as an approximate Newson's (1987:87) estimates of 0.045 to 0.06 persons/hectare for Pacific Nicaragua at Spanish contact, and as little as 0.02 persons/hectare for Nicoya. A closer reading of the ethnohistoric material in conjunction with the archaeological information is necessary to form a more realistic picture of Nicoya on the eve of conquest. It is worthwhile returning to Andrés de Cereceda, treasurer of Gil Gonzalez Dávila's 1522 expedition, and review his own words in regard to Nicoya: "The chief Nicoya is five leagues further on, inland: they baptized 6,603 souls; he gave 13,442 pesos in gold, with a little more than the chief Mateo gave". Cereceda's figure of 6,603 is typically taken to represent the number of inhabitants of the cacique, Nicoya's town, but Cereceda never makes that assertion, only that the expedition baptized that number of people. Furthermore, he refers to a second chief, Mateo, whose residence was never specified. An alternative interpretation of Cereceda's figures would understand them as representing the inhabitants of several settlements politically affiliated with Nicoya but not the members of one massive community. The cacique Nicoya may not have had tributary villages under his direct control. But it is not unlikely that there were several villages within his orbit of influence that he could persuade to treat with the Spanish. A model of dispersed settlement of politically affiliated villages rather than one large nucleated town better fits the archaeological and ethnohistoric information. Oviedo, who visited Nicoya in 1529 and recorded aspects of the town's layout, never remarked on the great size of the settlement. Oviedo was in Nicoya before precipitous population decline had taken its effect, and one would expect some remark from this astute observer had Nicoya been such a populous and highly nucleated center. If the above hypothesis is true, what does modern-day Nicoya represent historically? Among other tools of colonial administration, the Spanish crown created a policy called congregación, or the forced resettlement of native peoples into nucleated settlements to more closely watch and control their charges. The evidence leads one to further hypothesize that the present-day Nicoya is the product of Spanish colonial congregación, formed by the forced amalgamation of people from the pre-Hispanic settlements dispersed throughout the region. When this may have been done, and under what circumstances, are unknown. As mentioned above, the historical documents, which would have recorded such an event, would have been lost in the