COSTA RICA is the most southern province of Guatimala, and is bounded on the north by Nicaragua, east by the Caribbean sea, west by the Pacific, and south by the province of Veragua. It is 150 miles long, and in its widest part about 140 broad. Its name, Costa Rica, “the Rich Coast,” is derived from its valuable gold and silver mines, and a pearl fishery, which formerly existed on its shores. It is a very mountainous country, overspread with thick forests and waste lands; its population is not extensive, and consequently, there is little or no agriculture practised. The native tribes are its principal inhabitants; the Spaniards only occupying some small towns and mining stations; but the natives are not subjugated, and live independent of their Spanish neighbours. Its chief mine is Tisingal, reported to be nearly as rich as Potosi. The commerce of this province consists in cacao, cattle, honey, hides and wax; and in its pearl fishery, with a species of shell-fish, which produces a purple dye. The pearl-muscle and the shell-fish alluded to, are found principally in a small bay, called the Gulf de la Salinas, or Nicoya. This is its principal port on the Pacific shore, while on the Atlantic, the port of Carthago is situated at a great distance from the town of the same name. CARTHAGO the capital is situated in 9° 5ʹ north latitude, and 83° west longitude, 360 miles west of Panama, the see of a bishop, and the residence of a governor; it is not a place of much importance or any considerable population, having been lately much deserted, though it was formerly one of the first towns in this part of the world. NICOYA is the next town of any importance; it is situated near the shore of the gulf of the same name, on the western or Pacific coast, in 85° 53ʹ west longitude, and 10° 42ʹ north latitude. The pearl and dye fishery is situated in the bay of Salinas, thirty miles east of Nicoya. The trade of the inhabitants of Nicoya consists in salt, honey, Indian corn, wheat, fowls, and the purple juice of the above mentioned fish, which they export to Panama; and which was first discovered to produce so valuable a substance by the Indian women, who stained their cotton garments with its fluid. _PROVINCE OF VERAGUA._ VERAGUA, though actually situated in North America, is an integral part of the government or kingdom of Tierra Firma, in South America. The principle of this work being to offer descriptions of the whole of Spanish North America, as it is geographically situated, before entering upon the description of the territorial possessions of the same power in the southern part of that vast continent, we shall accordingly proceed with Veragua, as though it formed a part of Guatimala.