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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2018
It is not surprising that prior to the construction of the Panama Canal, Nicaragua was considered of strategic importance to the world's major sea powers. Together the Río San Juan and Lake Nicaragua provide a water passage from the Caribbean Sea to within 20 kilometers of the Pacific Ocean (see map). In addition to its obvious inter-oceanic canal potential, this water passage was primarily useful for hundreds of years as an alternate route for the pirate-threatened Central American colonial commerce.
A remarkable number of historical and geographical misconceptions have appeared in the literature concerning this river. The recent publication of the seventeen-volume Colección Somoza containing documents relating to the history of Nicaragua from 1503 to 1550 does much to clarify this period of exploration and navigation.
1 Bolaños, Andrés Vega, Colección Somoza: Documentos Para La Historia de Nicaragua, 17 vols., Madrid, 1954-1957 Google Scholar
2 Davis, Arthur Powell, “Hydrography of the American Isthmus,” Twenty-Second Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 1900-1901, part IV (Hydrography), 1902, pp. 581–592.Google Scholar
3 Las Isletas are now the weekend retreat of some of the wealthiest citizens of Granada and Managua, each island having a single small estate.
4 The following physical description of the Río San Juan is a compilation of data from: Davis, , “Hydrography”; Report of the Nicaragua Canal Commission, 1897-1899 (Baltimore, 1899)Google Scholar; Report of the Nicaragua Canal Board, House of Reps., 54th Cong., 1st sess., doc. no. 279, 1895; Report of the U.S. Nicaragua Surveying Party, 1885 (A. G. Menocal), Washington, 1886, Senate, 49th Cong., 1st sess., ex. doc. no. 99; Reports of Explorations and Surveys for the Location of a Ship-Canal Between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans Through Nicaragua 1872- 73, Senate, 43rd Cong., 1st sess., ex. doc. no. 57, Washington, 1874.
5 “Carta del Capitán Gil González de Ávila a Su Majestad,” Isla Española, Marchó, 1524, in Colección Somoza, 1 (1954): 89-107.
6 Gil González named the gulf “San Viceynte.”
7 In his letter Gil González called the Cacique Nicaragua. Andrés de Cerezeda, contador of the expedition, spells the name Niqueragua in “Relación de las Leguas que Anduvo a pie el Capitán Gil González de Ávila,” 1522, in Colección Somoza, 1 (1954): 84-89. José Dolores Gámez says that the name “Nicaragua” represents a combination of the Indian chiefs name, Nicarao, with the Spanish word for water, agua, indicating the proximity of Lake Nicaragua, Historia de Nicaragua (1889), 2nd ed., 1955, p. 102.
8 “Carta del Capitán Gil González,” pp. 89-107.
9 The Gulf of Nicoya has also been called Golfo de Salinas.
10 Gámez, , Historia de Nicaragua, p. 102.Google Scholar Hernando de Soto is the same man who later became governor of Cuba, adelantado of Florida, and discoverer of the Mississippi River.
11 Valle, Eduardo Pérez, El Desaguadero de la Mar Dulce (Managua, 1959), p. 22.Google Scholar
12 “Instrucción y Poder que Dio el Governador del Nuevo Reino de León, Diego López de Salcedo a Gabriel de Rojas,” 1527, Colección Somoza, 1: 284-292.
13 “Carta de Pedrarias al Rey, Sobre Administración de la Provincia,” January 15,1529, Colección Somoza, 1: 448-457.
14 Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, Historia de los Hechos de los Castellanos en las Islas i Tierra Firme del Mar Océano (Madrid, 1601), doc. IV, lib. Ill, cap. II.
15 Gámez, , Historia de Nicaragua, pp. 124–125.Google Scholar Pérez Valle believes that there were two expeditions, one commanded by Estete, which traveled to Voto, and another commanded by Rojas, which traveled to the north through the Central Highlands in search of Cape Gracias a Dios, Valle, Pérez, El Desaguadero, pp. 33, 40.Google Scholar
16 “Cédula de la Reina Ordenando al Gobernador de la Provincia de Nicaragua Organice una Expedición al Desaguadero,” Valladolid, September 9, 1536, Colección Somoza, 3:458.
17 “Capitulación que se Tomó con Juan de Perea en Nombre del Governador Rodrigo de Contreras,” Vallodolid, April 20, 1537, Colección Somoza, 5: 159-162.
18 Bancroft, Hubert Howe, History of Central America (1886), 2: 170–171.Google Scholar
19 Bancroft, states, “the dangers encountered during this voyage are not recorded by the chroniclers of the age,” History of Central America, 2: 176.Google Scholar He seems to have been unfamiliar with an existing detailed account of this voyage, “Relación del Viaje del Capitán Alonso Calero, Sobre el Descubrimiento del Desaguadero,” undated (c. 1539) and unsigned in de Peralta, Manuel M., Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Y Panamá en el siglo XVI (Madrid, 1883), pp. 728–740.Google Scholar
20 “Relación del Viaje del Capitán Alonso Calero, Sobre el Descubrimiento del Desaguadero.”
