The Province of Taguzgalpa, also called New Cartago, was created by Royal Order of February 10, 1576. The entire province stretched from east of
Trujillo, or the
Aguan or Roman River, as far as the
San Juan River, but was believed to be only from the east of
Trujillo to the Wanks or
Coco River. It also included the
Province of Tologalpa, which stretched from the
Coco River to the
San Juan River. It was bordered to the north and east by the
Caribbean Sea; by the south by the
Province of Costa Rica
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions o ...
; and by the west by the
Province of Honduras
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...
and
Province of Nicaragua
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...
. It appeared on the Dutch map of Montanus in 1671 with an alternate spelling of "Tiguzigalpa."
It was frequently confused in nineteenth-century travel literature with
Tegucigalpa, the present capital of Honduras, and it is possible that both words share the same root. However, a study of the location information of the two places in the original sixteenth- and seventeenth- century sources shows that they are not in the same place, and are both mentioned, in different areas in the same texts. In his classic study of indigenous names in Honduras, Alberto Membreño wrote, "For a long time it was believed that Tegucigalpa was a corruption of Taguzgalpa and that it meant 'mountain of silver.' Tegucigalpa did not form a part of Taguzgalpa, and when this province was conquered, Tegucigalpa already existed. Don Pedro de Alvarado wrote Teguycegalpa in the repartimiento of 1536." Membreño gives the etymology of Taguzgalpa as "''tlalli'', 'earth', ''cuztic'', 'yellow', ''calli'', 'house', and ''pan'', 'in'. This province is so called because there is a great deal of gold on its surface and in the sands of its rivers; and it refers to the tradition that the Mexicans went to Taguzgalpa to take that metal to Moctezuma."