Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

—
86 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 44
who saw it, pronounced it to be of a different dialect." The real
evidence, therefore, is limited to the fact that the vocabulary was
obtained from Indians living in the region formerly embraced in the
Guetare territory. It is deemed safest, however, to include the
idiom for the present in the Talamancan group.
Although it is difficult at this late day to mark the boundaries of
the Guetare territory as they existed at the time of the Spanish con-
quest, the area in a general sense is readily determined from historical
and other data.
Oviedo (lib. 29, cap. 21) says
Los Giietares pon mucha gente, e viven engima de las sierras del puerto de La Herra-
dura, e se extienden por la costa deste golpho [Nicoya] al Poniente de la banda del
Norte hasta el confiii de los Chorotegas.
According to this statement, the territory of the tribe reached the
Pacific coast and extended along it toward the northwest to Punta
Arenas or Rio Barranca, the limit, as stated above, of the southern
extension of the Orotina, or '' Chorotegas" as Oviedo terms them. As
the tribe extended back into the sierras behind Herradura bay, their
territory must have embraced the Sierras de Turrubales, as stated
by Fernandez (1: 34, note/).
Peralta (1 : 768-769) mentions several provinces which, he says,
were peopled by the Indians of this tribe, as follows:
Garabito, Catapa, Tice, and Boto (Voto), comprehending the territory south of
Lake Nicaragua and San Juan river to its confluence with the Rio Sarapiqui (south)
to the mountains of Barba. Including the valley of Ooyoche between the rivers
Barranca and Grande; Abra (or Curriravo, ('urridabat) and Tayopan; Accerri and
Pacaca. Guarco, between the rivers Taras and Toyogres. Turriarba (or Turrialba)
and Cooc (or Cot). The aborigines of these provinces were Guetares.
This includes the Boto, or Voto, Indians in the Guetare group, who,
Peralta says (1: 401), were situated on the right margin of the Desaguadero
(San Juan) between the Frio, Pocosol, and Sarapiqui rivers.
Adding the province of Suerre, as he does in the extract given above,
would make the San Juan river from its mouth up to the Rio Frio the
northern boundary of the Guetare territory. As the mountains of
Barba are in the district of Heredia and those of Turrialba are along
the northern boundary of the district of Cartago, this description
applies to a wide strip extending from the San Juan river on the
north and the Caribbean sea on the northeast, to the Pacific ocean
on the south, the coast line on the south reaching from Barranca
river at the northwest probably to, or nearly to, the Rio Grande de
Terraba on the southeast.
Fernandez (1: 587), quoting from Licenciado Cavallon, seems to
include the district of Cartago in the Guetare territory. In regard
to the seat of the Voto tribe or subtribe, he says (1: 64, note e)
Boto or Voto includes the Indians who occupied the southern cordillera of Costa
Rica from the river of Barva up to the Rio de Orosf, called Sierra de Tilaran. The
name is preserved in that of the Volcano de los Votes or de Puas.
: