57 
[Crawford. 
1. Ill the iiichives of the Episcopal palace in the city of Leon, 
Nicaragua, records exist of the baptism about a. d. 1680 (date 
indistinct) of the chief of the Amerriques (the Chontals were a 
division of the Amerriques occupying adjoining territory) and 
of his marriage with a young Spanish woman. 
The Iiistory of the conversion to Christianity and marriage 
as related by some of the descendants, now residing at Juigalpa, 
Nicaragua, is that a sister of the chief was taught letters and 
Christian principles by the young Spanish woman. The two 
became much attached to each other and the Amerrique invited 
the Spaniard to make her a visit at the city of the Amerriques, 
across the mountain, about thirty miles to the eastward. The 
invitation was accepted, but the Spanish residents at Juigalpa 
prevented the visit, and in such a way as to offend the chief of 
the Amerriques, who attacked the town, killed many of the 
Spaniards, and captured the young girl, the friend of his sister. 
By kind treatment he persuaded her to consent to marry him ; 
this she agreed to on condition that he would go to the city of 
Leon, and there be baptized into the Christian faith, and be 
married by the Bishop of the church. The records relate that 
they arrived at Leon^ accompanied by about five thousand 
Amerriques (called Chontals in a part of the description) where 
the baptismal and marriage ceremonies were performed. 
2. In September and October, 1502, a number of the Amer- 
riques met and remained with Christopher Columbus at the 
hai'bor of Bluefield, each of the Amerriques wearing a ^'•mirror of 
gold"'^ (see "Litra ravissamo"), and they, Columbus and a part of 
his 150 mariners in search of gold, ascended for about sixty miles 
the Rio Bluefields (Escandido, Spanish; Rama or Carca, Indian) 
to the long series of cascades found in each of the three rivers, 
the "Rama," the "Mico," and the "Carca" or "Siquia," which 
at the foot of the cascades unite and form the Rio Bluefields. 
The locality is now known as Rama, and a small town was re- 
cently built there ; about eighty miles further westward from the 
^ The old city of Leon, about eii;ht miles west from tlie island of Momotombito, now 
known as the railroad station Momotombito, is situated on the west side of Lake 
Xocotlan, at the foot of the volcano Momotombo; it was destroyed bv an eruption 
from that volcano about 1720. 
■' Prof. Jules Marcoii, in several publications, contends that it was the Amerrique 
people of Nicaragua who met Christopher Columbus in 1502 and from whom the name 
Amekica was derived. 
