It is not necessary, nor would it be particularly interesting, to trace the early history of Nicaragua further. In due time, it was organized as a province in the Kingdom or Captain Generalcy of Guatemala, and governed by a Governor Intendant, appointed by the crown, but subject to the Captain General of Guatemala, and so remained until its emancipation in 1823. At that time Granada was among the first cities to declare in favor of republicanism, and has always, in the partisan struggles which have followed, been on the liberal side, as opposed to the servile, oligarchical, or monarchical faction, whose machinations have kept the country in a state of constant alarm, and which is still the enemy of its peace. Thomas Gage, an English monk, who went through Nicaragua in 1665, has left us a brief but interesting account of the country, which he calls “Mahomet’s Paradise, from its exceeding goodness.” At that time there were in the city of Granada two cloisters of Mercenarian and Franciscan friars, and “one parish church, which was a cathedral, for the Bishop of Leon did almost constantly reside there.” The houses, he says, were fairer than those of Leon, and the merchants enjoyed great wealth. They carried on trade directly with Guatemala, Honduras, and San Salvador, as also with Panama, Carthagena, and Peru. At the time of sending away their vessels, (“frigats,” as Gage calls them,) the city was one of the richest in all North America. The king’s treasure from Guatemala and Mexico was often sent this way, when the Hollanders and other enemies infested the Gulf of Mexico. Gage tells us that while he was there, “in one day there entered six _Requas_, (which were each at least three hundred mules,) from San Salvador and Honduras alone, laden with indigo, cochineal, and hides; and two days after from Guatemala came in three more, one laden with silver, (which was the king’s tribute,) another with sugar, and the other with indigo.”[14] Respecting the “frigats” of which Gage speaks, we shall have more to say elsewhere. They generally sailed for Carthagena, but sometimes directly for Spain. They were occasionally intercepted by English and Dutch vessels cruising around the mouth of “El Desaguadero,” or the San Juan, and the fear of this, observes the quaint old traveller, “did make the merchants tremble and sweat with a cold sweat.” ----- Footnote 14: “A New Survey of the West Indies,” p. 421. -----