30i 



MEXICO, CENTEAL AMERICA, WEST INDIES 



were quite recently still living entirely aloof from tlie civilised populations. In 

 tlie forests of the northern slopes draining to Lake Nicaragua and the San Juan, 

 and especially in the Eio Frio basin, dwell the Guatusos, who at present visit the 

 market of San José, and bring offerings to the Catholic priests, " brothers of the 

 sun." They were formerly said to have fair hair and blue eyes, which Gabb 

 attributed to contact with the English buccaneers. Others pretended that the 



Eig-. 134. — GuATUso Indian. 



fugitives from the town of Espar2a. sacked by the corsairs, hud merged in a 

 single nation with, the Indians. 



But all the Guatusos seen at San Carlos of Nicaragua, or at the markets of the 

 Costa Rican plateau, have black hair, a dark complexion, and prominent cheek- 

 bones, like the Nicaraguan Chontals, to whom they are probably related. They 

 are excellent husbandmen, cultivating their banana, cacao and other plantations with 

 great care. Nor are the Guatusos ferocious savages, as formerly asserted ; on the 

 contrary, most of them have been exterminated by the Nicaraguan and Costa 

 Rican Ladinos engaged in collecting rubber in the northern forests. According 



