Central America - general

Most of the population of isthmian Central America at the time of he Spanish conquest was, as it is now, living on the lands lying within seventy five miles of the Pacific coast, an area whose volcanoes, many still active, form a line roughly parallel to the shore from the Mexico-Guatemala frontier into Costa Rica. Fertile soils, derived from basic volcanic ejecta blanket the slopes and cover the intermont basins. In Guatemala it is the interior basins or the low slopes around them that provide support for most of the towns and villages of the relatively dense populations.

Yet there are difficulties. These lands are threatened by those violent and unpredictable landscape makers, volcanoes and earthquakes. In 1541, after heavy rains, the constraining walls of a crater lake in the volcano now called "Agua" broke. Water burst through the breach and a mudflow destroyed the capital of the Santiago province of Guatemala (Williams, 1960, p. 48) suffocating among others the widow and several children of Pedro de Alvarado, the Conqueror. In 1902, 6,000 people died in the eruption of Santa Maria volcano. In 1976 an earthquake killed, it is estimated, more than 20,000 people and injured perhaps three times that many; and left one million homeless. The city of San Salvador has been completely or partly destroyed and rebuilt nine times since its founding on the present site in 1528 (West and Augelli, 1966, pp. 34-35). Since its first recorded eruption, of 1699, the volcano San Miguel (or Chaparrastique) in present El Salvador, has been active twenty other times (Williams and Meyer-Abich, 1955, p. 45). The Managua earthquake of Nicaragua killed at least 10,000 people and injured twice that many in 1972 (Incer, pp. 238-39).

But boons are greater than disadvantages in these lands where there are large areas of productive soils; and, in general, climate is beneficent.

The coastplain, that is land from sea level up to about 1,500 feet elevation, is the hot country (tierra caliente). Above it is a region of relatively moderate temperatures (tierra templada), up to about 5,500 feet. These lands, with warm, pleasant days and cool nights, can be used for a wide variety of crops which support a large part of the population of Guatemala and El Salvador. At still higher elevations are the slopes and valley of the Cold Lands (tierra fria) where crop variety is limited and where some crops are inhibited by frosts (as are some at upper levels of the tierra templada because of frosts at night during the winter season). Yet, in spite of restriction of crop varieties by cold, some of the most densely settled areas of Guatemala are found at elevations up to about 8,000 feet (West and Augelli, 1966, pp. 37, 388).

Guatemala had been attractive and available to the Upland Maya, and one or another of their tribes, speaking cognate languages, were successful according to their ways as cultivators on the slopes and highlands at least as long as 4,000 years ago (Hammond, 1982, p. 90).

In present El Salvador, a Nahuat-speaking group out of Mexico, the so-called Pipiles, had settled and cultivated the fertile lands west of the Lempa River centuries before the Spanish conquest (Borhegyi, 1965, fig. 35, pp. 31, 38 fn, 50, 40-41).

To the east of the Lempa River, the physical conditions are enough different from those of El Salvador west of the stream to have been unattractive to the Mexican settlers; and it -- the later Spanish province of San Miguel--was dominantly occupied by the Lenca, a non-Mexican tribe, with attitudes and techniques different from those of the Mexicans. The territory that they were known to inhabit at the time of the conquest also included parts of Honduras and Nicaragua, areas physically not unlike San Miguel.

The ancient border, that of the Lempa River, is still significant. Most people now living in San Salvador know little about the country east of the Lempa River except that it is hot; and a Migueleño, one from east of the river, knows of San Salvador because it is the capital of the country, but he may never have seen it in spite of the relatively short distance between the two cities; and his life is distinct from that of people in the western area.

Across the Gulf of Fonseca from San Miguel, in Nicaragua, the Mexican Chorotega, and later, the Nicarao had settled. The entry of the Nicarao may have been at about the same time as that of at least one group of Mexicans into western El Salvador (DS, 1983, pp. 7-8)

TRADE

When the conquering Spaniards arrived, long lines of trade extended out of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital in central Mexico. They were not the invention of Aztec traders. Origins were remote: back to the Toltecs in Tula half a millenium earlier who established connections between central Mexico, Nicaragua and Costa Rica (Diehl,Lomas, Wynn........'74, p. 187); and previously, a similar organization probably existed to facilitate trade between Teotihuacan of central Mexico, before its fall in the seventh century, with Kaminaljuyú in Guatemala (Diehl, '83, p. 114). Even earlier, Mexicans of the plateau traded with Izapa near the Pacific coast of Chiapas; and ultimately with the Olmec of the Gulf.

