¹ Radell, D., ‘Historical Geography of Western Nicaragua: the spheres of influence of León, Granada and Managua, 1519–1965’ (unpublished Ph.D dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1969), pp. 66–80Google Scholar and ‘The Indian Slave Trade and the Population of Nicaragua during the Sixteenth Century’ in The Native Population of the Americas in 1492, Denevan, W. M. (ed.), (Madison, 1976), pp. 67–76;Google ScholarMacLeod, M. J., Spanish Central America: a Socioeconomic History, 1520–1720 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1973) pp. 49–56;Google ScholarSherman, W. L., Forced Native Labor in Sixteenth-Century Central America (Lincoln, Nebraska, and London, 1979), pp. 4–6, 74–82.Google Scholar

² Kroeber, A. L., ‘Cultural and Natural Areas of Native North America’, University of California Publications in Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 38 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1939), p. 166;Google ScholarSteward, J. H., reference to p. 435.Google Scholar

³ Steward, J. H., ‘The Native Population of South America’ in The Handbook of South American Indians, Vol. 5 Bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 143 (Washington, 1949), p. 664.Google Scholar

⁴ Rosenblat, A., La Población Indigena y el Mestizaje en América (2 vols., Buenos Aires, 1954) I, 102.Google Scholar

⁵ Sapper, K., ‘Die Zahl und die Volksdichte der Indianischen Bevölkerung in Amerika vor der Conquista und in der Gegenwart’, Proceedings of the XXI International Congress of Americanists (The Hague, 1924) Vol. I, p. 100.Google Scholar

⁶ Dobyns, , op. cit., p. 415.Google Scholar

⁷ Radell, , op. cit. (1976), pp. 67, 75.Google Scholar

⁸ Denevan, , op. cit., p. 291. His estimates for the Central American countries are: Guatemala 2,000,000; Honduras and Belize 750,000; El Salvador 500,000; Nicaragua 5,000,000; Costa Rica 40,000; and Panama 1,000,000.Google Scholar

⁹ For a full discussion of the volume of the Indian slave trade, see Sherman, , op. cit., pp. 74–82.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Ibid., pp. 4–5.

¹¹ MacLeod, , op. cit., p. 52.Google Scholar

¹² de las Casas, B., Breve Relación de la Destrucción de las Indias Occidentales (London, 1812), pp. 43–5.Google Scholar

¹³ Motolinía, T., Memoriales e Historia de los Indios de la Nueva España, Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, 240 (Madrid, 1970), p. 197.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Archivo General de las Indias, Seville (hereafter AGI) Audiencia de Guatemala (AG) 9 and Colección de Documentos Inéditos Relativos al Descubrirniento, Con quista y Organización de las Posesiones Españoles en América y Oceanía (hereafter CDI) 42 vols. (Madrid, 1864–1884) XXIV, 397–420, Herrera to Crown 24.12.1544.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Sherman, , op. cit., p. 78.Google Scholar

¹⁶ AGI, AG 162, Bishop of Nicaragua, to Crown, 12.1.1578.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, G., Historia General y Natural de las Indias, Islas y Tierra Firme del Mar Océano, 5 vols., Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, 117–21 (Madrid, 1959) IV lib. 42 Cap. 5 p. 391;Google ScholarColección Somoza: Documentos para la Historia de Nicaragua (hereafter CS) 17 vols. (Madrid, 1954–1957) I, pp. 128–33.Google ScholarPedrarias, Dávila to Crown, , 04 1525.Google Scholar

¹⁸ AGI Patronato (hereafter PAT) 20−1–3 and CS I pp. 84–9 Cerezeda, to Crown, , no date (1522?); AGI PAT 26–17 and CS I Pp. 26–107Google ScholarGil, González Divila to Crown, 6.3.1524; CS I pp. 107–9 and Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid (hereafter BNM) 13,020 ff. 209−10v. Gil González Dávila to Archbishop 8.3.1524. Figures for the numbers of Indians baptized who were vassals of different caciques were:Google Scholar When Castañeda visited Nicoya in 1529 he found Nicoya had 2,000 able-bodied males as subjects, Chira 400, Corobeci 200, Orotina 200 and Cangen 200 (AGI PAT 180–27 and CS I pp. 479–508 Castañeda, to Crown, 30.3.1529).Google Scholar

