40 COLUMBIAN HISTORICAL EXPOSITION AT MADRID. 



On the shores of the Pacific, in the peninsula of Nicoya, in all that territory which 

 now constitutes the province of Guanacaste, and embracing all the vicinity of the 

 gulf of Nicoya to the point of Herradura, lived the Chorotegas or Mangues, divided 

 into various tribes or chieftancies, feudataries of the Cacique of Nicoya, to wit, 

 Diria, Cangen, Zapanci, Pococi, Paro, Orotina, and Chorotega, properly so called, in 

 the valley of the Rio Grande. By the side of these dwelt the immigrant Nahoas, who 

 carried this far the arts and traditions of the Aztecs, and the cultivation of cacao, 

 and obtained a supremacy over the previous inhabitants. The Chorotegas spoke 

 the language of the same name, or the Mangue, a branch, if not the trunk and origin, 

 of the Chiapanec. They extended through Nicaragua on the shores of the lakes, 

 and by the way of Nequepio on the gulf of Fonseca or of Chorotega Malalaca, in 

 what now forms the Province of Choluteca, in Honduras, and part of San Miguel, in 

 Salvador, to Chiapas, in which mountaneous region they held the important post of 

 Acala. 



Between Chiapas, which we may call Chorotega-Acala, and Nequepio, or Chorotega- 

 Malalaca, intervened the colonies or provinces of the Nahuas, Cakchiquels, 

 Popolucas, and Pipiles of Guatemala and Salvador, as between Nequepio and Mana 

 gua intervened the Maribioa and Matiares; and between Masaya and Nicoya, the 

 Nahuatl colonies of Nicaragua, sometimes isolated and rulers of the soil, as at 

 Rivas, sometime adjoining or intermingled with the Chorotegas, as in the peninsula 

 of Nicoya. 



Between the Chorotegas of the peninsula and those of the eastern shores of the 

 gulf, that is, between Nicoya and Orotina, were the Corobicies; but owing to the 

 facile communication by water the Chorotegas of both coasts were in frequent 

 relations. 



Geographically the Chorotegas formed five provinces : 



(1) Old Chorotega, their only home, and Orotina, on the east coast of the gulf of 

 Orotina or Nicoya, between the port of La Herradura and the river Avangares. 

 Between the river Avangares and the Zapandi, or Tempisque, were stationed the 

 Corobicies. 



(2) Nicoya, the peninsula of this name, and its prolongation to the lake of Nica 

 ragua, including the towns or chieftancies of Zapandi, Nacaome, Paro, Cangen, 

 Nicopasaya, Pocos, Diria, Papagayo, Namiapi, Orosi. 



(3) Managua, or Mangua, country of the Mangues, called in the Nahuatl language 

 Xolotlan, including the towns of Masaya, Nindiri, Diria, Diriomo, Diriamba, Jino- 

 tepe, Mombacho, Niquinohomo, and Nandaime. 



(4) Nequiepio, or Chorotega-Malalaca, Nacaome, Goascoran, Orocuina. 



(5) Chiapas, or Chorotega-acala, Chiapa, Acala, Suchiapa, Copainala. 



The Nahuas, whose most important colonies controlled the isthmus of Rivas between 

 Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific, were established in Nicoya and spoke the Mexican 

 or Nahuatl language. 



A Mexican colony also existed in the valley of Telorio (valley of the Duy, or of 

 the Mexicans) near the Bay del Almirante, and inhabited the island of Tojar, or 

 Zorobaro (now of Columbus), and the towns of Chicaua, Moyaua, Quequexque, 

 and Corotapa, on the mainland, this being the farthest eastward in Costa Rica, or in 

 Central America, to which the Nahuas reached, so far as existing evidence proves. 



Between the lake of Nicaragua and the gulf of Nicoya, to the east of the volcano 

 of Orosi and the river Tempisque, near longitude 85 west of Greenwich, dwelt the 

 mysterious nation of the Corobicies, or Corbesies, ancestors of the existing Guatusos. 

 To the east of the same meridian were the Votos, occupying the southern shores of 

 the Rio San Juan to the valley of the Sarapiqui. 



To the east of the Sarapiqui, and from the mouths of the San Juan on the Atlantic 

 to the mouth of the river Matina, was the important province of Suerre, belonging 

 to the Guetars, who occupied the ground to Turrialba and Atirro, in the valleys of 

 the Reventazon and the river Suerre or Pacuar. 