THE OLMECS

The culture of these people took form in the southern part of Vera Cruz and on the west edge of Tabasco. They may have been the aboriginal ancesters of Mexico/Central American trade. Some time after 1200 b.c., and continuing for almost a millenium, their trade network reached toward the northwest into Oaxaca, Morelos, the plateau of central Mexico (Coe, '86, p. 72), and beyond to the present state of Guerrero; and toward the southeast to Chalchuapa in present El Salvador and to Costa Rica (Sheets, '84, p. 86; Morley, Br. and Sh. '83, p. 64).

The Olmec political organization and trade disappeared in the early fifth century b.c. as mysteriously (to us) as it had begun more than half a millenium earlier (Coe, '86, p. 75); but the pattern of its trade routes was remembered at the local centers that had been involved. Exchanges were continued among them and to some degree with the more distant markets that had been known by the Olmecs.

IZAPA

One of these centers, Izapa, whose inhabitants may have spoken the language of the Olmecs (Its art style was clearly derived from them. See Morley, Br. and Sh. pp. 502-03), is now a zone of remains in the low, hilly country about twenty miles from the Pacific shore of present Chiapas near the Guatemalan border. Early settlement there may have been at the beginning of the first millenium b.c., but the full development took place between 300 b.c. and a.d.150. Its traders made contacts along the Pacific coast of Guatemala and up into the highlands near present Guatemala City; and with at least one extension to the Vera Cruz coast ( Coe, '86, pp. 85-6; Coe, '87, p. 51).

KAMINALJUYU

Another important center was Kaminaljuyú, whose ruins lie at the edge of modern Guatemala City. Its early trade contacts may have been with the Olmecs who procured obsidian from Central America--probably from the site of El Chayal, not far from Kaminaljuyú (Sharer, '84, pp. 64-5, 71).

A simple settlement had been made at the location near the beginning of the first millenium b.c.; and its craftsmen were making articles for trade (Coe, '87 , pp. 37, 40).

In the two centuries before the beginning of the Christian era the simple village of Kamilnaljuyú had grown to become an important city with a sophisticated culture, with large-scale sculpture, and pyramids. At least some of its citizens were literate. Its trade, and economic influence probably spread over much of the Guatemalan highlands; and its population may have reached 50,000 (Borhegyi, '65, p. 64).

But decline followed in succeeding centuries until by a.d. 250 it was a settlement of negligible importance (Coe, '87, pp. 54-60), a condition that lasted until a revivification came about through interregional trade contacts, spurred by its connection with Teotihuacan on the Mexican plateau after about a.d. 400. At that time its quiet village life was changed by migrants from Mexico (Weaver, '72, pp. 148-49), a migration that was primarily religious and commercial (Borhegyi, '65, p. 39).

By about A.D. 400, it again had become a great city, thriving on its trade connections involving the greater city of Teotihuacan where--it should be noted--one of the tutelary dieties was the god who later served the pochteca traders. Representations of that god at Teotihuacan suggest that institutionalized trade, which would have involved its trading partners, had already been established.

At that time Kaminaljuyú's economic relations extended not only to the plateau of Mexico, but to Tikal and other cities in the Petén region near the base of the Yucatan peninsula. (Coe, '87, pp. 64, 73-79). That commerce was active until the early seventh century when Teotihuacan--and apparently the network of exchange--was interrupted.

THE CHOROTEGANS

Other early Mexicans to enter Central America were the Chorotegans of Nicaragua. One fact bears directly upon the time of their arrival in Central America: they had no cacao groves. "Not one tree" wrote Oviedo ( Bk. 42, ch. 4. 1976, p. 362). It would seem that they passed along the Pacific Coast before the advent of the Cotzumalhuapans, who may have introduced cacao from the Gulf coast in the last half of the first Christian millenium (Morley, Brainerd and Sharer, '83, pp. 117,177; Coe, '87, pp. 84-88; Parsons, BILBAO, Vol 2, 1969, pp. 149-50,157, 160-61).

COTZUMALHUAPA

The Cotzumalhuapans came from an undetermined part of Mexico at an unknown time according to Coe ('87, pp. 84-8); he adds that their art style and pottery indicate "latter Early Classic" which would be after the middle of a.d. first millenium. Miles believes that they originated in the state of Puebla or in western Mexico (Miles, '65, p. 284). Thompson suggests that the date of their arrival in Guatemala may have been a.d. 600-900 and that their culture, with its distinctive sculptures is to be traced ultimately to Teotihuacan on the plateau of Mexico ('48, p. 50). Morley, Brainerd and Sharer agree approximately with those dates, but add that there may be a relation with the expansion of the Gulf Coast Chontal Maya ('83, pp, 117,177).

Many regions were tributary to Teotihuacan and they are shown to be sources of characteristics exhibited in Cotzumalhua sculpture, including a cacao pod in "deified anthropomorphized manner" (Parsons,1969, pp. 149-50,157,160-61; also see Coe, '87, p. 88). Deification suggests long previous association and importance.

