Colonel George Earl Church says in regard to the Indians: “There are many indications that Costa Rica was once the debatable ground between the powerful Mexican invader and the warlike Caribs of northern South America.”
“The Caribs were a tall, muscular, copper colored race who, when the New World was discovered, occupied the coast from the mouth of the River Orinoco to that of the River Amazon, and stretched inland over all the half-drowned districts and far up the valley of the Orinoco. Their nomadic spirit led them to the conquest of many of the Windward Islands, and, I am disposed to believe, urged them to invade all the countries bordering the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico having estuaries and rivers which could be penetrated by their war canoes. These carried from twenty-five to one hundred men each and were of sufficient size to make long voyages.”
Along all the Caribbean coast districts of Yucatan, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Chiriqui, and throughout the province of Panamá, the Carib has left traces of his presence.
It is evident that an offshoot of the highland Mexican race pressed south and east from Chiapas, Mexico, into and through the long strip of the Pacific coast occupied by the Chorotegas or Mangues, followed the Pacific slope of the Cordilleras and the narrow space between Lake Nicaragua and the Ocean, penetrated into northwestern Costa Rica, settled and helped the Mangues to develop a considerable civilization in the district of Guanacaste and Nicoya, and inpart subdued all the volcanic region lying north and west of the valley of the River Reventazon.
It is notable that inhabitants of volcanic countries crowd around the slopes of its volcanoes, due probably to the fertilizing quality of the ejected ash.
The Mexicans have left abundant traces of their language in Costa Rica, especially throughout its northern half. Many of their words are now in common use and incorporated into the Spanish spoken there. Notably such words occur in the names of plants, animals and geographical localities.
In 1569 the Adelantado Peráfan de Rivera made an elaborate detailed enumeration of the Indians and found their total number to be 25,000.
Mr. M. de Peralta says the Nahuas (Aztecs) and Mangues (Chorotegas), Güetares, Viceitas, Térrabas, Changuenes, Guaymies, Quepos, Cotos and Borucas were the principal people who occupied the territory of Costa Rica at the time of the conquest. The Nahuas came from the north, and if the Mangues did not go from Chiapas, it is necessary to infer that from the Gulf of Nicoya and the shores of the lakes of Nicaragua and Managua they extended to the south of Mexico, where, up to a few years ago, their language was spoken at Acalá.
The Mangues, or Chorotegas, at the time of the Mexican invasion, occupied the peninsula of Nicoya and all the lands surrounding the gulf of that name. They were then, no doubt, the most powerful and advanced people in Costa Rica, and carried some of their arts, such as pottery, sculpture, weaving, and tilling the ground, to greater perfection than any people occupying the region between their territory and that of the Chibcas on the table-land of Colombia. In their graves are found gold ornaments and specimens of the ceramic art showing taste in design superior to any that the present civilized Costa Rican Indian can manufacture. These graves also contain beautiful specimens of obsidian, greenstone and even finely wrought jade tools and jade ornaments, knives, axes, arrowheads, amulets, rings and a multitude of stone idols, seats, etc. The Mangues appear to have manufactured gold extensively into jewelry.
The Güetares made their homes on the slopes of the Turialba. Irazú and Barba to the southeast of the Mexicans and Chorotegas, and, in a less degree, they shared in the skill and advancement of the latter, but their pottery was inferior in artistic method and quality of material and workmanship, judging from collections in the National Museum of Costa Rica.
Peralta says, “The Nahuas and Mangues of the regions of Nicoya have completely disappeared, although the first still survive in Mexico, and the latter are represented here and there by a descendant in Masava (Nicaragua) and in Acalá (Chiapas).” The Nahuas (Aztecs) left notable monuments of their material civilization and of their scientific attainments, and a language that served as the instrument of a cultivated and thoughtful race.
During the colonial period the Spaniards, in several efforts to explore the River Frio, were driven back by the Guatuso Indians, who still occupy the greater part of its valley and the slopes of the volcanic mountains. It was not until 1856 that a small expedition penetrated across the country to the Rio Frio from the mouth of the River Arenal, a branch of the San Carlos. They reported fertile, hilly slopes in its upper reaches, and beautiful plains for most of the distance traversed to its mouth.
The rubber collectors of Nicaragua for many years have ascended the Rio Frio and other rivers in canoes and plundered the settlements, plantations and property of the Indians, forcing them to retire further up the river. The Guatusos live inpalenques(stockades), and their houses are similar to the maloccas among Amazon tribes. Each palenque shelters several families, who cook their food at separate fires built on the ground. They live principally on plantains, yucca, maize, sugar cane, cacao, game and fish, the latter being abundant in the Rio Frio. They also cultivate and smoke tobacco.
Their weapons are bows, arrows, stone axes, and wooden knives. They drinkchicha, made by fermenting roasted green plantains, and alsochicha mascada de maiz. As the bishop of Costa Rica, Dr. Bernardo A. Thiel, a very noted ethnologist and archæologist, says:
“The Guatuso country is probably one of the most delightful portions of Costa Rica. Every tropical product can be grown there in abundance, for the lands are immeasurably rich and the climate one of the best in the tropical belt.”
The last census of the Guatuso Indians is as follows:
Of the Talamanca Indians, Professor H. Pittier distinguishes two tribes, the Brilio and Cabécar. The first live in the valleys and mountains of Urén and Arari and along the lower course of the Coen River, while the Cabécars dwell in the upper parts of the Coen. Other Indians, probably of the Tiribi tribe, live in the upper part of the Teliri valley.
The Talamanca Indians have a higher grade of civilization than the neighboring Boruca or Brunca and Térraba Indians.
The Bribris have good traditions and numerous legends of their past.
The census of the Talamanca Indians is as follows:
The Térrabas and Bruncas or Boruca Indians are located on the Pacific slope of the Talamanca mountains, and especially in the great valley of the Diquis or Rio Grande de Térraba, although there are also a few Indian palenques in the neighborhood of the Chirripo. The Borucas or Bruncas are dolichocephalic. The men are large, the women short and plump. They are more intelligent and active than the Tishbi of Térraba. Professor Pittier counted in the Boruca valley and at Palma, Punta Mala and La Uvita 65 to 75 ranchos scattered around, with about 389 inhabitants, while he found 50 to 60 ranchos with about 250 inhabitants in the town of Térraba and 25 to 30 ranchos with about 300 inhabitants in the town of Buenos Aires. There are also some Indians near the Golfo Dulce.
Taken in all, about 4000 uncivilized Indians are estimated to remain in Costa Rica.