284 MEXICO, CENTEAL AMEEICA, WEST INDIES. 



Nearly all the whites who settled in the favoured isthmian regions belonged to 

 the vigorous Galician race, and the Gallego type may still be recognised, though 

 their Spanish patois contains but few words borrowed from the Gralician dialect. 

 Kon-Spanish immigrants, French, Italians, English, or North Americans, are very 

 few, and their arrival dates only from the middle of the present century. Yet 

 European artisans and labourers might easily adapt themselves to the climate, 

 especially in the Matagalpa province. 



Topography. 



Chinandega, the chief place in the north-west on the Honduras route, comprises 

 two distinct townships, El Viejo, on the slope of the mountain of like name, and 

 the new town a few miles to the south-east, to which the name of Chinandega is 

 now exclusively applied. It was at one time a flourishing place, but it has lost 

 its trade since the encroachments of the land on its ports of Ttmpisque in the north 

 and Realejo in the west. The present harbour of Corinto is sheltered by the island 

 of Cardon, and affords excellent anchorage in 22 feet of water at ebb and 40 at 

 flow. Corinto, which exports large quantities of dyewoods, is by far the busiest 

 seaport on the Pacific side. 



Leon, the chief city of the republic, lies between Lake Managua and the two 

 estuaries of Corinto and the Estero Real. At the time of the conquest its pre- 

 decessor, the Indian city of Subtiaba, contained a population of about 100,000. 

 But the first Spanish town of the district was founded in 1523, not on the plain 

 dominated eastwards by the Marrabios chain, but at Imhita, on the south-west side 

 of Lake Nicarao-ua. Owiiie: to various disasters, the settlement was afterwards 

 removed to the vicinity of Subtiaba, capital of the Nagrandan nation. The new 

 city, seat of the administration, soon became a flourishing place, and the English 

 buccaneers who sacked it in 1680 carried off a vast amount of boot}'. 



At the close of the eighteenth century, Leon and Subtiaba were said to have 

 a collective population of 50,000 ; but during the present century this number has 

 been greatly reduced, especially by wars and civil strife. In recent yeirs Leon 

 has somewhat recovered its losses, and it is now connected by rail with Corinto 

 and the other isthmian towns. The neighbouring thermal waters are little fre- 

 quented, the whole region round about the city being still almost a wilderness. 

 During the rainy season Leon is exposed to frequent inundations, and the rudely 

 paved streets at times resemble mountain torrents, the water surging up to the 

 very eaves of the houses. 



Managua, the present capital of the state, was till the middle of the century a 

 mere hamlet standing on the site of an Indian city some 60 feet above the level of 

 Lake Managua. In the neighbourhood are the little closed basins or tarns of 

 Tiscapa, Nejapa, Asososca, and Apoyo, old craters which, after bursting, were 

 flooded with a brackish watsr, differing in its saline properties according to the 

 nature of the surrounding soil and lavas. The neighbouring plains, formerly 

 under cotton, are now covered with coffee plantations. 



Beyond Tipitapa and the intermittent stream bearing its name, stretch the 



