Besides the vocabulary of the Nagrandan of Mr. Squier, there is a grammatical sketch by Col. Francesco Diaz Zapata.
Veragua—We pass now from the researches of Mr. Squier in Nicaragua to those of Mr. B. Seemann, Naturalist to the Herald, for the Isthmus of Panama. The statement of Colonel Galindo, in the Journal of the Geographical Society, that the native Indian languages of Honduras, Nicaragua, San Salvador, and Costarica, had been replaced by the Spanish, has too implicitly been adopted; by no one, however, more so than the present writer. The same applies to Veragua.
Here, Dr. Seemann has supplied:—
1. The Savaneric, from the northernmost part of Veragua.
2. The Bayano, from the river Chepo.
3. The Cholo, widely spread in New Grenada. This is the same as Dr. Cullen's Yule.
Specimens of the San Blas, or Manzanillo Indians, are still desiderated, it being specially stated that the number of tribes is not less than four, and the four languages belonging to them as different.
All that can at present be said of the specimens before us is, that they have miscellaneous, but no exact and definite affinities.
Mexicans of Nicaragua. From the notice of these additions to our data for Central America in the way of raw material, we proceed to certain speculations suggested by the presence of the Mexicans of Nicaragua in a locality so far south of the city of Mexico as the banks and islands of the lake of that name.
First as to their designation. It is not Astek (or Asteca), as was that of the allied tribes of Mexico. Was it native, or was it only the name which their neighbours gave them? Was it a word like Deutsch (applied to the population of Westphalia, Oldenburg, the Rhine districts, &c.), or a word like German and Allemand? Upon this point no opinion is hazarded.