274. The Naturalist in Nicaragua 
embraced the Christian religion, being baptised himself 
along with all his people, six thousand in number. 
Pushing on to the northward for fifty leagues, Gonzales 
entered the territories of a great chief named Nicaragua, 
whose country comprised the present province of Rivas. 
Nicaragua had been informed of “the sharpness of the 
Spanish swords” and received Gonzales with hospitality, 
presenting him with much gold, equal to “25,000 pieces 
of eight,’ and garments and plumes of feathers. He asked 
the Spaniards many shrewd questions: about the flood, 
and about the sun, moon, and stars; their motion, quality, 
and distance; what was the cause of night and day and the 
blowing of the winds? how the Spaniards got all their 
information about heaven; who brought it to them, and 
if the messenger came down on a rainbow? We are told 
that ‘“‘ Gonzales answered to the best of his ability, com- 
mending the rest to God.” Probably his interrogator knew 
more of the visible heavenly bodies than he did, for Nicaragua 
was of the Aztec race, a people who knew the true theory 
of eclipses, and possessed an astronomical calendar of great 
accuracy. 
Pedrarias, who was then in command at Panama, stimu- 
lated by the accounts of the rich country that Gonzales had 
discovered, sent Hernando de Cordova in 1522 to subdue 
and settle the country of Nicaragua. Pascual de Andagoya 
tells the story of the rich land, “ populous and fertile, yielding 
supplies of maize, and many fowls of the country, and 
certain small dogs which they also eat, and many deer and 
fish. This is a land of abundance of good fruits and of honey 
and wax, wherewith all the neighbouring countries are 
supplied. The bees are numerous, some of them yellow, 
and these do not sting.” The poor Indians, too, could not 
sting, they were powerless with their coats of feathers and 
swords of stone against the arms of the Spaniards, who 
treated them like a hive of stingless bees, turning them out 
and eating up their riches. ‘‘ They had a great quantity 
of cotton cloths, and they held their markets in the open 
squares, where they traded. They had a manufactory 
where they made cordage of a sort of meguen, which is like 
carded flax; the cord was beautiful and stronger than that 
of Spain, and their cotton canvas was excellent. The 
