Honduras; descriptive, historical, and statistical, etc

Front matter

HONDURAS fRINTED BY BALLANTVNE AND COMPANY EDINBURGH AND LONDON UAP of CENTRAL AMERICA Shewing itg POLITICAL DIVISIONS and- INTER- OCEANIC COMMUNICATIONS Projected and in Progress. HONDURAS; descriptive, historical AND STATISTICAL. BY E. G. SQUIER, M.A., F.S.A. FORMERLY CHARGE D'AFFAIRES OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE REPUBLICS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. " Flic locus est Gemini j 'aniui vasta maris." — Ovid. |ssiub bn permission of tin JUtljor, uno unbtr tjji Jutjjoritu of HIS EXCELLENCY DON CARLOS GUTIERREZ, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Honduras in Great Britain. LONDON: TRUBNER & CO, 60 PATERNOSTER ROW. 1870. CONTENTS.

Appendix

. A. LAW OF HONDURAS RESPECTING IMMIGRATION . 267 B. INFORMATION ON THE CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS OF HONDURAS WITH REGARD TO IMMIGRaVTION ... PRELIMINARY NOTE. Recent events, but more especially the commencement and rapid progress of a great Inter-Oceanic highway through its territories, have invested the Republic of Honduras in Central America with new interest and importance. This important international work, which is under contract to be delivered over in efficient working order in 1872, must materially affect the course of travel and trade between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and have a powerful influence in developing the vast natural resources of Central America in general, and of Hon duras in particular. And as these regions, soon to be brought into prominence and within the circle of the nineteenth century activity, are but imperfectly known, the undersigned has conceived he would be performing a service to the British public, and a duty to the country which he has the honour to represent, by reproducing, in an accessible form, the chapters on Honduras contained in that standard book, " The States of Central America," by the well-known traveller and author, Mr E. Gr.

Squier, formerly representative of the United States in the Central American Republics, and more recently its Commissioner in Peru. PRELIMINARY NOTE. VI Mr Squier, to whose friendly interests these Republics owe so much, has not only consented to this reproduc tion, but has revised these chapters, so as to give a clear and accurate view of the condition of Honduras at the present time. On terms of complete harmony with its sister States — with the Republics of Salvador and Guatemala on one hand, and Nicaragua and Costa Rica on the other — Honduras has the felicity of offering a common point of interest to all of them in the exceptional facilities it affords for an adequate route of inter-oceanic communi cation, which, however it may benefit other countries and the world at large, must inevitably tend to the development and prosperity of one of the most favoured portions of the American continent.

The satisfaction with which the certainty of the near completion of the Honduras Inter-Oceanic Railway is received by Central America and the commercial world, is shadowed by the reflection that its success will not be witnessed by one of its most active, efficient, unsel fish, and ardently patriotic supporters, the late Don Leon Alvarado, to whose memory the reproduction of the following chapters, which years ago he translated into Spanish for the benefit of his countrymen, is reve rently dedicated. CARLOS GUTIERREZ. Warren House, Tufnell Park, Camden Road, London. HONDURAS.

Chapter I. Introduction

— NOTES ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF CEN- TRAL AMERICA IN GENERAL, AND OBSERVATIONS ON ITS CLIMATE, POPULATION, ETC. pENTRAL AMERICA, in respect of geographical position, almost realises the ancient idea of the centre of the world. Not only does it connect the two grand divisions of the American continent, the Northern and the Southern hemispheres, but its ports open to Europe and Africa on the east, and to Polynesia, Asia, and Australia on the west. Looking at the map, we find, at the Isthmus of Te huantepec, the Gulf of Mexico approaching to within two hundred miles of the Western Ocean. Southward the continent widens, embracing the high table-lands of Guatemala upon the west, and the broad plains of Tabasco, Chiapa, and Yucatan upon the north and east. The Gulf or Bay of Honduras, however, closes around this section upon -the south-east, and again narrows the continent to less than two hundred miles.

