. History of the discovery and conquest of Costa Rica . ern over the Royal Fifth ofthe wealth unearthed in its new dominions. In-deed, that fifth frequently found its way into thecoffers of the English Crown, through the piracyof its own captains, and history records no in-stance of its repudiation as tainted wealth. It has been said by one of the ablest of recenthistorians that the slower, more thorough colo-nizing methods of the Anglo-Saxon would never INTRODUCTION xxi have won dominion over the American conti-nents. Yet in those two centuries Spain settledand Christianized a world larger th
. History of the discovery and conquest of Costa Rica . ern over the Royal Fifth ofthe wealth unearthed in its new dominions. In-deed, that fifth frequently found its way into thecoffers of the English Crown, through the piracyof its own captains, and history records no in-stance of its repudiation as tainted wealth. It has been said by one of the ablest of recenthistorians that the slower, more thorough colo-nizing methods of the Anglo-Saxon would never INTRODUCTION xxi have won dominion over the American conti-nents. Yet in those two centuries Spain settledand Christianized a world larger than Europeand built up a political structure far more admi-rably effective and enlightened, considering herinterests as a great power, than the early gov-ernment maintained in India by the English; shecreated an empire capitaled by the greatestcities in the world of their day: Mexico, Guate-mala and Lima were each in their turn richer,more cultured and greater commercially thanany cities of their time in Europe. , 1, History of the Discovery andConquest of Costa Rica CHAPTER I Pre-Col,umbian Costa Rica THE territory of Costa Rica, which hes be-tween the 8th and 11th parallels of northlatitude, constitutes a small section of Cen-tral America, a vast geographical entity, pecu-liarly distinguished for its geological character,having its beginning in the Isthmus of Tehuan-tepec and ending in the Isthmus of area is estimated at fifty thousand squarekilometers, bounded on the north by Nicaragua,on the south by Panama, on the northeast by theCaribbean Sea, and on the southeast by thePacific Ocean. On the Pacific coast are theGulfs of Dulce and Nicoya, the latter of whichenjoys the reputation of being one of the mostbeautiful spots in the world.^ The country is so mountainous that in only tworegions are level plains of any considerable ex- * Elisée Reclus, Nouvelle geographic universelle, Vol. XVIJ,p. 546. 1 2 HISTORY OF DISCOVERY AND ten
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