For the parts about the Lake of Nicaragua, the chief authority is Mr. Squier; a writer with whom we differ in certain points, but, nevertheless, a writer who has given us both materials and results of great value. The languages represented, for the first time, by his vocabularies are four in number, of which three are wholly new, whilst one gives us a phenomenon scarcely less important than an absolutely fresh form of speech; viz. the proof of the occurrence of a known language in a new, though not unsuspected, locality.
To these four a fifth may be added; but; as that is one already illustrated by the researches of Henderson, Cotheal and others, it does not come under the category of new material. This language is that of the
Indians of the Mosquito coast.—Respecting these Mr. Squier commits himself to the doctrine that they are more or less Carib. They may be this in physiognomy. They may also be so in respect to their civilization, or want of civilization; and perhaps this is all that is meant, the words of our author being, that "upon the low alluvions, and amongst the dense dank forests of the Atlantic coast, there exist a few scanty, wandering tribes, maintaining a precarious existence by hunting and fishing, with little or no agriculture, destitute of civil organization, with a debased religion, and generally corresponding with the Caribs of the islands, to whom they sustain close affinities. A portion of their descendants, still further debased by the introduction of negro blood, may still be found in the wretched Moscos or Mosquitos. The few and scattered Melchoras, on the river St. Juan, are certainly of Carib stock, and it is more than probable that the same is true of the Woolwas, Ramas, Toacas, and Poyas, and also of the other tribes on the Atlantic coast, further to the southward, towards Chiriqui Lagoon, and collectively denominated Bravos."—Central America and Nicaragua, ii. pp. 308-309.
Nevertheless, as has been already stated, the language is other than Carib. It is other than Carib, whether we look to the Moskito or the Woolwa vocabularies. It is other than Carib, and admitted by Mr. Squier to be so. The previous extract has given us his opinion; what follows supports it by his reasons. "I have said that the Indians of the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua, the Moscos and others, were probably of Carib stock. This opinion is founded not only upon the express statements of Herrara, who says that 'the Carib tongue was much spoken in Nicaragua,' but also upon their general appearance, habits and modes of life. Their language does not appear to have any direct relationship with that of the Southern Caribs, but is, probably, the same, or a dialect of the same with that spoken around what is now called Chiriqui Lagoon, near the Isthmus of Panama, and which was originally called Chiribiri or Chraibici, from which comes Gomera's Caribici, or Carib." In a note we learn that "thirteen leagues from the Gulf of Nicoya, Oviedo speaks of a village called Carabizi, where the same language was spoken as at Chiriqui," &c.
Of the Melchora we have no specimens. For each and every tribe, extant or extinct, of the Indians about the Chiriqui Lagoon we want them also. The known vocabularies, however, for the parts nearest that locality are other than Carib.
Let us, however, look further, and we shall find good reasons for believing that certain populations of the parts in question are called, by the Spaniards of their neighbourhood, Caribs, much in the same way that they, along with nine-tenths of the other aborigines of America, are called Indians by us. "The region of Chantales," writes Mr. Squier, "was visited by my friend Mr. Julius Froebel, in the summer of this year (1851). He penetrated to the head-waters of the Rio Mico, Escondido, or Blue-fields, where he found the Indians to be agriculturalists, partially civilized, and generally speaking the Spanish language. They are called Caribs by their Spanish neighbours," &c. But their language, of which Mr. Froebel collected a vocabulary, published by Mr. Squier, is, like the rest, other than Carib.
It may, then, safely be said, that the Carib character of the Moskito Indians, &c. wants confirmation.
Nicaragua. A real addition to our knowledge is supplied by M. Squier concerning the Nicaraguans. The statement of Oviedo as to the tribes between the Lake of Nicaragua and the Pacific, along with the occupants of the islands in the lake itself, being Mexican rather than indigenous, he confirms. He may be said to prove it; since he brings specimens of the language (Niquiran, as he calls it), which is as truly Mexican as the language of Sydney or New York is English.
The Mexican character of the Nicaraguan language is a definite addition to ethnographical philology. It may now be considered as settled, that one of the languages of the parts under notice is intrusive, and foreign to its present locality.
The remaining vocabularies represent four indigenous forms of speech; these (three of them of Mr. Squier's own earliest publication, and one known before) being—