Costa Rica. COSTA RICA- PANAMA ARBITRATION DOCUMENTS ANNEXED TO THE ARGUMENT OF COSTA RICA BEFORE THE ARBITRATOR HON. EDWARD DOUGLASS WHITE CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES UNDER THE PROVISIONS OF THE CONVENTION BETWEEN THE REPUBLIC OF COSTA RICA VOLUME IV. 1913. THE COMMONWEALTH Co., PRINTERS, ROSSLYN, VA., U. S. A. Descripción de las Indias Occidentales (Description of the Doc. 570 Western Indies). Madrid, 1601. CHAPTER XIII. The Province and Government of Costa Rica, the most eastern of the Indies of the North and Audiencia of Guatemala, has a length East-West of ninety leagues, from the frontiers of Veragua to those of Nicaragua, upon which it borders on the North and West. There are in it two settlements (pueblos); it is a goodly land, with many evidences of gold and some of silver. One of the settlements is the town (villa) of Aranjuez,2 five leagues from the Chomes Indians, a settlement of the jurisdiction of Nicoya. The city of Cartago, forty leagues from Nicoya and 1Manuel M. de Peralta-Límites de Costa Rica y Colombia. Madrid, 1890. 2 Aranjuez, or Port of Ribera, founded by the Governor of Costa Rica, Perafán de Ribera, in 1568, was situated upon the Gulf of Nicoya, but outside of the jurisdiction of the Alcaldía Mayor of Nicoya, in the territory proper of Costa Rica. Herrera did not have before him the demarcation of Costa Rica made by Philip II in 1573, and does not make any mention of Esparza, the city which in 1578 took the place of that of Aranjuez or of Espíritu Santo, and which was hardly inferior in importance to that of Cartago. The old maps do not locate Aranjuez properly. Doc. 571 twenty from the sea, almost in the middle of the Province, has a Port and landing-place upon the South Sea and upon the North Sea, where there are some rivers between Nicaragua and Veragua, common to this Government, and the bays of SAN JERÓNIMO and of CARIBACO, near the borders of Veragua. JUAN DE LAET. L'Histoire du Nouveau Monde ou Description des Indes Occidentales, contenant dix huit livres, par le Sieur Jean de Laet d'Anvers, enrichi de nouvelles tables géographiques et figures des animaux, plantes et fruicts. A Leyde, chez Bonaventure et Abraham Elseviers, Imprimeurs ordinaires de l'Université. 1640. (History of the New World or Description of the Western Indies, containing eighteen books, by Sieur Jean de Laet of Antwerp, enriched with new geographical charts and figures of animals, plants and fruits. Leyden, printed by Bonaventure and Abraham Elseviers, regular printers for the University). The Dutch edition was in 1630 and the Latin one in 1633. CHAPTER XXII. Limits of Costa Rica, Towns and Other Matters. Also the The province and government of Costa Rica is bounded upon the West and also upon the North by Nicaragua; upon the Eastern side by Veragua, and upon either coast, on the North and on the South, it is shut in by the sea. It has a length (if the account of Herrera is not mistaken in this particular) of ninety leagues, from the extreme limits of Nicaragua Eastward as far as Veragua; and a width of never more than forty or fifty. The soil is fertile and is not lacking in mines of gold and silver, as the Spanish believed from many evidences thereof. There are only three towns that are more than straggling villages, inhabited by Spaniards, in this province; the first of these being ARANJUEZ, which is reputed to belong to the territory of NICOYA upon the borders of the Indians called CHOMES, and only five leagues distant from their principal villages and a little less. from the South Sea. The other is the town of Cartago, forty leagues from Nicoya and twenty from the South Sea. It is nearly in the middle between the two oceans, so that it has a port upon each one of them. The third is called Castro de Austria, which Herrera has marked upon the geographical charts without having made any mention of it or scarcely any.1 Nicoya is situated between the borders of Nicaragua and of Costa Rica, forty-eight leagues from the town of Granada, along the South Sea. It is governed by the deputy of the Governor of Nicaragua. Moreover, in the territory of this town and throughout the extent of the Province of Nicoya, as also in the Island of Chira, which is eight leagues from the mainland of Nicoya, to the jurisdiction of which it is subject, there are at present many savages besides who are tributary to the King of Spain. Formerly this section was under the Audiencia of Panama, but in the year 1576 it was joined to Costa Rica, while it is administered by a deputy from Nicaragua in temporal matters and by a vicar of the Bishop of Nicaragua in ecclesiastical affairs. It has a small port upon the South Sea.2 1Castillo de Austria, founded by Juan de Estrada Rávago in 1560, at the Port of San Jerónimo, Bay of Çorobaró or Almirante. 2 See PERALTA: Costa Rica y Colombia, p. 32 or 48;-"Demarcation and Division of the Indies." The incorporation of Nicoya with Costa Rica took place in 1573, but it was not then a finality. In 1529 it was added to the Government of Nicaragua and always formed a part and followed the vicissitudes of the Audiencia of Guatemala. Since 1825 it has belonged to Costa Rica. |