The country A [Chap. I. CENTRAL AMERICA IN GENERAL. 2 intervening between this bay and the Pacific, falling within the Republic of Honduras, is marked by a com plete interruption of the Cordillera, and is traversed by a great transverse valley, running due north and south, through which the large river Ulua finds its way to the Atlantic, and the smaller river Goascoran flows into the Bay of Fonseca, on the Pacific. Still lower down, and passing the grand transverse basin of Nicaragua, is the well-known narrow Isthmus of Panama or Darien, over which the tide of emigration has twice poured its floods, once upon Peru, and again upon the glittering shores of California. Nor are the topographical characteristics of Central America less remarkable than its geographical features. In its physical aspect and configuration of surface, it has very justly been observed that it is an epitome of all other countries and climates of the globe.

High mountain ranges, isolated volcanic peaks, elevated table-lands, deep valleys, broad and fertile plains, and extensive alluvions, are here found grouped together, relieved by large and beautiful lakes and majestic rivers ; the whole teeming with animal and vegetable life, and possessing every variety of climate, from torrid heats to the cool and bracing temperature of eternal spring. The great chain of the Cordillera here, as in South America, runs nearest to the Pacific coast, but in places it is interrupted, and assumes the form of detached ranges and isolated elevations, groups or knots of hills, between which the streams from the interior hi°-h valleys or elevated plains wind their way to the two Chap. I.] TOPOGRAPHICAL INFLUENCES. 3 oceans. As a consequence, the principal alluvions border on the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.

Here rain falls, in greater or less abundance, for the entire year ; vegetation is rank, and the climate is damp and proportionally insalubrious. The trade-winds blow from the north-east ; and the moisture with which they are saturated, condensed on the elevated parts of the continent, flows down toward the Atlantic. The Pacific slope is therefore comparatively dry and health ful, as are also the elevated regions of the interior. The geographical and topographical features of all countries have had, and always must have, an impor tant, and often a controlling, influence upon the charac ter and destiny of their populations. The nature and extent of this influence receives a striking illustration both in the past and the present condition of Central America. At the period of the Discovery, it was found in the occupation of two families of men, presenting in respect to each other the strongest points of contrast.

Upon the high plateaus of the interior of the country, and upon the Pacific declivity of the continent, where the rains are comparatively light, the country open, and the climate relatively cool and salubrious, were found great and populous communities, far advanced in civil isation, and maintaining a systematised religious and civil organisation. Upon the Atlantic declivity, on the other hand, among dense forests, nourished by constant rains into rank vigour, on low coasts, where marshes and lagoons, sweltering under a fierce sun, generated deadly miasmatic damps, were found savage tribes of men, without fixed abodes, living upon the natural fruits of the earth, and the precarious supplies of fishing and the chase, without religion, and with scarcely a sem blance of social or political establishments.

It is impossible to resist the conviction that the con trasting conditions of these two great families were principally due to the equally contrasting physical con ditions of their respective countries. With the primi tive dwellers on the Atlantic declivity of Central America, no considerable advance, beyond the rudest habits of life, was possible. He was powerless against the exuberant vitality of savage nature, which even the civilised man, with all the appliances that intelligence has gradually called to his aid, is unable to subdue, and which still retains its ancient dominion over the broad alluvions both of Central and South America. His means of sustenance were too few and too precarious to admit of his making permanent establishments, which, in turn, would involve an adjustment of the relations of men and the organisation of society.

He was therefore a hunter from necessity, nomadic in his habits, and obliged to dispute his life with men who, like himself, were scarcely less savage than 'the beasts of the forests. Civilisation could never have been developed under such adverse conditions. It can only originate where favourable physical circumstances afford to man some relief from the pressure of immediate and ever-recurring wants — where a genial climate, and an easily-cultivated soil, bountiful in indigenous fruits, enables him not only to make his permanent abode, but to devote a por- Chap. I.] GEOGRAPHICAL RELATIONS. 5 tion of his time to the improvement of his superior nature. Such were the circumstances which surrounded the dweller on the high plains of Honduras and Guate mala. There, wide and fertile savannas invited to agriculture, and yielded to the rudest implements of cultivation an ample harvest.

The maize, that great support of aboriginal civilisation in America, was pro bably indigenous there, and was thence carried northward over Mexico and the Floridas by the various families who established themselves in those regions, and whose languages and traditions point to the plateaus of Guatemala as their original seat. The natural relations of Central America, as indi cated by the physical facts already pointed out, are clearly with the Pacific and the states which now exist or may spring into existence upon that coast. To Cali fornia and the greater part of Mexico, as also to some of the states of South America, it must come, sooner or later,, to sustain a position corresponding with that which the West Indies have held toward the United States and Europe, with the important addition of being an established route of travel, and perhaps ultimately of commerce, between the Eastern and Western hemispheres.

