For exceptions to the doctrine here suggested see Notes on the last paper.
NOTE UPON A PAPER OF THE HONOURABLE CAPTAIN FITZROY'S ON THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA,
PUBLISHED
IN THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.
NOVEMBER 25. 1850.
On the Language of Central America.
In Yucatan the structure and details of the language are sufficiently known, and so are the ethnological affinities of the tribes who speak it. This language is the Maya tongue, and its immediate relations are with the dialects of Guatemala. It is also allied to the Huasteca spoken so far N. as the Texian frontier, and separated from the other Maya tongues by dialects of the Totonaca and Mexican. This remarkable relationship was known to the writers of the Mithridates.
In South America the language begins to be known when we reach the equator; e. g. at Quito the Inca language of the Peruvian begins, and extends as far south as the frontier of Chili.
So much for the extreme points; between which the whole, intermediate space is very nearly a terra incognita.