and write about the latter was Father Toral, who wrote his Arte about 1561; but more than ten years before that, to wit, in 1550, Father Benito Fernandez had printed in the city of Mexico his Doctrina en Lengua Misteca, and had composed variants in the Tepuzcolola and Chochona dialects of that tongue.[196] The Chochona or Popoloca, of Oaxaca, belongs to the Zapotec-Mixtec, and not to the Zoque-Mixe family.
The Popolocas who lived in and near Michoacan were also called Tecos, and Orozco y Berra enumerates the language they spoke, the Teca, among those which are extinct.[197] The name Tecos, however, was merely an abbreviated form of Cuitlatecos, and was applied to the conquered Nahuatl population around Michoacan. In some of the old glossaries teco is explained by Mexicano.[198] The language they spoke belonged to the Nahuatl branch of the Uto-Aztecan stock.
The Popolocas of Guatemala were located at the close of the eighteenth century in two curacies widely apart.[199] One of these was Yanantique, partido of San Miguel, province of San Salvador, and contained the villages Conchagua and Intipuca. Now Intipuca is a Lenca name, as stated by Mr. Squier, and we are thus authorized to identify these Popolocas with the Lencas. The other Popolocas were at and near Conguaco in the partido of Guazacapan, province of Escuintla, where they lived immediately adjacent to the Xincas. Dr. Otto Stoll identifies them with the Mixes, but by an error, as he mistook the vocabulary collected by Dr. Berendt of the Popoloca of Oluta, for one of the Popoloca of Conguaco.[200] What language is spoken there I do not know, as I have not been able to find a word in it in any of my authorities.