The chief town of Vera-Paz is Coban, or Vera-Paz, situated in north latitude 15° 50ʹ west longitude, 91° 14ʹ; 600 miles south-east of Mexico, on the Rio Coban which falls into the gulf or lake of Dulce.
THE PROVINCE OF NICARAGUA
Is bounded on the north by Honduras, on the east by the Caribbean sea, on the west by Guatimala and the Pacific, and on the south by Costa Rica.
The climate is, generally speaking, salubrious; the summers are hot, but not unhealthy, and in the winter they have much rain and storms.
It is one of the most woody countries of Spanish North America, and where cultivated, extremely fertile, so much so, as to receive the name of the “Garden of America.” When the Spaniards first discovered it, they called it Paraiso de Mahoma, Mahometʼs Paradise, on account of the beauty of the country, and the perfume of the odoriferous plants, with which the soil is covered. Its chief products are flax, hemp, balsams, cotton, sugar, long-pepper, turpentine, liquid amber and Nicaragua-wood, which is a substance used in the dying trade; these, with its silver mines, constitute the chief objects of the labour and traffic of its inhabitants, who carry on a great trade with Panama, &c.
Wheat is not plentiful in Nicaragua, nor is there any great quantity of sheep, but black cattle and hogs are very numerous.
Wild turkeys and parrots occupy, with wild animals, the extensive woods, whilst the sands of some of its rivers furnish gold, which is also found in lumps in this province.
The natives are numerous, and reckoned an industrious and ingenious people, and are particularly skilled in the goldsmithʼs art.
The capital of the province of Nicaragua is Leon, or Leon de Nicaragua, situated on a lake of fresh water, abounding with fish, which is called by the same name, and communicates with the great lake; this town has a mountain near it with a volcano, which has sometimes caused it to suffer by earthquakes. The town is not very large, containing about 1200 houses, with many convents, and four churches. It is the see of a bishop. Its port is Realexo, which is situated near it, and is a fortified town with a good harbour, which has the same name, and is on the Rio Realejo. The river Realejo is so deep and commodious as to be capable of containing 200 sail of vessels. The town has good fortifications and fine docks for building and repairing ships. It has three churches and an hospital. Realexo is in north latitude 12° 45ʹ, 87° 30ʹ west longitude, eighteen miles north-west of Leon. It suffered much from the Buccaneers, as they found it a commodious harbour; the Pacific is shut out by an island which lies across the mouth of the bay, and forms two channels; but the one on the north-west side is the safest and best.
The town of Realexo is unhealthy owing to the marshes and creeks in its neighbourhood; its chief trade consists in cordage, pitch and tar, and in the little commerce it carries on for Leon, of which it is the embarcadero or port.