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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Copyright Keystone View Company 

 THE SMOKING TERROR: MOMOTOMBO VOLCANO, NICARAGUA 



Nicaragua possesses more volcanoes than any other country of its size. The chain of 

 volcanoes extending along the western coast contains many which have been active in recent 

 times, perhaps the most famous being Coseguina at the tip of the peninsula opposite Salvador. 

 This volcano, after slumbering for centuries, suddenly burst into activity in 1835, covering the 

 country with a pall of dust and smoke for four days. The dust fell over 1,500 miles of land 

 and water extending all the way from Jamaica, in the West Indies, to Bogota, in South 

 America. 



Among the numerous invasions which 

 Nicaragua, together with other Central 

 American States, suffered during the six- 

 teenth and seventeenth centuries, those of 

 Sir Francis Drake and Henry Morgan 

 are the most noceworthy. In 1740 the 

 British invaded the Mosquito coast, and, 

 establishing friendly relations with the 

 warlike Misskito or Sambos Indians, who 

 had never submitted to the Spanish in- 

 vaders, took possession of that part of 



Nicaragua. They retained possession of 

 this territory until the year 1786, when, 

 by a treaty with Spain, it was exchanged 

 for what is now known as British Hon- 

 duras, or Belize, and the land was re- 

 stored to Spain. The Mosquito Indians 

 subsequently acknowledged the sover- 

 eignty of Nicaragua. 



On the 15th of September, 1821, the 

 independence of the Federacion de 

 Centro-America having been declared in 