¹⁹ Oviedo, , op. cit., IV lib. 42 cap. 3, pp. 382–3.Google Scholar

²⁰ Oviedo, , op. cit., IV lib. 42 cap. 2, pp. 366–7; cap. 4, p. 385.Google Scholar

²¹ Borah, W. and Cook, S. F., The Aboriginal Population of Central Mexico on the Eve of Spanish Conquest, Ibero-Americana, 45 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1963), p. 91.Google Scholar

²² Palerm, A., ‘Agricultural Systems and Food Patterns’, Handbook of Middle American Indians, vol. 6, Nash, M. (ed.) (Austin, 1967), p. 38.Google Scholar

²³ Clark, G. and Haswell, M., The Economics of Subsistence Agriculture (London, 1966), p. 37.Google Scholar

²⁴ Ibid., p. 37.

²⁵ Incer, J.. Nueva Geografía de Nicaragua (Managua, 1970). The distribution of land uses in 1963 was as follows (p. 419):Google Scholar Pacific Central Caribbean % region region region Cultivated lands 24.8 22.6 21.0 Grasslands 49.0 49.5 28.8 Mountains, forests, swamps and other 26.2 27.9 50.2

²⁶ Denevan, W. M., ‘The Upland Pine Forests of Nicaragua: a Study in Cultural Plant Geography’, University of California Publications in Geography, 12 (4) (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1961), p. 283.Google Scholar

²⁷ AGI, AG and CDI XXIV, pp. 397–420, Herrera, to Crown, , 24.12.1544.Google Scholar

²⁸ AGI, AG 128 Libro de tasaciones for the jurisdiction of León 24th to 29th November 1548 and for the jurisdiction of Granada 1st to 8th December 1548.

²⁹ AGI, AG 8 Fray Tomás de la Torre 22.5.1553. Sherman, , op. cit., p. 352 wrongly refers to them as ‘indios’.Google Scholar

³⁰ AGI, Indiferente General (hereafter IG) 857. Juan de Estrada to Crown, no date. Sherman, , op. cit., p. 352, suggests that the letter may have been written in the 1550s.Google Scholar

³¹ AGI, AG 167. Dean of the Cathedral of León, Pedro del Pozo, to Crown, no date. The breakdown for the jurisdictions is: León 2,400; Granada 3,000; Sebaco 300; Nueva Segovia 600; and Nicoya 450.

³² MacLeod, , op. cit., pp. 53, 139.Google Scholar

³³ AGI, AG 162, Bishop of Nicaragua, to Crown, . 12.1.1578.Google Scholar

³⁴ AGI, AG 55, Moreno, to Crown, . 8.1.1578.Google Scholar

³⁵ AGI, AG 162, Bishop of Nicaragua, to Crown, . 12.1.1578.Google Scholar

³⁶ AGI, AG 40, Governor of Nicaragua, to Crown, . 29.6.1607.Google Scholar

³⁷ Orders for official assessments of the amount of tribute to he paid in Guatemala were issued in 1534 and 1536 (Archivo General de Centro América (hereafter AGCA) AI.23 1575 f. 28v. (real cédula 28.2.1536) 23.3.1536; Fuentes y Guzmán, F. A., Historia de Guatemala: Recordación Florida, ( 3 vols.) Biblioteca de Autores Españoles 230, 251 and 259 (Madrid, 1962–1972) II, pp. 254–9.Google Scholar It would appear that tasaciones were made for parts of Guatemala, San Miguel, San Salvador and Chiapas by the visitador, Lic. Maldonado, and the Bishop of Guatemala, Francisco Marroquín (AGI, AG 156). Marroquín, to Crown, 20.1.1539);Google ScholarRodríguez Becerra, S., Encomienda y Conquista: Los Inicios de la Colonización en Guatemala, Publi. caciones del Seninario de Antropología Americana (Seville, 1977), p. 117.Google Scholar In 1537 the Bishop of Nicaragua was ordered to proceed with official assessments (AGI, AG 401−3 real cėdula 30.12.1537), and Herrera mentions that tasaciones were made by the Bishop but does not give the date (AGI, AG 9 and CS XI pp. 454−68. Herrera, to Crown, 10.7.1545). By 1539 the tasaclones had not been completed (AGI 401–3 and CS VI pp. 64–8, real cé;dula 18.10.1539; AGI, AG 9 and CS XI pp. 454–68.Google ScholarHerrera, to Crown, 10.7.1545;Google ScholarFuentes, y Guzmán, op. cit., II, pp. 259). When the Audiencia de los Confines was established in 1543 new tasaciones were ordered for its jurisdiction (AGCA, AI.23 1511 f. 25.Google Scholarreal cédula 23.10.1543), hut only fragmentary evidence of them remains in the form of tribute payments made by the villages of Posoltega, Diria, Diriega and Nindiri (AGI Contaduría (hereafter CO) 984, Treasury accounts 1544–1547).Google Scholar