Its destiny is plainly written in the out lines of its coast, and is printed on its surface, not less than demonstrated by its geographical position. The peculiarities of Central America, in respect of configuration of surface, will explain the almost endless variety of climate to which I have alluded, and which is nowhere more remarkable than in that country. Situ ated between 8° and 17° north latitude, were it not for these features, the general temperature would be some what higher than that of the West Indies. As it is, the climate of the coast is nearly the same with that of the islands alluded to, and exceedingly uniform. It is modified somewhat by the shape and position of the shore, and by the proximity of the mountains, as well as by the prevailing winds. The heat on the Pacific coast is not, however, so oppressive as on the Atlantic ; less, perhaps, because of any considerable difference of temperature than on account of the greater dryness and purity of the atmosphere.

What are called the " seasons " under the tropics, namely, the wet and dry, are much influenced in their commencement and duration by local causes, so that what is literally true of one place can only be partially so of another. The widest differences are, of course, between the Atlantic and Pacific slopes of the continent. The whole of Central America comes within the zone of the north-east trade-winds, which, sweeping across the Atlantic, reach the continent almost saturated with vapour. The portion of moisture of which they are deprived by the Caribbean Islands is probably again nearly, if not quite, made up in their passage over the sea of the same name. These winds are intercepted by the high mountain centres of the continent, and the vapour precipitated from them flows down to the Atlantic. through a multitude of streams and rivers.

But the mountains of Central America are not all high enough CHAP. I.] PREVAILING WINDS— RAIN. 7 to entirely intercept the trade-winds. They are, more over, broken through by transverse valleys, like that of the Nicaraguan lakes, and that of Comayagua in Honduras. As a consequence, the trades, for a greater part of the year, blow entirely across the continent, reaching the Pacific slope deprived of their moisture, and cooled by a passage over the elevated region of the interior. Hence result the greater salubrity of that declivity, the comparative coolness and dryness of its climate, and its consequent greater population. For about four months of the year, from May to October, the trades being intermittent, the Pacific declivity is subject to winds from the west and south-west, which precipitate their waters against the western slopes of the mountains, and constitute the rainy season.

As these Pacific winds are seldom more than exaggerated sea-breezes, and are rarely of more than a few hours' continuance, the rains which follow from them are brief, occurring generally in the afternoon and night. It is rare to witness an entire day of rain, although there are occasionally meteoric combinations which produce what the Span iards call temporales, or rains of several days' con tinuance. On both coasts heavy dews fall during the night, so that vegetation is always profuse and beautiful. But on the more elevated central plateaus, where the altitude exceeds three thousand feet, the dews are slight, and the nights are as dry as the days. As a consequence, some of these districts at certain periods seem arid and burned, and never enjoy that luxuriance of vegetation which constitutes equally the beauty and danger of the seaboards.

Although the rains, especially those which, at the epochs of change in the seasons, fall in showers, are much heavier than those which prevail in the United States and in Europe, so that in a few minutes the earth is covered with water, yet they do not generally last more than half an hour. They cease as suddenly as they begin ; the sky as suddenly recovers its serenity, the sun comes out unclouded, dispersing the humidity, and in a brief space the earth becomes, to all appearance, as dry as if no rain had fallen. What I have said applies strictly to the respective Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The central plateaus, or high table-lands of the interior, have a climate of their own, subject neither to heavy rains nor excessive droughts. From the circumstance that they lie nearest the Pacific, these plateaus partake most of the climate of that coast, with which their seasons also measurably coincide.

The plain of Comayagua, situated in the very centre of Honduras, and equidistant from the two great seas, may be taken as an illustration. More or less rain falls there during every month in the year ; but, during the prevalence of the dry season on the Pacific, it is only in the form of showers of brief duration, while during the wet season the rains are comparatively long and heavy. Continuous rains, or temporales, are unknown. Specifically of Honduras, the most that can be said is, that owing to the varying elevations of the country, and its varying exposures to the winds, it has a variety of Chap. I.] TEMPERA TURE— RAINFALL. 9 climate adapted to every caprice, and a variety of temperature and moisture suited to the cultivation of the products of every zone. Observations made at the mouth of Black River, on the Bay of Honduras, for one year, showed an extreme range of 24° of Fahrenheit, from 62° to 86°, and a mean temperature of about 72°, modified by a grateful sea-breeze.

