The lake of Nicaragua, called by the aborigines _Cocibolca_, which gives to Granada its importance, and which is the most remarkable natural feature of the country, has already been described, in general terms, in the second chapter of this book. It, of course, attracted the first attention of the Spanish adventurers, who made many wonderful reports of it, which, reaching Spain, excited much speculation as to the probability of a water communication between the two oceans. Indeed it was confidently announced by some that straits opened from it to the South and to the North Seas; but it was not until 1529 that it was fully explored. In that year, we are informed by the historian Oviedo y Valdez, (who was in the country at the time of which he writes, but whose chronicle remained in manuscript until 1840, and has not yet, in any part, been published in English,) in that year, Pedro de Avila sent a man named Martin Estete, at the head of a party of soldiers and Indians, to make an exploration both of Lake Nicaragua and Managua. They went into a province called Voto, which must have been to the north-ward of Lake Managua, but got involved with the natives, were attacked and driven back. They however saw, from the top of a mountain, a body of water, which they supposed to be a third lake. It was probably the great Gulf of Fonseca, which is nearly surrounded by land, and would, at a distance, be taken for an inland lake. Nothing of value resulted from this expedition. Subsequently, however, a private expedition was undertaken by Captain Diego Machuca, a friend of the historian Oviedo, which was more successful, and terminated in the discovery of the outlet of the lakes, down which the adventurers passed to the ocean. I shall let the old writer tell his own story. He says: