Chap. VIII. THE WOOLWA LANGUAGE. 133 
I succeeded in collecting a number of words and gram- 
matical forms of the language of the tribe. On returning 
to New York I communicated this vocabulary to my friend 
Mr. Squier, who published it in his valuable work on 
Nicaragua, where it is to be found vol. ii. pp. 324, 325. 
In his preface Mr. Squier states that, according to subse- 
quent investigations, my vocabulary is of the Wbolwa 
language. Having no doubt as to the correctness of this 
statement, I have adopted it as a fact that the tribe to 
which the family I saw belonged were Wbolwas, though 
they did not mention that word when I asked them for 
their name as a nation. In answer to my questions on 
this point, they said their appellation was Bey-King, by 
which, no doubt, it was their intention to show their loyalty 
to the sovereign of Bluefields. The whole tribe, I was 
told, could muster four hundred adult males under a chief 
of their own, who was well spoken of by Don Tomas. 
The fact, however, of the vocabulary which I collected 
being of the Woolwa dialect, does not diminish the interest 
attached to it as a specimen of what is probably the old 
Chondal language of Oviedo and other early writers. This 
probability I am going to show. 
By the Nicaraguans these Indians are called Caribes ; 
but no importance is to be attached to this denomination. 
The Caribs of the Mosquito territory and of British Hon- 
duras, as is well known, are of West Indian origin, having 
been transplanted, in 1796, from the island of St. Vincent 
to Kuatan, and afterwards to Honduras, whence they have 
spread over the whole extent of coast from Cape Gracias a 
Dios to Belize. Now, my investigations have elucidated 
the fact that the Indian population of a village, called 
Lovago, are of the same race with the Wool was, and as that 
village, like another called Lovigisca, both situated a few 