THE NAHUA

This early Nahua migration was primarily commercial and although the migrants brought their religion with them, apparently they were not insistent about it. If not pacific they at least preferred trade to trouble. Thompson calls attention to the fact that the builders of El Baúl (near Cotzumalhuapa), like their Maya contemporaries, did not consider the question of defense in choosing their settlement sites (Thompson '48, p. 51), an indication that relations with their neighbors were amicable.

They settled, in most cases, in or near the rich cotton- and cacao-bearing areas which they managed to control, or even monopolize for trade. (Borhegyi '65, p. 39;).

Coe rejects a direct Teotihuacan connection, and adds that "there are surer connections with the Gulf Coast plain where there is a similar concentration upon the ball game, death,, human sacrifice, and the cultivation of cacao". (Coe, '87, pp. 84-88.)

IZALCOS

Additional Mexicans came into Central America and settled in the area of Los Izalcos in the southwest of present El Salvador, which had become an important producer of cacao by the time of the Spanish conquest. It had not been part of the native province of Cuzcatlan; and it did not become part of the Spanish province of San Salvador (essentially the native province of Cuzcatlan. See Fowler, '89, p.155, 224-25). It was taken into the Spanish province of Santiago de Guatemala. Lehmann observed that, judging by the language, the people had settled the area before the advent of the Nicarao in Nicaragua (Lehmann 1920, Vol. II, pp. 990-91).

Fowler suggests that by a.d. 900 there was an eastward expansion of Cotzumalhuapan culture ('89, p. 40). Was it by the people who settled Izalco?

The question is then raised as to when cacao, originally from South America and presumably domesticated on the Caribbean coast of Central America, was brought to the Pacific coast. Was it introduced there by the Cotzumalhuapans and taken farther by the Izalcoans?

THE NICARAO

Did the Nicarao, toward the end of the first Christian millenium, take it farther? Fowler suggests that by a.d. 900 there was an eastward expansion of Cotzumalhuapan culture ('89, p. 40). Was it carried by the Nicarao? Oviedo states unequivocably that the Nicarao brought cacao with them to Nicaragua where they monopolized its planting. (Bk 42, Ch.4.1976, p. 362).

The centuries of time separating their migrations explain the considerable distinctions between Mexican groups. Evidence of that can be seen in the disparate class structures of the Chorotegans and the Nicarao. Chorotegan life was simpler, less rigorously controlled than that of the Nicarao whose society included an aristocracy: chiefs and nobles living in elaborate enclaves (Stone, 1966, p. 215). To support such an elite there was an efficient collection of tribute. Little like it was part of Chorotegan life (Stanislawski, '83,, pp. 53, 60, and tables).

By the end of the first a.d. millenium, much of the Pacific coast area was occupied by Nahua speakers (Morley et al '83, p. 177) and, as Thompson noted, in general they held the best lands of the southern lowlands of Guatemala and in the upper Motagua valley (Thompson, '48, p. 12). The same apparently could be said with regard to present El Salvador, which also they recognized as desirable land.

THE PIPILES

Many different groups were conjointly called "Pipiles" by the Spanish chroniclers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (Borhegyi, '65, p. 38; Baron Castro, 1978, p. 99). This somewhat perjorative name  meaning "children" in Mexican Nahuatl was originally given to the Cuscatleco (San Salvadoran) natives by the Mexicans who came with Pedro de Alvarado because, although the Cuscatleco speech was comprehensible, it sounded childish to them. (Baron Castro, 1978, p. 38).

The language sounded "childish to those Mexicans who came with Alvarado in the early sixteenth century, because it was a mixture, and partly archaic. "The problem of the Pipiles", the "enigmatic people" (Coe '87, p.84), may be resolved by recognizing that, although they all spoke a Mexican tongue, they represented groups from different Mexican areas who arrived in Central America at different times through almost a millenium; each group with its own idiosyncracies of speech.

The result, suggested by Miles, was that probably the Pokoman Maya and the Nahua Pipil populations were intermixed in El Salvador and southeast Guatemala in pre-conquest times, and that the Pokoman maintained linguistic superiority in Guatemala, while the language of the Pipil became dominant in El Salvador. However, each of the areas included zones and settlements of the other's speech. Pokomam remnants remained at Chalchuapa, Ahuachapan, Atiquisaya, Cihuatehuacan (Santa Ana) (Miles '57, pp. 752-53). Probably the middle Motagua valley was bilingual Pokoman-Pipil with possibly greater Mexican proportions being added by auxiliaries of conquest times who had chosen to remain there; and in that area several traits indicated connections with Copan (now in Honduras, near the Guatemalan border), and with Asuncion Mita, west of Lake Güija in southeast Guatemala (op. cit. 742).