³⁸ AGI, AG 128, Libro de tasaciones, 1548.Google Scholar

³⁹ Recopilación de los Leyes de los Reynos de las Indias 3 vols. (Madrid, 1943), II, lib. 6 tit. 5, ley 7, pp. 226–7 5.7.1578.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ A multiplication factor of four may be conservative for 1548 since the number of adult males is likely to have increased after that date with the cessation of the Indian slave trade. A multiplication factor of 4.5 or 5 might be preferable. Barón Castro, R., La Población de El Salvador (Madrid, 1942), p. 200, believes that the population figures included in the 1548 tasaciones referred to all able-bodied adults, which he claims constituted 46 per cent of the total Indian population. This would appear to be an error of judgement, since single persons and women did not pay tribute until later in the sixteenth century.Google Scholar

⁴¹ AGI, AG 52, Cavallón, to Crown, 27.2.1555;Google ScholarBancroft, H. H., The Native Races of the Pacific States (2 vols., San Francisco, 1886) II, 359.Google Scholar

⁴² AGI, Justicia (hereafter JU) 323 Commission given 12.3.1562, AG 50 Royal officials to Crown 2.5.1563, 13.11.1566. Details of the visita conducted by Dr Barros are contained in JU 328 ff. 281–304, 1563.

⁴³ Evidence for these tasaciones appears in the tribute payments recorded in AGI, CO 984 and in the 1581 accounts of the Indian population (AGI AG 966).

⁴⁴ López de Velasco, J., Gcografía y Descripción Universal de las Indias (Madrid, 1894) pp. 318–26.Google Scholar Sherman wrongly assumes that Velasco's figures refer to the 1570s, so that the decline that he notes in fact occurred within half the time he suggests (Sherman, , op. cit., pp. 5–6, 353).Google Scholar

⁴⁵ AGI, AG 966, Cuentas de los indios naturales 1578–80, 1581.

⁴⁶ AGI, AG 128, Relación y forma‖para los que obieren de visitar contar tasar y repartir‖Lic. Palacios, no date.

⁴⁷ AGI, AG, 966 Cuentas de los indios naturales, 1581.

⁴⁸ Children in the villages of Nueva Segovia and Sebaco are classified as such by different ages. In Nueva Segovia most children are counted between the ages of five or six months to either seven or ten years, although in Jinotega they are counted between eight and ten years. In Sebaco children are generally counted under the age of ten or twelve, but in two villages boys are counted under sixteen and girls under ten.

⁴⁹ AGCA, A3.16 494 3763, Tasación of the villages of San Pedro Sutiaba and Tusta 17.12.1587.

⁵⁰ AGCA, AI.23 1511 f. 91 real cédula 15.12.1548.

⁵¹ AGI, AG 965 Archdeacon of León to Crown, no date.

