Here Gonzales heard of a powerful chief named Nicaragua, and proceeding fifty leagues to the northward, arrived in his territories, which were between the lake of Nicaragua and the sea, comprising the district of which the city of Nicaragua or Rivas is now the capital, and which occupies the site of the aboriginal town. To this chief, Peter Martyr tells us, De Avila sent the same message which “our men were wont to deliver to the rest of the Indian kings, before they would press them, that is to say, that they should become Christians, and admit their subjection to the King of Spain, if they did not which, then war and violence would be used against them.” But Nicaragua, it appears, had heard of the “sharpness of the Spanish swords,” and received Gonzales courteously and with great state, presenting him with “twenty-five thousand pieces of eight in gold, many garments, and plumes of feathers.” Gonzales prevailed upon him to be baptized, as he accordingly was, with nine thousand of his subjects. Their sole objection to the rite was the prohibition of making war, and “of dancing when they were drunk,” alleging that “they did nobody harm thereby, and that they could not quit their colors, weapons, and plumes of feathers, and let the women go to war, whilst they applied themselves to spin, weave, and dig, which belonged to the females and slaves.” Nicaragua asked many shrewd questions of the Spaniards, one of which was, “why so few men coveted so much gold?” “Gonzales being a discreet man,” observes Herrara, “gave such answers as satisfied him,” although they have not been preserved.[11] ----- Footnote 11: Old Peter Martyr gives quite a minute account of the interview between Gonzales and Nicaragua, calculated to give a very high opinion of the shrewdness of the latter. He inquired about a flood, and how the Spaniards got their information on religious matters from heaven, who brought it, and whether he came down on a rainbow or otherwise; about “the sun, and moon, and stars, and of their motion, quality, distance, and effects!” All these things were noted down on the spot, by Cerezeda, the king’s treasurer, who also affirms that Nicaragua was curious about the cause of day and night, and the blowing of the winds, “which Gonzales answered to the best of his ability, commending the rest to God.” Gonzales had a long argument with him to prove that his idols were representatives of devils, and warned him in a style not yet wholly obsolete, to avoid them, “lest he should be violently carried away by them from eternal delights to perpetual torments and miserable woes, and be made the companion of the damned.” To all of these things the Indians did not offer particular objection, but when they came to talk about temporal affairs, “they made a wry mouth.” -----