The Mexican traders were the basis of several settlements in southeastern Guatemala, including Escuintla (Escuintepeque), where the population still spoke their language in the seventeenth century (Vazquez de Espinosa § 92, 632-33).

The dominance of the Pipiles in the Spanish province of San Salvador —that is, the area west of the Lempa River in present El Salvador—may have been a result of friendly trade with other natives, the Xinca.

Those natives, of the upper coastplain and piedmont of present southeast Guatemala were among the most ancient inhabitants of Central America, being there long before Mexicans arrived (Termer, 1926, p. 38; Lehmann, 1920, Vol. 2, p. 1021; Stone 1948, p. 189; Thompson, '48, p. 10); and their antiquity may be further indicated by the fact that their language does not belong to any known group (Mason, 1950, p. 174).

When Alvarado first came to Central America, they were dominant in the area to the east of Escuintla, reaching to the Paz River, the present border between Guatemala and El Salvador (Lehmann, Vol. 2 p. 729).

The idea that they may have been instrumental in the maintenance of the Pipiles in the territory of present El Salvador is based on two factors: one, the two peoples had probably lived and traded peacefully through centuries; and, two, the Xinca were one of the few groups in Central America that used poisoned weapons: , neither the Mexicans nor the Mayas did (Lehmann, Vol. 2, p. 728)

The wound that eventuated in a shortening of Alvarado's leg (Mackie, p. 17) may have been that of a poisoned arrow. Gomera reported poisoned weapons for the region of Acajutla (Simpson,1965, p. 319). It was there that Alvarado received his wound. Poisoned weapons may have allowed the Xinca (and perhaps the Lenca, farther east) to withstand—to some extent, and at least to mitigate— the effects of conquest.

If the Mexican traders, the so-called Pipiles, lived amicably with the Xinca and Lenca, and such seems to have the case, they were given an important degree of protection in their province of Cuzcatlan (essentially modern El Salvador, west of the Lempa River).

In San Salvador province, where Pipiles had become dominant, pockets of earlier peoples remained (as was the case with remnant Pipiles in Guatemala after the reconquest by Maya groups), e.g., at the city of San Salvador (Longyear, '66, p. 134; Miles, '57, p. 754).

At the time of the conquest, the Pipiles had relations with many other areas and groups of peoples, especialy with those of the Pokoman Maya area. Towns near Lake Güija~now divided between El Salvador and Guatemala—spoke Pipil before it had been replaced by Pokomam (Stoll, '38, p. 7).

The Physical and Cultural Unconformities of Central America

More than a quarter century after the first probes and conquests in the New World, Spaniards knew almost nothing of isthmian Central America west and north of Panama. Columbus had skirted the north coast of Honduras and turned the Cape of Gracias a Dios on his fourth voyage in 1502. After that voyage only glimpses were had of the region until 1524 when Pedrarias Dávila sent a contingent under Hernándes de Córdoba from Panama to conquer Nicaragua; and Cortés sent a group from Mexico under Pedro de Alvarado to conquer Guatemala. The Alvarado group conquered not only Guatemala but also the territory of present El Salvador and parts of Honduras. The Montejos, conquerors of Yucatan, were among those interested in the cacao areas of northern Honduras. Each of the conquerors wanted to pre-empt the largest possible territory for himself. The men of Pedrarias skirmished with those of Alvarado near the Gulf of Fonseca which finally became the area of division between those contestants. Montejo and Alvarado made rival claims to territory.

Conquerors need quick reward for their dangerous endeavors. Alvarado may or may not have been struck by the beauties of the Guatemala landscape and the intricacies of its native economies, but the spur impelling his activities was the prospect of appropriable wealth.

In sixteenth century Central America several products stimulated the avidity of the Spaniards: precious metals—whose value was part of their own heritage—cotton cloths that served the native economies dually as material for clothing and as cash; and cacao, a New World comestible that also served as cash.

At the outset Spaniards learned of those exchange media. The cotton cloths were almost ubiquitous; but cacao trees with their limited climatic tolerance were limited to a few, lowland areas which were well known and highly valued by the natives (one of the last territorial acquisitions of the Aztecs was the Soconusco coast of present Chiapas, then a noted cacao-producing area). Areas of cacao production were obvious prizes to be seized.

