247 
Chap. XY.—B. P.] BOUNDARIES OP MOSQUITO. 
Cathay, or China. He succeeded in passing the nar¬ 
rowest part of the Hew World, where Vasco Nunez 
de Balboa afterwards crossed,—the Isthmus of Darien, 
—in spite of obstacles which have driven hack many 
better-found full-decked ships in later times. 
Thus Columbus himself was the discoverer of the 
entire Coast of Mosquito, and which, looking to that 
part alone, never either permanently settled or even 
kept under control by the Spaniards, extends from 
Cape Honduras, in lat. 16° N., long. 86° W., to Chi- 
riqui Lagoon, in lat. 9° N., and long. 82° W., a length 
of coast-line amounting to 600 miles. 
Inland the various maps have been nearly as much 
at fault in fixing the boundary in that direction as in 
laying down the extent of the coast-line, hut it is 
generally conceded that a line drawn from Cape Hon¬ 
duras until it meets the range of mountains which 
divide the watershed of the Atlantic and Pacific, and 
continuing right along that range to Chiriqui La¬ 
goon, is as nearly as possible the correct one, because 
the Spaniards and their descendants have never suc¬ 
ceeded in making any permanent lodgment on the 
eastern or Atlantic side of this line, the nearest ap¬ 
proach being the fort called Castillo Viejo, on the San 
Juan river, and the existence of which, moreover, may 
he quoted as a confirmation of this view, for it was 
the advanced post of the Spaniards coming from the 
coast of the Pacific, and not an outpost pushed inland 
from the Atlantic or Mosquito side. 
So much for the discovery and geographical position 
of Mosquito. Now let us take a glance at the abori- 
