The Minnesotian. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1851-1852, 1851-10-01


Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific, and who
had also spread to the principal islands of
the Lake, they appear to have been essen
italy one people, with like habits and GUS
toms, a common religion, and speaking if
not the same language, probably dialects
of the same language.
This exception is that to which | re-
ferred at the outset, and is one of the most
remarkable in the history of the Ameri-
can Aborigines. The inhabitants of this
narrow isthmus, between the lake and
ocean, were Mexicans, speaking the an
cicnt Mexican language, and having civil
and social organization, as also system
of religion, identical with those which pre-
vailed among the Aztecs, and their afiiii-
ated nations. The evidence upon this
point, furnished by my own investigations
in the country, is conclusive, and will
shortly appear. 1t is only necessary here
to say that this fact is distinctly asserted
by the historian Gonzalez Fernandez de
Oviedo y Valdez, who was in Nicaragua
in 1926, and a copy of whose MS. account
of the country is now in the possession of
tor, Col. Peter Force, Of the City Of Wash
ington.
OF the people occupying the Isthmus
already indicated, and which he calls Nj
quirans (from whence Nicaragua Ovie-
do says: They speak the Mexican Ian
guage, and have the same manners and
appearance as the people of New Spain"
ho ,b.,l, ,pfs
this authority divides into two stocks, viz
Those speaking the Chorotegan language
and its dialects, and the Chontals Or Con-
dals. The first of these, or the Chorote-
gans occupied the entire country north of
the Niquirans, extending along the Paci-
fc Ocean, between it and Lake Managua
to the borders, and probably for a distance
along the shores of the Gulf of Fonseca.
They also occupied the country Sonth of
Nicoya, then called Orotina. These were
again separated into several divisions, all
speaking the Chorotegan language or dia-
lects of it.
I. THE DIR1ANs, cor people of the
hills" who occupied the territory lying
between the upper extremity of Lake Nj
caragua, the river Tipitapa, and the south
ern half of Lake Managua, and the Paci-
fic, whose princi pal towns were situated
where now stands the cities of Grenada,
then called Salteba, Masaya, and Mana
qua, and the villages of Tipitapa, Diriomo,
and Diriamba. According to Oviedo they
were true Chorotcgans.
II. THE NIGRANDANs, or people of Ma
grando, those speaking the Nagrandan di-
alect. They occupied what is now called
the plain Of Leon, or the district between
the northern extremity of Lake Managua
and the Pacific. The name is preserved
in that of the City of Leon, which is still
sometimes called Leon de Nagrundo.
III. THE CuoLUTEcANs, speaking the
Cholutecan dialect, situated to the north
ward of the Nagrandans and extending
along the Gulf of Fonseca, into what is
now the territory Of Honduras. Herrara
frequently confounds the Cholutecan with
the Chorotegan language, whence it is in
ferred that they were dialects of the same
language. A town and river in the terri
tory here indicated still bear the name Of
Cholueca.
| ~. The ORoT1NANs, occupying the
country around the Gulf of Nicoya, and
to the southwark of Lake Nicaragua.
Concerning the Indians of the Crorote-
gan stock, Oviedo observes, that they were
the enemies of the Niquirans, and that
''their languages, manners, customs, and
ceremonies were SO different" as to be
utterly incomprehensib!c to the other.-
He, nevertheless, adds, that their religion
was the same and here it may be obser-
we'd that all the religions of the semi civ
ilized nations of the central parts of the
continent approximated toa common type.
The Chondals or Chontals, the third
great division, mentioned by Oviedo, oc-
cupied the wide mountainous region, still
bearing the name Of Chontales, situated to
the northward of Lake Nicaragua, and
midway between the nations already nam
ed and the savage hordes bordering the
Caribbean Sea, with whom, it is possible,
they may have in some degree assimilated.
''These Indians says Oviedo, "have no
connection with the Chorotegans and Nj
qu;rans, and speak language as different
from theirs as the Basque is from the
German He, nevertheless, leaves the
inference that their religion was very
much the same. Herrara adds, that they
were "a mountainous people and clown
! ish."
Herrara also informs us that the Carib
language was much spoken in Nicaragua,
but probably by none except the tribes of
that stock bordering on the Atlantic Ocean,
and with whose dialects we are not well
acquainted.
The chroniclers seem to agree in repre-
senting the Chorotegans as the original oc-
cupants and predominating family in the
country, the autocthones, 'Those speak
ing the Chorotegan language" says Ovie-
do, 'arc the aborigines Of the country, and
its ancient masters Herrara asserts
that among them, those speaking the Cho-
| lutpoau lan0IIaUe were Gtbe orioip,1 .n1