252 DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap. XV.— B. P. 
March, 1511, and was never again heard of. Most 
probably his frail hark foundered in one of the violent 
northers which visit the coast at that season of the 
year. It was on the Mosquito Coast that Cortez, 
Pizarro, Balboa, and many others, who afterwards so 
distinguished themselves, served their apprenticeship 
as volunteers. 
The orthodox mode of inducing submission to the 
conquerors, and of placing before the natives as forci¬ 
bly as possible the blessings and advantages of Chris¬ 
tianity, is strikingly conveyed in the following mani¬ 
festo, issued by Bon Diego Nicuesa and other adven¬ 
turers of his class. This document is very interesting, 
but the Mosquito Indians, from the very first, resisted 
the blandishments of the invaders, and were not such 
fools as to allow themselves to be sold as slaves, how¬ 
ever much their chroniclers thought they deserved it, 
however persevering the efforts to subjugate them, and 
however courageous their foe. 
“ I, Diego de Nicuesa, servant of the most high and 
powerful Kings of Castile and Leon, the conquerors of 
barbarous nations, their messenger and captain, notify 
to you and declare, in as ample form as I am capable, 
that God our Lord, who is one and eternal, created 
the heaven and the earth, and one man and one wo¬ 
man, of whom you and we, and all the men who have 
been or shall be in the world, are descended. But as 
it has come to pass through the number of generations 
during more than five thousand years, that they have 
been dispersed into different parts of the world, and 
are divided into various kingdoms and provinces, be- 
