PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 813 



roborative evidence furnisbed by archaeology in support of the tradi- 

 tions of a migration along this coast from the valley of Mexico toward 

 Nicaragua — a migration which was so clearly traced by Dr. C. H. Berendi 

 in his philological investigations. '^ 



VISIT TO COSTA RICA. 



We reached Punta Arenas, Costa Eica, February 16, and on the 

 morning of the 19th embarked on a steam-launch bound uf) the Gulf of 

 Mcoya. We got to the head of the gulf at 3 p. m., and our destination, 

 Bolson, at 6.30 p. m. This place, the port of Santa Crux, is on a creek 

 which empties into the Tempisque. The little steamer arrived at high 

 tide, and had a comfortable bed of mud in which to lie while waiting 

 for the next rise. 



From Bolson, with a man and three horses, the journey to Nicoya 

 was made in seven hours. Found it the same dead Spanish town seen 

 in 1877. A long church at one side of the plaza and rectangular streets, 

 with eight or nine hundred inhabitants of all grades, from the pure 

 Spaniard to the pure Indian. It is a fertile valley, with hills 500 to 800 

 feet high around it. Here was one of the most important towns 

 found in Central America by the conquerors, and if we may judge 

 by the relics with which the ground is sown in every direction we are 

 inclined to credit the stories related by the old chroniclers of dense 

 masses of population that owed allegiance to the cazique of Nicoya. 



Eiding up to the house at which I stopped in 1877, everything seemed 

 as though I had left it but yesterday. The same old blacksmith-shop, 

 and apparently the same old gray horse waiting to be shod. I had the 

 good fortune to secure a room and a raw-hide bed, and madame engaged 

 to feed me. Hernandez reports that no strangers have been here hunt- 

 ing for antiquities since my visit. And as the neighbors drop in one 

 by one I have accounts of huacas enough to keep me at work for years. 

 At Bolson similar reports were made, and subsequent investigations 

 proved that there was no exaggeration in the accounts. 



After two days spent in looking around and settling down, I rode 

 with the padre, the alcalde, and jefe politico to some huacas at Pipal 

 and Ochote, some 4 or 5 miles from Nicoya. There were several slightly 

 raised mounds of loose stones, below which were the relics in shape 

 of human bones, shards, and celts. The padre had made excavations 

 in one or two places, but had not met with conspicuous success in ob- 

 taining entire vessels. The ground was of tough clay, and during the 

 dry season was almost like brick; it was, therefore, rare luck for an 

 object to escape the violence of the blows necessary in digging. 



That night, headache and fever ; next day, quinine and rest. 



The 27th, with the padre and jefe, rode to Las Huacas, where rich 

 fields were reported. The road lay along the valley as far as Matina, 

 whence it began to rise, crossing one or two slight ridges and finally 

 mounting by a steep zigzag some 2,000 feet to the plateau of Las 



