With a view of facilitating comparison, I may add here a brief vocabulary, obtained by Mr. Julius Froebel in the District of Chontales, Nicaragua, bordering on Honduras, in the year 1851. It is of the language or dialect spoken by the Ulüas or Woolwas, to which farther reference is had in the chapters on Nicaragua. WOOLWA-Spoken by the Indians of Chontales, Nicaragua.

Colonel Don Juan Galindo published in the Transactions of the Royal Geographical Society of London, vol. iii. (1833), p. 290, a notice of the Caribs established in Honduras, and presented the following brief vocabulary of their language, which will be found, on comparison, to be identical with the Insular Carib, or the language spoken by the Caribs of the islands, as distinguished from the Continental Caribs of South America.

THE 'HE dissolution of the Federal Republic of Central America in 1838 left the various states which had composed it in a singular and anomalous position. Some of them, including Honduras, still adhered to the idea of nationality, and while, in fact, exercising all the powers of distinct sovereignties, they carefully avoided taking the title. They called themselves States, and named their highest executive officers "chiefs" or "directors." They supplied the want of a common or national constitution by means of treaties of alliance and friendship, which, in certain contingencies, bound them to support each other by force of arms.

The three central or liberal states, Honduras, San Salvador, and Nicaragua, nevertheless cherished the hope of reconstructing the confederation, and exerted themselves to procure the concurrence of Guatemala and Costa Rica. To this end a national convention was called in 1842, and subsequently another in 1847; but, from the neglect or refusal of the states last named to send delegates, as also from the difficulty of defining satisfactorily the relative powers of the allied states themselves, the attempts at union failed.

Finally, abandoning the hope of inducing Guatemala and Costa Rica to enter into the proposed new federal republic, the central states, in 1849, sent commission

R

ers to Leon, in Nicaragua, where they agreed upon a basis of union or pact, under the title of the "National Representation of Central America." This pact was unanimously ratified by the people of the several states in their primary capacity, and delegates were chosen, in accordance with its provisions, to frame a national constitution on the principles laid down in its articles. This constituent assembly met in the city of Tegucigalpa, in Honduras, in the autumn of 1852, and proceeded to the discharge of its duties. But, meantime, the reactionary element in Guatemala had brought such influences to bear upon the government of San Salvador as to induce it to withdraw its delegates from the convention. This example was soon after followed by the government of Nicaragua, and, as a consequence, the assembly was broken up.' To Honduras, therefore, remains the honor of having adhered to the principle of union and nationality to the last mo

ment:

"Faithful among the faithless found!"

Since that event, both Nicaragua and San Salvador have assumed the name of republics; and although this step has not been taken by Honduras, that state may nevertheless be regarded as a distinct nationality. Its constitution, framed in 1848, "in the name of the Eternal Being, the Omnipotent Author and Supreme Legislator of the Universe," is thoroughly republican in its provisions. The Declaration of the Rights and Duties of the People sets forth that

Sovereignty is inalienable and imprescriptible, limited to the welfare and convenience of society, and no

*For an "Outline of the Political History of Central America." including the history of Honduras, see my work, "Nicaragua, its People, etc.," vol. ii., p 365-452.