⁵² Oviedo, , op. cit., IV lib. 42 cap. I p. 363Google Scholar recorded that León had over 200 vecinos and Granada about 100, whereas Velasco, , op. cit., pp. 317–27 noted that León had 150 vecinos, Granada 200 and Realejo 30. The latter figures are also to be found in CDI, XV pp. 409–572, no date.Google Scholar

⁵³ Recopilación, , op. cit., II lib. 6 tit. 5 leyes 9–10 15.2.1575 and 4.7.1593. For accounts of th tribute paid by lavoríos, see AGI, CO 986, Treasury Accounts 1625.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ The average rate of decline is calculated using Cook and Borah's coefficient of population movement (ω). See Cook, S. F. and Borah, W., Essays on Population History: Mexico and the Caribbean (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1971) I, pp. 89–91.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Thiel suggests that the total population of Nicoya in 1569 was 3,300. ‘Monografía de la Población de la República de Costa Rica en el Siglo XIX’, Revista de Estudios y Estadísticas 8, (1967) p. 88, whilst Dean Pedro del Pozo's account, probably written in the early 1570s, records that there were 450 ‘vecinos naturaJes’ in Nicoya, AGI, AG 167, no date.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ The Mercedarians starred missionary work in Sebaco in 1606 (AGGA, AI.12 5802 48,962). Friar Albuquerque to Crown 1608; AGI, AG 174, Vicar general of Mercedarians 15.8.1608; Colección de Documentos Inéditos Referentes a la Historia Colonial de Nicaragua (hereafter CDHCN), (Managua, 1921) pp. 92–122;Google ScholarNolasco Pérez, P., Historia de las Misiones Mercedarias en América (Madrid, 1966) pp. 123–7.Google Scholar The Franciscans began working amongst Indians in Nueva Segovia in 1674. Boletín del Archivo General del Gobierno, Guatemala (hereafter BAGGG), (II vols., Guatemala City, 1935–46), V, pp. 283–308.Google Scholar Friar Espino, 17.9.1674; AGI, AG 183 Friars Ovalle and Guevara, 4.3.1681, 22.3.1681, AG 371, Friar Ximénez 9.9.1748; Vázquez, F., Crónica de la Provincia del Santísimo Nombre de Jesús de Guatemala, vols. Biblioteca ‘Goathemala’ vols. 14–17 (Guatemala City, 1937–44), IV, 202–7.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ The English first settled in Providencia in 1629 and within five years had established settlements on the neighbouring mainland at Cabo de Gracias a Dios and Bluefields, as well as in Belize. Newton, A. P., The Colonising Activities of the English Puritans (New Haven, 1914);Google ScholarFloyd, T. S., The Anglo-Spanish Struggle for Mosquitia (Albuquerque, 1967) pp. 18–25.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ AGI, AG 52 and CS, III pp. 406–12, Sánchez, to Crown, 2.8.1535.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ AGCA, AI.24 2197 15752 f. 17v. real cédula 2.8.1530; AGI, Indiferente General (hereafter IG), 422–15 and CS, III PP. 4–5 real cédula 25.1.1531; de Puga, V.,Provisiones, Cédulas, Instrucciones para el Gobierno de Nueva España (Madrid, 1945) pp. 65v. and 66;Google ScholarZavala, S., Contribución a la Historia de las Instituciones Coloniales en Guatemala (Guatemala City, 1967) pp. 13–14.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ AGCA, AI.24 2197 15752 f. 4 real cédula 30.6.1532, f. 5v. and AGI, AG 393-I real cédula, 19.3.1533; Zavala, , op. cit., pp. 14–20;Google ScholarSherman, , op. cit., pp. 35–6.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Colección de Documentos Inéditos Relativos al Descubrimiento, Conquista y Organización de las Antiguas Posesiones Españolas de Ultramar (25 vols., Madrid, 1885–1932), X 192–203, real cédula 20.2.1534.Google Scholar

⁶² AGI, AG 4012 and CS, III pp. 4423, real cédula 26.5.1536, AG 401−2 and CS III, pp. 458−60 real cédula 9.9.1536.

⁶³ AGI, AG 401−2 and CS, III, pp. 442−3 real cédula 26.5.1536; AGCA AI.24 2195 15749 f. 218V. real cédula 29.1.1538; AGI AG 402−2 and CS XIV pp. 339−40 real cédula 1.9.1548.