Observations at Carataska Lagoon showed, for the four hottest months of the year, a mean of 82° Fahrenheit. At Truxillo, during the same months, the mean was 78°. At Comayagua, the capital of Honduras, and situated very nearly in its geographical centre, the average temperature for the year is about 70°. Tegucigalpa is some what cooler. Observations on the rainfall of the re public give very nearly 48 inches annually, or about one half of the amount which fell on the isthmus, between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific, during the year 1852, viz., 97.7 inches. The average amount of rain which falls in America under the tropics is calculated by Prof. Johnson, in his tables, at 113 inches. At some points in Brazil — as, for instance, San Luis de Maranhao — the annual average is 276 inches ; and in Guadalupe and some of the Lesser Antilles, as high as 292 inches.

The population of Central America, in the absence of reliable data, can only be calculated approximately. Attempts were made under the crown, and subsequently under the republic, to effect a complete census, but with very unsatisfactory results, since it has always been found that the ignorant masses of the people, and especially the Indians, avoid a census as in some way connected with military conscription or taxation. They have been known to abandon their homes, and hide themselves for weeks in the mountains, to escape the commissioners ! Again, the bulk of the Spanish population exists on the Pacific slope of the continent, while on the Atlantic declivity the country is either unin habited, or sparsely occupied by Indian tribes, of which the number is wholly unknown. A considerable abori ginal population exists in the district of Peten, in the north of Guatemala, and there are several tribes, such as the Xicaques, Payas, Tonglas, Woolwas, Towkas, Ramas, Guatusos, &c, in the Atlantic divisions of Hon duras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, none of whom have entered, as an element, in any calculation of the absolute population of the country.

Nevertheless, from the few and imperfect censuses, and such records of births and deaths as are accessible, the population of Central America and the states in cluded under that designation, may fairly be estimated as in the following table, which also shows the area of each state approximately, and the proportion of population to the square mile : — States. Area in Square Miles. Population. Number to Square Mile. Guatemala Honduras San Salvador Nicaragua Costa Rica 43,380 39,600 9,594 49,500 23,000 890,000 350,000 433,000 300,000 135,000 20 9 45 6 6 nearly. Total 165,051 2,10S,000 12£ Chap. I.] AREA AND POPULATION. 11 Scanty as this population seems to be, it is nevertheless, relatively to the area of Central America, much larger than that of any of the Spanish American states. Chili has scarcely two-thirds as many inhabitants to the square mile, and Mexico but little more than half as many, as will appear from the subjoined table, compiled from the latest and most authentic sources.

The data bearing upon the proportion of sexes in the aggregate population, although too imperfect to be worth presenting, nevertheless go to show that, as in Mexico, there is a considerable preponderance of females over males. Countries. Square Miles. Population. Number to square Mile. Central America Mexico New Granada Venezuela Ecuador Peru Bolivia Chili Brazil 165,054 762,000 380,000 410,000 320,000 405,000 380,000 170,000 2,720,000 2,108,000 7,853,000 1,360,000 887,100 550,000 1,500,000 1,200,000 1,300,000 4,450,000 12* 10 31 2f If 3* 3* 8 2 nearly.

Chapter II. Discovery Of Honduras

— BOUNDARIES — GENERAL ASPECT — TOPOGRAPHY, ETC. TT was in Honduras that Columbus first planted his -*- feet on the continent of America. In 1502, then sailing on his fourth voyage, he discovered the island of Guanaja (or Bonacca), which he named the Isle of Pines. From this island he descried to the southward the high mountains of the mainland ; and pursuing his course in that direction, on the 14th of August landed at a point which he called Punta de Casinas (now Cabo de Honduras), and formally took possession of the country on behalf of the crown of Spain. He subsequently coasted to the eastward, touching at the mouth of Rio Tinto, or Black River ; and finally, after great delays and dangers, reached a point where the coast, abruptly trending to the southward, formed a cape, to which, in gratitude for his safety, he gave the name of Cabo Gracias a Dios, " Cape Thanks to God."