Alert in perception and action, Alvarado conquered the cacao coast of southern Guatemala, and then, after subduing the highlands, which was accomplished partly by his threat to destroy the cacao groves (Mackie, 1924, p. 114), he moved north into the cacao zone of the Caribbean where his action blocked Montejo from appending it to his fief. After seizing those areas of cash production, Alvarado's attention was turned to Honduras which was early known as an area of mineralization by reason of placer gold having been found along the streams flowing into the Caribbean Sea. To follow those rivers upstream toward the presumed lodes was an obvious move. Cortes, in 1526, sent a subaltern to found a town in Olancho, in the interior, which seemed to be a promising center for precious metals—as it later proved to be. Within a few years Alvarado had organized large gangs of slaves who under Spaniards were sent into the territory to mine for gold and silver (Chamberlain, pp. 19, 112). Probing south and east, the Guatemala Spaniards met, in southern Honduras, the vanguard of Nicaraguan contingents licensed by Pedrarias Dávila whose men had early known of gold deposits in rocks of the north of Nicaragua that were outliers of the Honduran mineralized zone (DS, '83, pp. 18, 24).

Of the many factors involved in creating areas of individuality in mid-sixteenth century Central America, physical attributes such as geology, topography, and climate were important as were human factors, immediate and remote. In Yucatan and Nicaragua, for example, contrasting conquerors had decisive effect upon the succeeding societies. In Honduras and San Miguel (present El Salvador east of the Lempa River), geology, soils, and climate were such that people with the best intentions had only limited opportunity; and, unfortunately, conquerors there had less than the best intentions. In Guatemala, both geology and topography offered economic opportunity but also imposed limits. The refuge that the forested uplands offered to native populations was a boon. In San Salvador (the western part of present El Salvador), fertile land, favorable climates, and a tradition of trade reaching back for more than one thousand years, established attitudes and a way of life that has continued to the present time—in spite of changes brought about by European conquest.

To most European governments of the sixteenth century, conquest was glorious and subjugation of other peoples a practice to be admired and, if possible, emulated. For almost a rnillenium before the conquest of the Americas, the most exalted profession among Spanish Christians had been that of war for King and Church, with loot as the pecuniary inducement. Their beau Ideal after the eleventh century had been El Cid, the mercenary soldier of that time who fought at times at the side of the Moslems, but in the last years of his life had been anointed as the Christian King of Valencia. What he knew well and did effectively was fighting. He became, for the following generations, the national hero whom Spanish males tried to emulate.

Spaniards in their conquest of the New World exhibited the gamut of traits that could be found among other nationalities whose peoples professed Christianity. Some of the activities of all western European nations at the time of the discovery of the New World were unsavory, as they had been for the several preceding centuries. Cruelty was a commonplace in a world that accepted the facts of conquest and slavery (by whatever terms used to describe forced servitude) as legitimate.

The facts of the conquest of Cesena in Italy in the fifteenth century have been outlined (Tuchman, 1978, p. 322). They point to a brutal condition of affairs brought about by the connivance of the Church and military authorities. Nothing that was done in the New World by the Spaniards was worse. Recognizing the context, however, does not excuse brutality, but it explains its possibility.

The fact can not be blinked at that cruelty at times and places was well known and the Church was often complicit. Yet, in the accounts of the conquest of of the New World, one can be grateful for the contribution of the clergy - mostly that of the "regulars"- in lessening harmful effects upon the Indians. It was accomplished in spite of the bitter complaints by Spaniards who, in some cases had contributed funds to the conquest and, in most, had risked their lives. A large proportion of them had died in the accomplishment and survivors' claim to reward could hardly have been denied by the Crown. Critics of the Spanish administration might ask themselves if, in the early sixteenth century, opposition, such as that of Las Casas, to the economic interests of the great nobles and the King, would have been possible in other countries of western Europe. That the practices of Spaniards could be exposed in such strident phrases demonstrated some concern at court with humane values, and a willingness to hear and, implicitly, to act upon moral principles. The dilemma faced by the Spanish authorities was one of balance: at what point should reward and greed meet?

The Unity of Central America?

A map of Central America might suggest, at first glance, that all the relatively small countries could reasonably be joined into one political unit. The population of the whole area is less than half that of Colombia, its southern neighbor; and just over a quarter that of Mexico. In the book Central America, a Nation Divided ( Ralph Lee Woodward Jr., New York, Oxford University Press, 1976) suggests in its title and text that the concept of political unity in the region is valid. Other writers, too, have discussed the possibility of unification and many politicians have tried to effect it.

In sixteenth-century Central America, the aspirations of the Spanish conquerors were both encouraged and restrained by geography: each of the native regions offering its own opportunities and limitations to the Spaniards and for any one of the products that Spaniards wanted.

The idea that "man has shaped his environment to his needs in spite of geographical and climatic limitations of landscape" (Borhegyi, '65, p.59) is a seductive generalization; but not always or even often applicable. Any land is only as valuable as the culture of an observer allows it to be perceived. The Argentine Pampa and the Great Plains of the United States were given a different physiognomy by men out of Europe with plows; but they were acting as had their European ancestors in comparable environmental conditions, as did the plowless, hoe or digging-stick farmers of New World societies in pre-conquest times in their respective areas.

