20 
GUATEMALA. 
Nicaragua is divided into the following departments, 
according to the census of 1882: — 
Departments. Chief Cities. 
Managua .... 
12,000 
Managua . 
. . 7,800 
Granada .... 
51,056 
Granada . 
. . 16,000 
Leon. 
26,389 
Leon 
. . 25,000 
Rivas. 
16,875 
Rivas . 
o . 10,000 
Chinandega 
17,578 
Chinandega 
o . 11,000 
Chontales .... 
27,738 
Libertad 
. . 5,000 
Matagalpa 
51,699 
Matagalpa 
. . 9,000 
Nueva Segovia 
36,902 
Ocotal . . . 
. . 3,000 
San Juan del Norte . 
2,000 
Greytown . 
. . 1,512 
Mosquitia .... 
36,000 
Blewfields . 
. . 1,000 
These figures cannot, however, be relied upon for the 
population. With a coast-line of two hundred and eighty 
miles on the Caribbean Sea, the only port is San Juan del 
Norte (Greytown), formed by the northern branch of the 
delta of the San Juan; and this is now” nearly choked 
with sand. The Pacific coast is bold and rocky, extending 
nearly two hundred miles from Coseguina Point to Sali¬ 
nas Bay, and has several convenient harbors, as San Juan 
del Sur, Brito, and, best of all, Realejo. Among the 
chief cities is Leon, founded by Francisco Fernandez de 
Cordoba in 1523 in Imbita, near the northwest shore 
of Lago de Managua, whence it was moved in 1610 to 
the present site at the Indian town of Subtiaba. Mana¬ 
gua, the capital of the republic, was nearly destroyed in 
1876 by a land-slide, but is now rebuilt. Granada is the 
collegiate town of the republic, and is on the shores of 
the great lake. A railway has long been in process of 
construction to connect the capital with the ocean. In 
1882 the telegraphic system of eight hundred miles was 
completed, and eighty-one thousand despatches were for- 
