Misumalpan

The Misumalpan group takes its name from the Miskito, Sumo and Matagalpa languages of the Caribbean lowlands and highlands of Nicaragua and Honduras. The Lenca of southwestern Honduras, whose language is an isolate, are grouped with them.

The Lenca rose in 1537 under the war leader Lempira, who gathered some 30,000 men at the fortified hill of Cerquín; his death that year broke the revolt. The Matagalpa of the Nicaraguan highlands fought the Spanish from 1525 and rose again in 1643, 1688 and 1773. On the coast the Miskito allied with the English, who crowned their chief king in 1660, and with firearms their raiders seized Mayangna captives for Jamaican plantations.