Though the environment does not compel anyone or any group to act in any particular way, it must be supposed that migrants with well developed techniques—such as the European plowmen—will be attracted by areas fitting to their habits. The value of an environment is calculated by the beholder, and successful migrants will seek land that is suitable to their tastes and skills -- and is available to them (availability, of course, being at times defined by the ability to conquer and appropriate).

By the mid-century the forces of need, greed, or desperation on the one hand and the opposition of the regular and secular clergy, and the necessity of the Crown to maintain a productive society on the other, eventuated in regulations regarding products and the payment of them, as tribute, to the conquerors.

The Spanish conquest produced contrasting effects in the physically and culturally variant areas of Central America. In all places the conquerors sought quick profit, but respective characteristics of geology, topography, climate, and vegetation imposed limits and offered choices to dissimilar conquerors. It is not surprising that such mixtures of environments, the culture groups that inhabited them and the differences among the conquerors led to regional disparities.

Because advantage had been taken of the mistakes made elsewhere in earlier years after the conquest; but also because the Franciscan Fathers, and perhaps the Montejos, were men of conscience they, in their context, tried to establish a system of justice. The report that Montejo enslaved large numbers of Indians (see Sherman, '79, p. 52) notwithstanding, the tribute list for Yucatan indicates some concern for the natives.

The two Spanish provinces of Nicaragua -- Leon and Granada -- have been considered in my 1983 monograph The Transformation of Nicaragua: 1519-1548. In that publication the payments to encomenderos , most of whose names have not been preserved elsewhere in the record, were listed in order from largest to smallest holdings. In this publication they are reprinted alphabetically by names of encomenderos in tables.

As a result of protests by the Church and the Regular Orders, relating to mistreatment of the Indians, the Crown ultimately intervened and the tributes to be paid by the remnant population were clearly delineated.

They were put in fairly simple form, but it was the simplicity of desolation. There, at the end of the first quarter of the sixteenth century, the ruthless Pedrarias (Pedro Arias de Avila), with companions suitable to his tastes, had conquered the country. The relatively dense population of natives concentrated mostly in the southwestern lowland, lived in organized towns, many of which had thousands of inhabitants each (Gil Gonzalez Davila, in Peralta, p. 11). Their seizure was easily effected and a large part were sold out of the country as slaves.

By mid-century not much more than subsistence could be expected by most Nicaraguan conquerors, who, in general, held modest encomiendas of Indians. Only a small number of them lived much above the subsistence level: none possessed an estate comparable to those of the most affluent Spaniards of other provinces. Such a condition of affairs is reflected in a comparison of the Nicaraguan lists with those of tribute recorded in other provinces of Central America and Yucatan. The average number of Indians held by Nicaraguan encomenderos was about one quarter that of their Guatemalan or San Salvadoran counterparts, whose larger numbers were possible because more Indians had survived the impact of conquest. There was an even greater disparity between the Nicaraguan Spaniards and those of the Yucatan peninsula (e.g., one to nine in comparison with Mérida).

Only one very small part of Honduras, that of the area of Comayagua, was included in legajo128. However, the country as a whole had been devastated by the several conquerors coming from the north (Española), from Nicaragua on the south, and from Mexico, seeking profits. Honduras was also a source of merchantable slaves; and it was cursed by the presence of precious metals: placer gold was discovered first, and, later, hard-rock gold and silver. Spaniards lost no time in sending out gangs of native slaves to wash or mine the minerals, and to search for more. Cerrato, the president of the Audiencia, wrote to the king in 1548, "The other day I took away Indians from vecinos of Comayagua because they, in contravention of the laws of your majesty, scandalously made them work in the mines" (DII, Vol. 24, p. 467). Comparable to Nicaragua, the native population was mostly eliminated by mid-century; and the geology and climate had not, in most parts, yielded soils of more than modest agricultural productivity, most of the area was not sought by an agrarian populace nor by its conquerors.

The concern in this work is mostly with an analysis of the tributes in the three Spanish provinces of Santiago de Guatemala, San Salvador, and San Miguel. In Santiago, the sanguine and sanguinary Pedro de Alvarado, who had all of the piratical inpulses, and greater bravery, than most other men of his time, might, had he lived, have threatened something similar to the depradations of Pedrarias in Nicaragua, and several conquerors in Honduras. But topography and vegetation could have thwarted him. Later, when Spaniards drove Indians to the limit of their tolerance, the highland pine forests became refuge areas into which they could disappear.