⁶⁴ AGI, JU 1030 and CS, II pp. 219−77 Información de Francisco de Castañeda 1529, PAT 26–5 and CS II pp. 196–214 Castañeda, to Crown, 5.10.1529, AG 9 and CS III pp. 68–78Google ScholarCastañeda, to Crown, 30.5.1531;Google ScholarColección de Documentos para la Historia de Costa Rica (hereafter CDHCR), (10 vols., Paris, 1881–1907), VI pp. 199–211.Google ScholarRodríguez, to Crown, 9.7. 1545.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ AGI, AG 52 and CS VII pp. 349−75 ‘Quejas de vecinos de León y Granada contra Rodrigo de Contreras 1542’; Sherman, , op. cit., p. 54.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ AGI, AG 965 Archdeacon of León, no date.

⁶⁷ AGI, AG 401−3 and CS VII 118−20 real cédula 31.5.1531.

⁶⁸ CDHCR, VI pp. 199–211 Rodríguez, to Crown, 9.7.1545.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ For the Indian slave trade with Panama see: CS I pp. 293–9 Treasurer of Honduras, no date (1527?); AGI PAT 26–5 and CS I pp. 448–57 Pedrarias, Dávila to Crown, 15.1.1529, JU 1030 and CS II pp. 16–25 Lic. Villalobos 8.4.1529, JU 1030 and CS II pp. 28–71 Lic.Google Scholar Villalobos 3.7.1529, PAT 26–5 and CS II pp. 196–215 Castañeda, to Crown, 5.10.1529, JU 1030 and CS II, pp. 219–77Google Scholar Información de Francisco de Castañeda 1529; Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid (hereafter RAHM) Colección Muñoz (hereafter CM) A/106 4841 Castañeda, to Crown, 1.5.1533.Google Scholar For the slave trade with Peru see: AGI, AG 52 Sánchez, to Crown, 2.8.1535, JU 293 and CS IV pp. 1–760 Juicio de residencia de Francisco de Castañleda 23.1.1536; CDI VII pp. 555–73.Google Scholar Cabildo of Granada 24.11.1544; AGI, AG 9, CS XIV pp. 344–50 and RAHM CM A/112 4849 ff. 55V.-7 Cerrato, to Crown, 28.9.1548, AG 401–3 and CS XV pp. 72–4 real cédula 1.6.1549.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ AGI, AG 965 and CS I pp. 248−53 Cabildo of Granada 10.7.1527; RAHM CM A/106 4841 Castañeda, to Crown, 1.5.1533.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Borah, W., Early Colonial Trade and Navigation between Mexico and Peru, IberoAmericana 38 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1954) p. 4.Google Scholar

⁷² AGI, PAT 180−27 and CS I pp. 479–508 Castañeda, to Crown, 30.3.1529, JU 1030 and CS II pp. 16–25 Lic. Villalobos 8.4.1529, PAT 26–5 and CS II pp. 196–215.Google ScholarCastañeda, to Crown, 5.10.1529.Google Scholar

⁷³ Radell, D. R. and Parsons, J. J., ‘Realejo- A Forgotten Colonial Port and ShipBuilding Centre in Nicaragua’, Hispanic American Historical Review, 51 (1971), pp. 295–312, reference to pp. 300–1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷⁴ In 1529 Bartolome Ruiz was charged with having exported 80 to 90 Indians from ‘el puerto del rio de la posesión’ without licence. AGI, JU 1030–2 and CS II pp. 280–71. Lic. Villalobos 3.7.1529.

⁷⁵ de Las Casas, B., op. cit., 1812, p. 45.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ AGI, PAT 180–27 and CS I pp. 479–508 Castañeda, to Crown, 30.3.1529.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ de Herrera, A., Historical General de los Hechos de los Castellanos en las Islas i Tierra Firme del Mar Océano (17 vols., Madrid, 1934), XI, dec. 5 lib. 7 cap. 2 p. 102.Google Scholar Borah is doubtful if all the ships were caravels; they may have been brigantines. (Borah, , op. cit., pp. 5, 132.).Google Scholar