He lost a boat, with some sailors, in attempting to enter the Great Cape or Wanks River, which was, in consequence, called Rio del Desastre. From Cape Gracias he con tinued his voyage along what is now the Mosquito Shore, called by him Cariay, to the Isthmus of Darien. Chap. II.] DISCOVERY OF HONDURAS. 13 Less than twenty years afterward, the conqueror of Mexico, Hernando Cortez, inspired by the accounts of vast and populous kingdoms to the southward of the prostrate empire of Montezuma, undertook an expedition into Honduras, which at this time was called Hibueras or Higueras. This expedition, both for its length and the difficulties which were encountered and overcome in its prosecution, stands almost without precedent in the history of martial adventure. Starting from the isthmus of Tehuantepec, Cortez boldly entered the vast and unknown wilderness which intervened between the confines of Mexico and the country of which he was in search.

For two years he struggled among deep morasses, broad and almost impassable rivers, and high and desert mountains, with boundless courage and endurance. At the end of that time he reached the point where Columbus had made his first landing in Honduras ; and there, after receiving the submission of the neighbouring chiefs, he founded the ancient city, now the port, of Truxillo. In addition to the names of Columbus and Cortez, those of Alvarado, Cristoval de Olid, and Cordova appear in the list of daring and zealous captains who distinguished themselves in the exploration of the country and its reduction to the Spanish crown. But it is not my purpose to write the history of Spanish power in Honduras. Suffice it to say, that as early as 1540, sixty years before Jamestown was founded in Virginia, and nearly a hundred years before Hudson entered the bay of New York, Honduras had its large CENTRAL AMERICA IN GENERAL. [Chap. II. 14 and flourishing cities, and the Audiencia of the Confines had been established within its borders.

Subsequently the seat of the Audiencia was trans ferred to Guatemala, and from that time forward, until the independence of the Spanish American states, Hon duras constituted a part of the kingdom or Captain- General cy of Guatemala, which comprised the provinces or Intendencias of Guatemala, Honduras, San Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. These threw off their allegiance to Spain in 1821, and, assuming the rank of sovereign states, soon after united in a confederacy called the " Republic of Central America." This union, in consequence of internal dissensions and the struggles of factions, became practically dissolved in 1839, since which time the several states have asserted and exer cised their original sovereign powers as distinct republics. The republic of Honduras, therefore, comprises the territory which pertained to it as a province.

It is bounded upon the north and east by the Bay of Hon duras and the Caribbean Sea, extending from the mouth of the Rio Tinto, lat. 15° 45' N., and long. 88° 30' W., to Cape Gracias a Dios, at the mouth of the Rio Wanks or Segovia, in lat. 14° 59', and long. 83° 11', being a coast line of about four hundred statute miles. Upon the south it is bounded by the republic of Nicaragua. The line of division follows the Rio Wanks for about two-thirds of its length, and thence deflects to the south-west to the sources of the Rio Negro, flowing into the Gulf of Fonseca. It has a coast line of about sixty miles on this gulf, from the Rio Negro to the Rio Chap. II.] BOUNDARIES OF HONDURAS. 15 Goascoran, and embraces the large islands of Tigre, Sacate Grande, and Gueguensi. Upon the west and south-west it is bounded by the republics of San Sal vador and Guatemala.

The line of separation is irregu lar. Commencing on the Gulf of Fonseca, at the mouth of the Rio Goascoran, it follows that river for about thirty miles in a direction due north, to the mouth of one of its affluents from the north-west, called Rio Pescado. From the head of this stream it strikes a branch of the Rio Torola (flowing south-west into the Rio Lempa), which it follows to its mouth. Thence it follows the Rio Lempa to the mouth of the Rio Sumpul, which it ascends nearly to its source, to a point where its waters approach those of the Rio Paza, separating San Salvador from Guatemala. From this point it runs nearly north-east, along the mountain chain of Merendon and Grita, leaving the town and ruins of Copan about fifteen miles to the south-east, until it strikes the head-waters of the small stream called Rio Tinto, which it follows to the Bay of Honduras.

