Note XII'-1 — Chapter XII · LANGUAGES OF HONDURAS, NICARAGUA, COSTA RICA, AND THE ISTHMUS OF DARIEN.

A classification has been made by Mr Squier, but in the absence of reliable data on which to base it, it cannot be accepted without reserve. He says: 'it appears that Honduras was anciently occupied by at least four distinct families or groups.' These he names: the Chorti or Sesenti, belonging to the Maya family, the Lenca, under the various names of Chontals and perhaps Xicaques and Poyas;—in the third he includes the various tribes intervening between the Lencas proper and the inhabitants of Cariay, or what is now called the Mosquito shore, such as the Toacas, Tonglas, Ramas, etc., and lastly in the fourth, the savages who dwelt on the Mosquito shore from near Carataska Lagoon southward to the Rio San Juan. Cent. Amer., pp. 252-3. See also Squier, in Palacio, Carta, note iii., pp. 100-5; Froebel, Aus Amerika, tom. i., pp. 399-403; Id., Cent. Amer., pp. 133-36; Boyle's Ride, vol. i., p. 287; Squier, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1858, tom. clx., pp. 134-5; Palacio, Carta, p. 20. 'Variis et diversis linguis utebantur, Chontalium tamen maxime erat inter eos communis.' Laet, Novus Orbis, p. 337. 'Tenian diferencias de lenguas, y la mas general es la de los Chontales.' Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iv., lib. viii., cap. iii.; Juarros, Hist. Guat., p. 62; Galindo, Notice of the Caribs, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. iii., p. 290-1; Orozco y Berra, Geografía, p. 20. 'Die Karaiben bedienen sich noch gegenwärtig ihrer ganz eigenthümlichen Sprache, welche bedeutend von allen übrigen abweicht, und von den anderen Indianerstämmen nicht verstanden wird.' Mosquitoland, Bericht, pp. 19-20, 140; Bell's Remarks on Mosquito Ter., in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxxii., pp. 258-9; Wells' Explor. Hond., pp. 552-3.