⁷⁸ AGI, AG 52 and CS, III pp. 406–22. Sánchez, to Crown, 2.8.1535.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ de Las Casas, B., Obras Escogidas, 5 vols., Biblioteca de Autores Españoles 95, 96, 105–6 and 110 (Madrid, 1957–1958), V, 59–68 15.10.1535.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Radell, , op. cit. 1969 pp. 72–7 and 1976 pp. 71–5 He places the peak years of the slave trade between 1533 and 1536, when he assumes that there was an average of 17 ships on the Panama run doing 12 trips a year and another 2 or 3 ships travelling to Peru once or twice a year. The average capacity of the ships he estimates at 350.Google Scholar

⁸¹ AGI, IG 1206 and CS, VI pp. 103–16 ‘Capítulos de cargos‖contra Rodrigo de Contreras’. 1.7.1540.

⁸² Las Casas, , op. cit. (1822), p. 45.Google Scholar

⁸³ Oviedo, op. cit. IV lib. 42, cap. 4 p. 385.Google Scholar

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⁸⁵ RAHM CM A/112 4849 ff. 55v.–7 and CS XIV pp. 344−50. Cerrato, to Crown, 28.9.1548; AGI, AG 402–3 and CS XV, pp. 72–4 real cédula 1.6.1549.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Las Casas, , op. cit. (1958) V, pp. 59–68 15.10.1535.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ MacLeod, , op. cit., p. 52.Google Scholar

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⁹¹ AGI, AG 9, RAHM CM A/106 4841 and CS III pp. 272–8 Castañeda, to Crown, 1.5.1533. For conditions in the mines see also AGI, JU 393 and CS, IV pp. 1–760 ‘Juicio de residencia de Francisco de Castañeda’. 23.1.1536.Google Scholar

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⁹⁴ AGCA, AI.23 1511 f. 40 real cédula 5.7.1546.

⁹⁵ AGI, AG 401–3 and CS, VII pp. 118–20 real cédula 31.5.1541, JU 297 and CS IX pp. 1−558 Juicio de residencia‖Rodrigo de Contreras 28.6.1544, AG 9 and CDI XXIV pp. 397–420 Herrera, to Crown, 24.12.1544; AGCA AI.23 1511 f. 137 and CS XVII pp. 2–3 real cédtila 11.3.1550.Google Scholar

⁹⁶ AGI, AG 401–3 and CS VII pp. 118–20 real cédula 31.5.1541; AGGA AI.23.1513, f. 565 real cédula 6.9.1579.

⁹⁷ AGI, AG 55 Arias, Riquel to Crown, 4.3.1550.Google Scholar

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¹⁰⁰ AGI, AG 162 and CS XIV pp. 299–305 Bishop of Nicaragua, to Crown, 1547; RAHM CM A/III 4846 ff. 230v.-IV.Google Scholar Bishop of Nicaragua, to Crown, 1547.Google Scholar

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¹⁰⁵ MacLeod, , op. cit., p. 98.Google Scholar

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¹¹⁴ AGI, AG 55 Moreno, to Crown, 8.1.1578.Google Scholar

¹¹⁵ The preference of pneumonic plague for cooler climatic conditions has already been described. This point is emphasized in a letter from the President of the Audiencia, Alonso Criado de Castilla, in 1608 in which he described an outbreak of pneumonic plague in Guatemala recording that it did not affect Spaniards, but was worst amongst Indians who were hispanicized and who lived in the coldest areas (CDHCN pp. 92–122 President of the Audiencia to the Crown 30.11.1608). Similarly typhus is generally associated with poverty where inadequate housing, clothing and sanitation encourage the spread of the disease by lice and rats. In hot and moist coastal regions where little clothing is worn and washing can occur frequently, the disease is less likely to spread. In contrast where water is scarce, so that bathing and the washing of clothes can occur less frequently, unhygenic conditions are often created which encourage the spread of the disease (Ashburn, , op. cit., pp. 81, 95–6).Google Scholar

¹¹⁶ Thiel, , op. cit., p. 89.Google Scholar

¹¹⁷ Ashburn, , op. cit., pp. 130–4;Google ScholarDuffy, J., Epidemics in Colonial America (Baton Rouge, 1953) p. 140;Google ScholarMacNeill, , op. cit., p. 213.Google Scholar

