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HISTORICAL SKETCH 
A lthough Columbus on his fourth voyage sailed the 
waters bordering on what is now Costa Rica and at¬ 
tempted to found a settlement, this region was the last 
part of Central America to be conquered by the Spaniards. 
According to the writings of Ricardo Fernandez Guardia, a 
Spaniard by the name of Juan de Cavollon was given the task 
of conquering that “rich coast/’ or Nuevo Cartage, for the 
Crown of Spain. 1 his man, a lawyer by profession, associated 
with him in the enterprise a Spanish priest named Juan de 
Estrada Ravago. Two expeditions, it was decided, should be 
formed and proceed southward. Ravago set out from Granada 
on Lake Nicaragua in 1560; in his expedition lie had about 
70 Spanish soldiers and many Indians. Cavallon in 1561 moved 
southward along the Pacific slope of Nicaragua; his force 
comprised 90 soldiers, quantities of military equipment, horses 
and cows. * 
\\ e need not dwell here on the innumerable hardships that 
these expeditions encountered in their march of conquest. One 
significant fact stands out in their campaigns and that is the 
small number of Indians inhabiting this part of Central Amer¬ 
ica compared to the thickly settled areas in Guatemala. Accord¬ 
ing to Guardia, already quoted, Nuevo Cartago or Costa Rica 
had only about 27,000 Indians when the Spaniards started 
their conquest. These were of five different tribes, which were 
scattered about the country in small villages. It appears that 
they could not have offered the resistance that the Spaniards 
encountered in Guatemala. 
