Province of Taguzgalpa | |||||||
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1576–1821 | |||||||
![]() Map of Central America, showing the Province of Taguzgalpa; later called Mosquito Coast, and lastly the Kingdom of Mosquitia. Many Spanish officials believed it only extended from the east of Trujillo to the Coco River. | |||||||
Establishment | 1576 | ||||||
History | |||||||
• Established | 10 February, 1576 | ||||||
• Disestablished | 15 September, 1821 | ||||||
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Today part of |
The Province of Taguzgalpa, also called New Cartago, was created by Royal Order of February 10, 1576.[1] The entire province stretched from east of Trujillo, or the Aguan or Roman River, as far as the San Juan River, but was believed to be only from the east of Trujillo to the Wanks or Coco River.[2] It also included the Province of Tologalpa, which stretched from the Coco River to the San Juan River. It was bordered to the north and east by the Caribbean Sea; by the south by the Province of Costa Rica; and by the west by the Province of Honduras and Province of Nicaragua.[3] It appeared on the Dutch map of Montanus in 1671 with an alternate spelling of "Tiguzigalpa."[4]
It was frequently confused in nineteenth-century travel literature with Tegucigalpa, the present capital of Honduras, and it is possible that both words share the same root. However, a study of the location information of the two places in the original sixteenth- and seventeenth- century sources shows that they are not in the same place, and are both mentioned, in different areas in the same texts. In his classic study of indigenous names in Honduras, Alberto Membreño wrote, "For a long time it was believed that Tegucigalpa was a corruption of Taguzgalpa and that it meant 'mountain of silver.' Tegucigalpa did not form a part of Taguzgalpa, and when this province was conquered, Tegucigalpa already existed. Don Pedro de Alvarado wrote Teguycegalpa in the repartimiento of 1536."[5] Membreño gives the etymology of Taguzgalpa as "tlalli, 'earth', cuztic, 'yellow', calli, 'house', and pan, 'in'. This province is so called because there is a great deal of gold on its surface and in the sands of its rivers; and it refers to the tradition that the Mexicans went to Taguzgalpa to take that metal to Moctezuma."[6]
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