scription to convey a clear idea of the scenery of the country and the architecture of its people. It will not, probably, be regarded as arrogant, to claim that the essential facts connected with the geography, topography, population, climate, productions, resources, and commerce of Central America are here presented with sufficient fullness for all general or necessary purposes. The difficulties which I have encountered in collecting them can not, however, be adequately appreciated by the general reader; indeed, for the most part, and wholly as regards Honduras, San Salvador, Nicaragua, the Bay Islands, and the Mosquito Shore, I have been obliged to depend upon my own observations. The undertaking has been, I had almost said, a creation, inasmuch as there are few authorities or accredited sources of information upon which to proceed, or which might serve as a nucleus for an aggregation of facts. The former condition of Central America, under the jealous and exclusive colonial system of Spain, and the distracting and deplorable circumstances under which it has suffered since its independence, have been eminently unfavorable for every kind of local research, whether in the departments of geography or general statistics. Upon all subjects connected with the history, the natural features and resources, climate, population, productions, trade, and resources of the country, there exists a profound and almost universal ignorance. Even the persons supposed to be best informed upon these subjects are seldom able to give any comprehensive series of facts, or of accurate observations bearing upon any one of them, and the inquirer is left to a laborious process of accumulation, which is alike difficult and discouraging. He looks in vain for printed books or public documents to assist him. Of the few which have made their appearance, there nowhere exists a complete collection; and it is equally vain to seek for data among the state and local archives, where, to an original total lack of order, gross neglect and wanton destruction have been superadded, to confound and defeat all investigation.

Humboldt, when attempting to construct a map of New Spain, remarked the entire insufficiency and inaccuracy of all the published maps of that country. Not only were important places wrongly located, but topographical features, chains of mountains, and large rivers were laid down where none existed, while others which really did exist were entirely left out. “Most of the American maps executed in Europe," he observed, "are filled with names which are unknown in the country itself. These errors are perpetuated, and it often becomes exceedingly difficult to conjecture their origin."

Mexico was comparatively much better known than Central America, and if the early maps of the former country were wrong, those of the latter can only be characterized as geographically absurd. Even in later times, although the coasts have been defined with great accuracy, the interior geography has remained as obscure as it was a hundred years ago. The latest maps, some of which are sufficiently pretentious, are for the most part conjectural, and the geographical features which they indicate are wholly inapplicable to the country which they profess to represent. The mention here. of an instance, illustrative of the scanty knowledge which the world has hitherto possessed of Central America, may not be inappropriate. Notwithstanding the project of opening a commmunication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, through Nicaragua, had been discussed for three hundred years, yet, up to the publication of my map of that state in 1851, a chain of high mountains was represented in every engraved map which had fallen under my notice as intervening between Lake Managua and the Pacific. The city of Leon was represented either as situated on a mountain or surrounded by mountains; and in all speculations on the subject of an inter-oceanic canal, a river flowing into the sea at or near the port of Realejo, and called "Rio Tosta," was constantly referred to as probably affording some facilities for the purpose; yet there are no mountains between the northern extremity of Lake Managua and the ocean; the city of Leon stands in the centre of a vast plain; and there is no such stream as the "Rio Tosta" known. And even in the map of Mr. Baily, published in London in 1851, an uninterrupted chain of mountains is represented as extending from Lake Managua to the Gulf of Fonseca, whereas there is no such chain, nor are there any mountains, except a series of volcanic cones, entirely detached from each other, rising from the plain. This error is the more surprising, as Mr. Baily was employed by General Morazan, President of the Old Federation of Central America, to make a reconnaissance of the Isthmus of Nicaragua with reference to the projected ship-canal.

Again the city of Comayagua, the capital of Honduras, which was a large and flourishing town before Hudson discovered the Bay of New York, seldom varies less than a degree from its true latitude and longitude, and in many maps it still bears the name of Valladolid, which fell into disuse nearly one hundred and fifty years ago! The city of Tegucigalpa, the first in Honduras in point of population, has a position still more variable than Comayagua.

There is another great source of annoyance to travelers in Central America, which is the stereotyped recurrence of the names of places in the maps, which, if they ever existed, are now unknown, or which are mere hamlets, unworthy of a place except in maps of great detail, while really important places do not appear at all. We thus see the town of Tambla, in Honduras, laid down in most maps of the country, while Las Piedras and the Villa de San Antonio, which exist in the same plain, do not appear. Yet Tambla is a petty village of some 200 inhabitants, while Las Piedras has upward of 6000, and San Antonio more than 2500! Again: in the Department of Gracias, in the same state, Guancapla, a collection of a few huts, is conspicuously indicated, while the large and flourishing town of Santa Rosa, containing some 6000 inhabitants, is entirely omitted.