¹¹⁸ Denevan, , op. cit., p. 5.Google Scholar

¹¹⁹ Sauer, C. O.The Early Spanish Main (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1966) p. 279.Google Scholar

¹²⁰ Dunn, F. L., ‘On the Antiquity of Malaria irs the Western Hemisphere’, Human Biology, 37 (1965), pp. 385–93;Google ScholarWood, C. S., ‘New Evidence for a Late Introduction of Malaria into the New World’, Current Anthropology, 16 (19), pp. 93–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹²¹ RAHM, CM A/105 4840 ff. 137v.-40 Castañeda, to Crown, 30.3.1529.Google Scholar

¹²² AGI, PAT 180–22 and CS I pp. 374–431 Información recibida en León‖ 13.7.5128, PAT 26–5 and CS I pp. 448–57 Pedrarias, Dávila to Crown, 15.1.1529, PAT 26–5 and CS I pp. 457–70 Cerezeda to Crown 20.1.1529, AG 110 and CS III pp. 113–16 Protector of the Indians, Alvarez Osorio 30.11.1531.Google Scholar

¹²³ Herrera, , op. cit., X dec. 5 lib. I cap. 10 p. 72.Google Scholar

¹²⁴ CDHCR VI pp. 199–255 Rodríguez, to Crown, 9.7.1545;Google ScholarLas, Casas, op. cit., 1812, p. 43.Google Scholar

¹²⁵ AGI, AG 50 Royal officials to Crown, 15.3.1586.Google Scholar

¹²⁶ AGI, JU 293 and CS, VII pp. 151–224 Petición‖ sobre el conducta del Lic. Castañeda 16.11.1541; CDHCR VI pp. 199–211 Rodríguez, to Crown, 9.7.1545Google ScholarHerrera, , op. cit., VIII dec. 4 lib. 3 cap. 2 p. 149;Google ScholarSaco, J. A., Historia de la Esclavitud de los Indios en el Nueuo Mundo (2 vols., Havana, 1932) II 168;Google Scholarde P. García Peláez, F., Memorias para la Historia del Antiguo Reino de Guatemala (3 vols. Guatemala City, 1943–1944) 1, 96.Google Scholar

¹²⁷ AGI, JU 292 and CS IV pp. 1–760 Juicio de residencia de Francisco de Castañeda 23.1.1536.

¹²⁸ AGI, AG 9 and CDI XXV pp. 37–49 Audiencia, to Crown, 6.9.1554.Google Scholar

¹²⁹ The numbers introduced under individual licences generally did not exceed five, although in 1527 the city of Granada had petitioned the Crown to allow colonists to introduce twelve slaves each (CDHCR IV pp. 7–11. ‘Instrucciones a los procuradores de la ciudad de Granada’. 10.7.1527). For examples of the small numbers introduced from Spain, see: AGI, AG 402–2 and CS III p. 171 real cédula 29.11.1532, IC 1206 and CS VI pp. 118–28. ‘Relación de los bienes que el Cap. Juan Tellez dejó en Nicaragua’. 8.7.1540.

¹³⁰ The only ratios comparable to those calculated for Nicaragua are for coastal Peru with a depopulation ratio of 58:1 from 1525 to 1570. Smith, C. T., ‘Depopulation of the Central Andes in the Sixteenth Century’, Current Anthropology, 2 (1970), pp. 453–464.CrossRefGoogle Scholar reterence to p. 459, and Amazonia with a depopulation ratio of 35:1 from contact to population nadir. W. M. Denevan, ‘The Aboriginal Population of Amazonia’ in Denevan, , op. cit., pp. 205–34, reference to p. 212. In addition, the Indian population of the Caribbean islands became almost extinct within a generation.Google Scholar

¹³¹ For a parallel study of the decline in the Indian population of sixteenth-century Honduras see: Newson, L. A., ‘Demographic Catastrophe in Sixteenth-Century Honduras’ in Studies in Spanish American Population History, Robinson, D. J. (ed.), (Boulder, Colorado, 1981) pp. 217–41.Google Scholar