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spot, that some of Squier’s figures do not quite agree with the
originals, I have thought fit to publish also my own drawings of
these previously figured statues, 6 in number.
Although this sketch is certainly not the place for an account
of the history of Central America or Nicaragua, yet I may be
permitted to give a brief statement of those few and disconnected
notices that we possess with regard to the nations inhabiting
Nicaragua at that period, when the antiquities here spoken of were
probably executed. The sources of our knowledge of these people
and their culture are, besides the above quoted work of Squier,
the old Spanish chroniclers, Oviedo, Torquemada, Herrera, and
Guarros, the memoirs of Las Casas and Peter Martyr, the
relation of Thomas Gage, and scattered notices in the works of Gomara,
IxTLILXOCHITL, DaMPIER a. O.
At the time of the Spanish invasion under the command of Don
Gil Gonzales de Avila in the years 1521 and 1522, the region
now occupied by the republic of Nicaragua and the north-eastern
part of the republic of Costa Rica, was inhabited by Indian nations
of four different stocks, which very probably may be considered
as being of different origin and having immigrated into the country
at widely separated periods.
The Atlantic coast with its luxuriant vegetation but damp
climate and the adjacent mountainous country with its vast primeval
forests were the home of more or less nomadic tribes, remaining
at a low stage of civilization. It may be inferred, however, from
certain indications in the account of the third voyage of Columbus,
and from the scanty notices of several of the so-called buccaneers
or filibusters, that those Indians were more advanced in culture and
manner of life than the hordes, that may be regarded as their
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