21 de Oviedo, Gonzalo Fernández y Valdés, , Historia General y Natural de Las Indias (Madrid, 1855), parte III, lib. XLII, cap. IV, p. 62.Google Scholar
22 Gámez, , Historia de Nicaragua, p. 146.Google Scholar This may be true, but the name “Desaguadero” continued in use until 1667 at least.
23 “Carta del Capitán Alonso Calero a S.M. Sobre el Descubrimiento del Desaguadero,” undated (c. 1539), Colección Somoza, 6: 74-75.
24 The expedition had yielded only 180 castellanos worth of gold—only one Indian village had been surprised and looted by Calero's expedition.
25 “Relación del Viaje del Capitán Alonso Calero,” pp. 728-740.
26 Colquhoun, Archibald, The Key to the Pacific: The Nicaraguan Canal (London, 1895), pp. 154–155.Google Scholar
27 “El Doctor Villalobos, Presidente de la Audiencia de Guatemala, a S.M. el Rey sobre estado de Audiencia,” Ubi Supra-Audiencia de Guatemala—cartas y expedientes del presidente y oidores 1529-1573, in Peralta, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, y Panamá, p. 477.
28 The ship Buena Ventura, owned by Lonso Gómes de Herrera, was issued a license to travel from Granada to Nombre de Dios on October 22, 1541. It apparently accompanied a brigantine owned by the same man, which was licensed October 18, 1541. Possibly this brigantine was the Santa María de los Reyes that accompanied the Buena Ventura on the same run after being licensed on January 31, 1543. “Registro de Navio Buena Ventura,” October 22, 1541, Colección Somoza, 10: 484-485; “Registro del Vergantin del Lonso Gomes de Herrera,” October 18, 1541, Colección Somoza, 10: 484; “Registro del Vergantin Santa María de los Reyes,” January 31, 1543, Colección Somoza, 10: 491-493.
29 “El Doctor Villalobos, Presidente de la Audiencia de Guatemala, a S.M. el Rey sobre estado de Audiencia,” p. 47.
30 “El Obispo de Nicaragua y Costa Rica Fray Antonio de Zayas a S.M. el Rey, Sobre el estado de su diosicesis” (León, January 12, 1578), in Peralta, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, y Panamá, p. 558.
31 Gage, Thomas, An English American: A New Survey of the West Indies, 1648, ed. Newton, A. P. (London, 1928), pp. 342–343.Google Scholar
32 Ibid., pp. 342-343.
33 Juarros, Domingo, Compendio de la Historia de la Ciudad de Guatemala (1848), 3rd ed. (Guatemala, 1936), 2: 133.Google Scholar Gámez believes Nueva Jaén was founded in 1542 by Captain Diego de Castañeda, Historia de Nicaragua, p. 125.
34 “Cédula del Príncipe,” Valladolid, September 21, 1543, in Colección Somoza, 7: 530-532.
35 Ayón, Tomás, Historia de Nicaragua (Managua, 1882), 1956 ed. 2: 18.Google Scholar
36 Juarros, , Compendio, 1: 41.Google Scholar Juarros claims that Fort San Carlos was destroyed in this attack. According to a footnote by Victor Manuel Díaz, the editor of the third edition of Juarros, there is no documentary evidence to support the existence of Fort San Carlos in 1665. José Milla states that no other document or reference to the existence of Fort San Carlos in 1665 can be found, Historia de la América Central (1502-1821), 3rd ed. (Guatemala, 1963), 2: 325.
37 Gámez, , Historia de Nicaragua, p. 184.Google Scholar
38 Parsons, James J., “English Speaking Settlement of the Western Caribbean,” Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, 16 (1954): 7–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Parsons spells the region “Miskito Territory” or “Shore.” Although the Miskito Indians inhabit the area, it seems preferable to refer to this region by the name that has traditionally appeared on maps in both English and Spanish, “Mosquito Territory” or “Mosquito Shore.”
39 Gámez, , Historia de Nicaragua, p. 186.Google Scholar
40 Ayón, , Historia de Nicaragua, 2: 131–133.Google Scholar
41 Colquhoun, , The Key to the Pacific, p. 155.Google Scholar
42 Bancroft, , History of Central America, 2: 608.Google Scholar
43 Ibid.
44 Bard, Samuel A. (E. George Squier), Waikna; or Adventures on the Mosquito Shore (New York, 1855), pp. 340–343.Google Scholar
45 Gámez, José Dolores, Historia de la Costa de Mosquitos—Hasta 1894 (Managua, 1939), p. 102.Google Scholar
46 Bancroft, , History of Central America, p. 608.Google Scholar
47 Southey's Life of Nelson, Geoffrey Callerder, ed. (London, 1922), pp. 21-24.
48 Pim, Bedford, The Gate of the Pacific (London, 1863), p. 262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
49 Southey's Life of Nelson, p. 23.