ABSTRACT
In eastern Honduras the cultural changes experienced by the Indians were extremely varied due to differences in the nature and intensity of contact with different outside groups. During the middle of the sixteenth century Spanish colonization was consolidated on the western fringes of eastern Honduras. A fairly large number of small villages were made tributary to individuals or the Crown, and Spanish forms of secular and ecclesiastical administration were introduced as in western and central Honduras. The level of missionary activity in eastern Honduras varied considerably during the colonial period and it was largely related to the threat of attack or invasion by foreigners and the Zambos-Mosquitos. During the seventeenth century Indian groups that lived outside Spanish control were affected by the activities of missionaries and the settlement of the English on the Mosquito Shore, and as time progresses contacts with the English, Zambos-Mosquitos, and ladinos, who settled on the fringes of the colonized area, intensified.
