Chai>. IV. LANGUAGES SPOKEN IN NICAEAGUA. 53 
say that they are going to Nicaragua. Mr. Squier, follow- 
ing, if I am not mistaken, Oviedo, reapplies the old name 
of Niquirans to these Nicaraguan Aztecs. At the time of 
the discovery, another nation, called the Orotinans, lived 
south of them on the gulf of Nicoyo or Orotina, while to the 
north — in the districts of Granada, Masaya, Tipitapa, 
Managua, Diriomo, Diria, Diriamba, &c. — were the Dirians. 
Still farther on to the northwest were the Nagrandans, in 
the district of Leon, and beyond them on the gulf of 
Fonseca, a nation called the Cholutecans had their seats. 
These four nations, — the Dirians, Orotinans, Nagran- 
dans, and Cholutecans, — taken together, must have spoken 
three languages, to make up the five Indian dialects men- 
tioned by the old Spanish historians of Nicaragua ; and 
accordingly it remains to be investigated which two of 
them have had one language in common. Two of these 
three languages — that of the Dirians and that of the 
Nagrandans — are still in existence, and vocabularies, toge- 
ther with the outlines of their grammatical structure, have 
been published by Mr. Squier ; the Dirian collected from 
the Indians of Masaya, the Nagrandan from those of 
Subtiaba, near Leon. Nothing, however, has come to our 
knowledge of the language of the two remaining nations, 
the Orotinans and the Cholutecans. Mr. Squier is inclined 
to suppose that the Orotinans belonged to the Nagrandans. 
Amongst the geographical names of the country inhabited 
by the former, we meet with that of the volcano of Orosi, 
in Costarica; while one of the volcanos of the chain of the 
Maribios, near Leon, in the old country of the Nagrandans, 
is called Orota. It is very likely that both names have 
the same derivation, and may be considered as a trace of 
affinity between the two tribes. The question may still be 
solved, in case some remnants of the old language of the 