Southern Guatemala, the area of dense native population and that of appeal to the conquering Spaniards, is one of many favorable conditions: the soils derived from recent vulcanism are productive, the rainfall in many of the local areas is excellent for crops. The young volcanic rocks are not depositaries of precious metals, a fact which may have served the natives well: they were not impressed into mining gangs. They could continue to cultivate the soil—their greatest resource—albeit under the dominanace of Spaniards. Which was, if not to their benefit at least not contributory to their destruction.

The colonial province of San Salvador, with soils comparable to those of southwestern Guatemala, had been occupied largely for several centuries by Mexicans. Presumably the area had been entered first by traders (the so-called Pipiles ) who, probably inspired by Mayan farmers of the area, settled onto the land in considerable numbers. By the time of the conquest it was a culture area effectively dominated by their traits.

To outline distinctions between the twentieth century political and cultural units it may be useful to start with the physical aspects of Guatemala, the most complicated unit, where volcanic convulsions, faulting with vertical earth movement, and erosion, have produced a landscape of disparaties. The most striking fact is that of the line of geologically late (Quaternary) volcanoes in the southwest of the country, running about forty miles inland from the coast and roughly concordant with it. More than thirty volcanoes—many still active— have produced the lavas and ash which cover most of the Pacific slope and coastplain.

The effect of vulcanism upon human life is more that that of the obvious facts of slope and elevation: it has established the productive quality of the lands on both sides of the chain because the poured and exploded products—mostly andesitic or dacitic—establish the agricultural potential of the lands; and, expectably, effects of topography are shown in climatic and vegetational differences.

In addition, the effects of physical complexity are reflected in the ways of life. These are described graphically by MacBryde who studied villages near Lake Atitlan. There, because of steep isolating ridges and cliffs against the frequently dangerous rough water of the lake, communities within two airline miles of each other contrast in dress, ceremonies, and even vocabularies (MacBride, Greenwood Press, Westport Conn. 1971, p. 3).

Topographic contrasts—and other consequent physical differences—can be indicated by a traverse along the meridien passing through Lake Atitlan and near the city of Solola. From the sea shore going inland there are thirty three miles of the low-lying, unconsolidated recent volcanic materials of the coastplain, involving an almost imperceptible slope and a rise of less than 1,000 feet. But farther inland, in one third of that distance, eleven miles, an abrupt ascent would reach the summit of Atitlan volcano at 11,361 feet; then in less than three miles more, the top of Toliman volcano at 10,361 feet before descending more than 5,000 feet to the surface of Lake Atitlan. Beyond the lake the rise would be to relatively high country lying mostly between elevations of 7,000 to 10,000 feet. Still farther north another descent, enters the fault valley of the upper Chixoy River at less than 5,000 feet elevation. Continuing inland, another ascent reaches the high plateau of the Cochumatanes and elevations of about 10,000 feet.

The tropical air mass that moves in over southwest Guatemala is warmed and moistened by the water of the Pacific equatorial counter-current flowing along the west coasts of Central America. The result is that of relatively high year-round temperatures and low annual range in areas directly inland affected by it. There the annual range in temperature is less than five degrees.

As seasonal temperatures differ little from each other in these latitudes, precipitation is usually the critical climatic factor in establishing area differences. Two contrasting seasons of rainfall influence the yearly rhythm of life: a five month rainy season beginning about the middle of May and lasting until about the middle of October, and a dry season beginning in mid-November and lasting for a period of approximately the same length of time—from mid-November until mid-April. Separating these seasons are transition months: mid-April to mid-May, with increasing rainfall, and mid-October to mid-November when rainfall decreases to eventuate in the period of drought.

West of the longitude of Guatemala City, the areal disparities in rainfall are not less extreme than are other aspects of the Guatemala landscape. Rainfall on the hardly perceptible rise of the coastplain is relatively low: in most places little more than seventy inches per year. But similar to topography—and conditioned by it—amounts of precipitation rise enormously upslope. There, totals greater than 160 inches are commonly recorded at some intermediate levels. At one station, 211 inches has been received (MacBryde, map 6); and it is believed, although unverified, that as much as 240 inches fall in some areas (Portig, p. 271)

As complex topography produces varied climates in short compass; and as vegetation responds directly to climate, the differing zones of rainfall and temperatures of Guatemala result in a motley map of plant cover, a map that can be an augury of agricultural potential.

Along the meridien passing through Lake Atitlan, the vegetation near the sea is that of mangroves and palms, changing inland, with slight elevation into grassy pastures interspersed with occasional canebrakes and tall spreading trees, many supporting trailing epiphytes. Cutting across the area are ribbonlike gallery forests along the numerous streams flowing down from the rainy slopes above. At somewhat higher elevations, up to about 1,500 feet, is a savanna with grass and parklike distribution of deciduous trees.

