[1] E. G. Squier, The States of Central America, p. 317 (London, 1858).
[2] The conquest of Nicaragua is described by Oviedo, Historia General de las Indias, Lib. XXIX, cap. XXI, and Herrera, Decadas de Indias, Dec. III, Lib. IV, and see Dec. IV, Lib. VIII, cap. X.
[3] "Nicaragua es lo mismo que Nica anahuac, aqui estan los Mexicanos ò Anahuacos." Fray Francisco Vasquez, Cronica de la Provincia de Guatemala, Parte II, Lib. V, cap. I (Guatemala, 1716). The form Nicarao, adopted by Dr. Berendt, is certainly corrupt, as the termination of a proper name in ao is not found in correct Nahuatl. Squier's term Niquirans was adopted by him from a misreading of Oviedo, and has no authority whatever; so, also, his attempted discrimination between Chorotegans and Cholotecans, as both these are forms of the same word.
[4] "The hypothesis of a migration from Nicaragua and Cuscatlan to Anahuac is altogether more consonant with probabilities, and with traditions, than that which derives the Mexicans from the north."—E. G. Squier. Notes on Central America, p. 349. It is difficult to understand how Mr. Squier could make this statement in the face of the words of Herrera and so many other writers.
[5] "La Gente de esta tierra decia, que havia descendido de la Mexicana; su Trage, i Lengua, era casi, como el de Mexico."—Herrera, Decada III, Lib. V, Cap. XII. "Dicèn, que huvo en los tiempos antiguos, en Nueva España una gran Seca, por lo qúal se fueron por aquella Mar Austral à poblar à Nicaragua."—Id. Dec. III, Lib. IV, cap. VII. Torquemada, specifically quoting the traditions obtained from the oldest natives, states that the Nicaraguans came from Anahuac at no remote epoch.—Monarquia Indiana, Lib. III, cap. XL. See, also, Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 206.
[6] Prof. Buschmann, who obtained these names in a garbled form from Ternaux-Compans' translation of Oviedo, gave them up as insoluble, while recognizing their value as indicating the wanderings of the Nicaraguans. "Unglücklicherweise," he says, "sind jene zwei Namen von so ungünstigem Gehalte, das ich nichts aus ihnen hervorlocken kann."—Ueber die Aztekischen Ortsnamen, p. 768 (Berlin, 1852).
[7] The careless statement of the historian Herrera, that it was only the Chorotegans who had such books, can be corrected from his own volumes, and also from the explicit words of Oviedo and Gomara. Compare Herrera, Dec. III, Lib. IV, cap. VII, with Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, Lib. XLII, cap. I, and Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 202.
[8] The word mánkeme is a derivative from [chi]imá, the head, whence the Chapanec d[chi]ämä, the ruler or head man, and mand[chi]ämä, master, chief, in which word ma is a possessive prefix, and n a particle, sometimes relative, sometimes euphonic, of exceedingly frequent use in this tongue. It may be compared to the Nahuatl in.
[9] This latter, or a portion of them, inhabiting a hilly country south of Masaya, were called Dirians, from the Mangue word diri=, a hill, a name which has improperly been extended to the whole tribe.
[10] The "compulsive" form of the verb choloa, to run away, is chololtia, to cause to run away, to drive out. No doubt the name of Cholula (Cholollan) in Mexico is of the same derivation, but it arose from a different, though similar, historical event.