There are besides many special laws, like the Mining Statutes decreed in 1830; the Water Law of 1884 now in force; the Consular Regulations, and others.
By decree of 24th of November, 1863, the decimal system for moneys now in use was adopted. By decree of 10th of July, 1884, the metric system was adopted for weights and measures.
All Costa Ricans between eighteen and fifty years of age are obliged to do military service according to law.
The army is divided into two parts; the first includes, under the head of active service, all soldiers from eighteen to forty years of age; the second comprises all the rest under the head of “Reserve.”
There is a third division, known as the National Guard, including all citizens capable of shouldering arms outside of the foregoing.
XIV.
HISTORY.
Until 1540 Spain reserved for the Crown that part of the territory of Veragua lying west of the portion which had been granted to the heirs of Columbus, but in that year it was erected into a province called Costa Rica. According to the narrative of Colonel G. E. Church, within a period of sixty years from the date of its discovery some ten feeble exploring and colonizing expeditions, mostly from Panama, were fitted out to occupy Costa Rica, but they all proved disastrous, the only result being the exasperation of the natives whom the Spaniards plundered, butchered and treated with signal barbarity.
Between 1560 and 1573 the limits of Costa Rica were defined and confirmed by Philip II., those on the Atlantic Coast being the same as to-day, so far as Nicaragua is concerned.
In 1562 Juan Vasquez de Coronado was named Alcalde and Mayor of the Province of Costa Rica and Veragua. He founded the City of Cartago which remained the capital until 1823.
Up to 1622 fifteen governors succeeded Vasquez, but disappointed in their efforts to find gold, to enslave the Indian population, or to make the country prosperous, they allowed it to lapse into a barbarism far worse than it was at the time of its discovery.