The state is therefore embraced entirely within 83J 20' and 89° 30' west longitude, and 13° 10' and 16D north latitude, and comprises not far from 39,600 square miles, or about the same area with the state of Ohio. The large island of Roatan, with its dependencies, Guanaja or Bonacca, Utilla, Helena, Barbaretta, and Morat, also pertain to Honduras, and are known under the denomination of " The Bay Islands." At one time, Great Britain set up claims to a considerable portion of [Chap. II. 16 CENTRAL AMERICA IN GENERAL. the eastern coast of Honduras, from Cape Comorin, or Cape of Honduras, a few miles to the eastward of Truxillo, to Cape Gracias a Dios, on behalf of the "Mosquito King;" but these pretensions have been formally abandoned by treaty, and the whole territory is now under the recognised and undisputed sovereignty of Honduras.

The general aspect of Honduras is mountainous ; that is to say, it is traversed in various directions by ranges of mountains and hills, radiating from the com mon base of the Cordillera. This great chain, which may be regarded as the backbone and support of the continent, does not, in Honduras, approach within fifty or sixty miles of the Pacific. Nor does it throughout maintain its general character of an unbroken range, but in its course sometimes turns back on itself, forming interior basins or valleys, within which are collected the head-waters of the large streams that traverse the country in the direction of the Atlantic Ocean. Never theless, viewed from the Pacific, it presents the general appearance of a great natural wall, with a lower range of mountains, relieved by volcanic peaks of wonderful regularity of outline, intervening between it and the Western Sea.

It would almost seem that, at one time, the waters of the Pacific broke at the very feet of this great mountain barrier, and that the subordinate coast range had been subsequently thrust up by volcanic forces. In San Salvador this conjecture seems to be wholly verified; for the high ridge, averaging some two thousand feet in altitude, and which extends from Chap. II.] MOUNTAIN FE A TURES. 17 the volcano of San Miguel to that of Apeneca, separated from the true Cordillera by the parallel valley of the River Lempa, is throughout of volcanic origin. Not less than eleven volcanic peaks bristle along its summit ; and the traveller rides from one end of the state to the other over an almost unbroken bed of scoriæ and ashes, largely mixed with pumice, occasionally relieved by beds of lava and volcanic stones.

In Nicaragua this volcanic range subsides for intervals, and is only marked by high cones and broken craters, while the Cordillera trends away to the south-east, on the northern border of the transverse basin of the Nicaraguan lakes. Honduras has but a narrow frontage of about sixty miles on the Pacific, and within this limit the volcanic coast-range is wholly wanting. Its place is supplied by the high islands, of volcanic origin, in the Bay of Fon seca. The northern and eastern coast of Honduras presents several bold groups of mountains, which are the ends of the dependent ranges radiating north and east from the Cordillera. These subordinate ranges strike the northern coast diagonally, and lap by each other in such a manner as to appear from the sea like an unbroken chain. Hence it has occurred that in some of the charts of that coast, although the mouths of the large rivers flowing from the interior are indicated, the rivers them selves are rendered impossible by a continuous chain of mountains, represented as skirting the shore at a very short distance inland.

The Cordillera proper, or the great dividing ridge B which separates the waters flowing into the Pacific from those falling into the Atlantic, traverses the state in a general direction north-west and south-east. Its course, however, is serpentine, and at one point, at least, it is in terrupted by a large transverse valley, of which, as offer ing probably the most favourable route for a railway between the two seas, I shall have occasion to speak far ther. Starting from the high plateaus of Guatemala, this range pursues a course nearly east until it reaches the frontier of Honduras, where it is deflected to the south-east, while a higher spur, or range, not inferior in elevation to the " Sierra Madre," or Mother Mountain, runs off east by north to the Bay of Honduras. At the point of separation, this range is called the Moun tains of Merendon, afterward Grita, and nearer the coast, the Mountains of Espiritu Santo.

On the coast itself, where it attains the majestic height of between seven and eight thousand feet, it is called the Mountains of Omoa. Along its northern base flows the Rio Mo tagua, rising near the city of Guatemala, and falling into the Bay of Honduras ; and at its feet, on the south, flows the Rio Chamelicon, which in turn is separated from the parallel river Santiago by only a range of hills, terminating in the broad plain of Sula, near the mouth of the River Ulua. Following the course of the Sierra Madre, we find it, at the distance of a few leagues from the Mountains of Merendon, involving itself in a tangled mass or knot of mountains known as the Mountains of Selaque. Inter mediately lies the large valley or plain of Sensenti, in Chap. II.] MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS. 19 which the Rio Santiago takes its rise.