4 INTKODUCTION. 



Repeated and glowing descriptions have been given of the beauty of the 

 scenery and the fertility of the soil of the Pacific slope of Nicaragua, while the 

 little known valley of the Tempisque and the region around the gulf of Nicoya 

 are hardly inferior to it in either respect. The Spanish conquerors found both 

 sections occupied by large populations engaged in the pursuit of peaceful arts 

 and industries. Dr. Berendt, a great explorer and student of the ancient inhab- 

 itants of Central America, in the light of the philological results obtained by 

 Squier and himself, and of the traditions preserved especially by Oviedo, Her- 

 rera, and Torquemada, believed that the Cholutecas, Chorotegas, Dirians, and 

 Orotinans were descendants of people who emigrated from Cholula, Mexico. 

 These people possessed the major portion of the country from Fonsecato Nicoya, 

 their territorial continuity being interrupted in the neighborhood of the present 

 Leon by the Marabios, and again by an Aztec colony occupying the narrowest 

 part of the belt between the Pacific and Lake Nicaragua, and the islands of the 

 lake. The king and the capital of the latter nation bore the name of Nicarao.* 

 The ancient inhabitants of this whole region left abundant relics of their civili- 

 zation in mounds, burial places, &c. 



The antiquities so far discovered in Nicaragua have been almost all on the 

 Pacific slope, where the conditions are more favorable for the development of 

 large populations. 



* Address road before the American Geographical Society, July 10th, 1876, by Dr. C. H. Berendt. 



