l62 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 92 



This immediate region is occupied by the Sumu Indians at the present 

 time. 



If we consider the area as a whole at the time of the conquest, 

 Maya and Lenca groups appear to have been interspersed in west- 

 central Spanish Honduras. The Lenca appear to have held the greater 

 part of central Honduras and eastern Salvador, extending around 

 the north side of the Gulf of Fonseca on the Pacific coast. The 

 Jicaque occupied the Atlantic region from just west of the Chemilicon 

 River east to the vicinity of Trujillo. The Paya bordered them to the 

 east and the Sumu reached west just across the Patuca River. Scat- 

 tered through central and eastern Honduras at this time were a 

 number of apparently immigrant groups speaking Nahuatl languages. 

 The Miskito territory at that time probably extended north only to 

 about the vicinity of Cape Gracias a Dios. 



Western Nicaragua and Northern Costa Rica 



Thanks to the painstaking excavations and publications of Hart- 

 man, Bransford, and a few others, the archeological outlines of this 

 region are fairly well known.^ From the archeological, and to a 

 certain extent from the physiographic, standpoint this province may 

 be divided into two parts, the Pacific and the Highland regions. The 

 Pacific region includes western Nicaragua and the territory around 

 the Gulf of Nicoya in Costa Rica. The Highland region incorporates 

 the northern interior of Costa Rica and stretches eastward to the 

 Atlantic. In the sixteenth century the Pacific region was occupied in 

 order from north to south by peoples of Nahuatl, Maribio (Sub- 

 tiaban), Chorotegan ( Chiapanecan ) , Nahuatl, and again Chorotegan 

 (Chiapanecan) speech. Of these the Maribio and the Chorotega 

 appear as the oldest occupants, while the Nahuatl peoples seem to have 

 been relatively late comers. In the same period the Highland region 

 was occupied by a number of tribes, commonly designated as the 

 Guetar, speaking Chibchan languages. 



Of the major remains of the Pacific region the large stone statues 

 characteristic of the Nicaraguan Lakes are perhaps the most striking. 

 Bovallius figures many of these. The commonest types include human 



'"* Literature cited: Bransford, 1881 ; Bovallius, 1886; Hartman, 1901, 1907 a, 

 and 1907 b; and Lothrop, 1921 and 1926. The last reference, Lothrop's monu- 

 mental work, " The Pottery of Costa Rica and Nicaragua ", published by the 

 Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, incorporates the results of 

 the earlier studies. Lothrop sums up the historical, linguistic, ethnological, and 

 archeological data, and the present very brief synopsis is for the most part con- 

 densed from his masterly presentation. 