These examples might be multiplied indefinitely; but they are errors consequent on the limited information which the world has hitherto possessed of these countries. Map-makers, destitute of requisite accurate data, have been obliged to copy the works of their predecessors, and thus contribute to the perpetuation of their errors. That they have done this, with little or no care to test the accuracy of what they have copied, can also be excused on the ground that hitherto these countries have not had sufficient interest to make accuracy a matter of any practical importance. Now, however, the case is widely different: not only is the value of Central America, in every point of view, beginning to be appreciated, but the enterprise of the world is taking that direction in a full and increasing current.

The distinguished Prussian geographer, Berghaus, was the first to indicate, with even approximate accuracy, the great physical features of Central America. Instead of admitting a continuous chain of mountains extending through that country from Tehuantepec to Panama, he divided the mountains of Central America into three distinct systems or groups: first, that of Costa Rica, with the volcano of Cartago for a nucleus; second, that of Honduras; and, third, that of Guatemala. Between the first and second intervenes the transverse basin of the Nicaragua lakes, with a minimum altitude of land of one hundred and eighty feet; and between the second and third the plain of Comayagua, with its dependent valleys, having a maximum altitude of but little more than two thousand feet. Under this view, and in all general respects, Berghaus's Map of Central America, published in his "Physikalischen Atlas" in 1840, has been,

up to within a very recent period, far the best representation of the geography of that country.

In explanation of the map of Honduras and San Salvador which is herewith presented to the public, it is proper to say that the leading points upon the line of the proposed railway through Honduras were determined from numerous and careful astronomical observations. They constitute the basis upon which the relations of most of the remaining places were calculated. These calculations are entitled to additional confidence, from the circumstance that there are, both in Honduras and San Salvador, a number of elevated and commanding mountain and volcanic peaks, which are almost constantly kept in view by the traveler, and which always enable him to determine his position with considerable accuracy. The bearings of these determinate points were never neglected when an opportunity occurred for observing them, and have served a most useful and satisfactory purpose in the construction of this map. It will be remarked that those places, of which the position is regarded as having been fixed with approximate accuracy, are indicated by a light line drawn under them. All others are inserted on the best information that could be obtained, and in a few instances conjecturally. The course of the Rio Patuca, and the relative positions of the towns situated on its upper waters, are on the authority of a map of the Departments of Yoro and Olancho, published by Mr. W. V. Wells, in his " Adventures and Explorations in Honduras." Much of the information embodied in that portion of the map embraced within the boundaries of the Department of Gracias, Honduras, is drawn from a MS. map of that department, constructed in 1838 by Don José Maria Cacho, late Secretary of State of Honduras, and at that period Commissioner of the Census then ordered by the Congress of the old republic.

I may here observe that little reliance can be placed upon the "Itinerários" which are appended to the various "Calendários" published in Central America in respect of distances. The computations are in leagues, and have been obtained chiefly from the professional arrieros, or muleteers of the country, whose estimates of distances are very loose, depending, as they often naïvely confess, upon the qualities of their mules." I have found that the value of a league, in the comparatively level grounds of San Salvador and in the plains of Honduras, seldom exceeds two English miles; while, in the broken and mountainous districts, it falls below a mile and a half of horizontal distance.

What I have said of the geographical data embraced in this memoir, and in the accompanying maps, is equally true of the general statistics and facts which are here presented. They have been chiefly obtained from direct observation and laborious personal inquiry, in a detached and often obscure form, and are necessarily imperfect. For instance, the facts relating to population have been collected from an inspection of the parochial registers in some instances, and from tables published irregularly and without digestion in the "Gacetas Officials" of the respective states. Few, who have not undertaken a similar task, can adequately comprehend how great an amount of labor is requisite to arrive at results under such adverse circumstances, and how unsatisfactory these results will often prove to be, even after every effort has been exhausted to render them complete and accurate. No one can be more sensible of the defects of this volume, and its deficiencies in respect to several important subjects of inquiry and interest, than myself. Still, I flatter myself that it will prove of value, as constituting a point of departure for other investigators, who, by correcting its errors and gradually supplying its omissions, shall finally complete the design of presenting to the world a full and accurate view of the character, climate, resources, population, and general physical and political condition of the various divisions of Central America; and I am not without the hope that this attempt may have an influence in awakening the attention of the people and governments of that country to the importance of collecting, digesting, and making public the data bearing upon all these subjects.

I am not aware of more than one work which has been printed in Central America that even professed to give a general view of the country, its character, and resources, viz., The History of the Kingdom of Guatemala, by Juarros. This work, however, is chiefly historical, and is little more than a transcript from the municipal and monkish chronicles of Guatemala. Reference is rarely made to the physical features of the country, and even then in an exaggerated and marveling tone, which always denotes the absence of positive knowledge. Such stories as the production of "a plant like a gourd" from sowing the eggs of an insect known as the Chapulin, are not too absurd to find a grave relation in the history of Juarros. Yet, strange to say, nearly all that has been written or published in Central America upon the country itself has been a servile repetition, seldom even varying in language, of the statements and speculations of Juarros!