From about 1,500 feet up to between 5,000 and 6,000 feet on the seaward slope, the warmth and heavy rainfall induce a densely growing tropical rainforest with enormous trees twined around by vigorous vines; and beneath them a luxuriant and wide variety of plants. On the slope above the tropical rainforest, the arborial growth, in response to generally lower rainfall and to lower temperatures, is less exuberant, one of fewer varieties and individuals, dominated by evergreen oaks and conifers, and including, especially above 6,000 feet, the long-needled pine. At greater elevations—above about 8,000 feet—alpine meadows are scattered among the conifers.

Inland from the line of geologically late volcanic cones is a parallel belt of somewhat older (Late Tertiary) sedimentary and volcanic rocks produced by fissure flows; and by stream deposits of tuff. These rocks were faulted and folded in Late Pliocene time, creating in some areas gentle swells and swales, and in others upthrown blocks and downthrown areas such as that in which Guatemala City is located, a depression created by slippage along approximately north-south faults. Many intermontane valleys have been made relatively flat-bottomed by deep fills of Quaternary pumice.

Adding to the complexity of the landscape are the basins of collapse (some lake-filled): created when magma withdrew subterraneously (e.g. Lake Atitlan), or others that were produced by the blast of molten products from volcanic vents, e.g. the basin of Lake Ayarza about thirty miles southeast of Guatemala City (Williams, 1960, pp. 1,2,27,32,33).

Beyond the volcanic crests, much of interior Guatemala is in the area of descending, therefore "drier" air where rainfall is sharply reduced. MacBryde (map 6) gives figures for two stations approximately on the same meridien. The one on the seaward slope at a little less than 5,000 feet elevation, recorded an average annual rainfall of 170 inches, while the station at about the same elevation, a few miles eastward, beyond the crest, at Lake Atitlan recorded 57 inches. Somewhat north of the latitude of Lake Atitlan, a lowland area stretches across the width of Guatemala where the average rainfall is less than forty inches annually (Portig, fig. 1, p. 71). Still farther to the north another of Guatemala's topographic contrasts distinguishes another rainy area: that of the Cuchumatanes highland, where rainfall totals repeat some of those of the seaward slopes of the volcanic mountains.

In the valley of Quezaltenango, to the west of the Atitlan meridien, but exemplifying similar conditions, at 7,700 feet elevation, the rainfall is 26.4 inches. Trees are almost absent. Short grass is the dominant vegetation. On the slopes immediately above, is a sparse scattering of pines and bunchgrasses.

Rising abruptly-more than a half mile in absolute elevation-from the thorny dryland is the faultscarp of the limestone Cuchumatanes highland where the transition in vegetation cover from the drought forms of the lowland progresses upward through pines and coarse grasses into—at the highest uplands—pines, junipers, and cypresses scattered across rolling meadows.

Southeastern Guatemala—roughly the area east of the longitude of present Guatemala City and extending to the San Salvador border—differs from its neighboring regions. Its volcanoes (Quaternary) are lower and less dramatic than those of the southwest. The highest volcano of the East (Jumay, 7139 feet) doesn't reach within 1200 feet of the lowest (Pacaya: 8373 feet) of the West. And they differ in consitution and distribution. None has been active in historic times, and, unlike the relatively simple northwest-southeast direction of the high alignment to the west, they are scattered, many along north-south faults. Mostly basaltic, they are unlike the great row of high andesite-dacite cones of the west; and they differ in similarly from those to the east, in El Salvador. Very little of the dacite pumice, that is widespread and thickly deposited in both of the neighboring areas, appears in southeast Guatemala (Williams, et al, 1964, p. 24).

Because of the lower elevation of the land mass, the instability of the oceanic air mass moving inland is less and rainfall totals average only about one half of those at comparable midslope positions in the west. The area is commonly described as being arid.

The physical conditions in most of Guatemala were such that the methods of the conquerors had to be different from those found profitable in Nicaragua. Unlike the lowland of that country, where topography did not thwart the purposes of slavers, the conformation of Guatemalan uplands where the great proportion of the population lives, and lived at the time of the conquest, is an area of mountains, high plateaus and basins. The uplands of Cobán and the high Cuchumatanes plateau, with elevations up to nearly 12,000 feet, offered only limited attraction to the early Spaniards; and the Pacific Mountain Zone only offered a little more in the early post-conquest period. Its high basins—many lake-filled, and higher volcanic slopes with young soils from which plant nutrients and minerals have not been leached, are responsive to native methods of agriculture; but they are ill-suited to most cash crops; and, more important than topography, is climate. Upland Guatemala, delightful for human living--"perpetual spring" is a phrase commonly used to des