Much of the Honduran interior remains uncolonized…

Much of the Honduran interior remains uncolonized and outside of effective Spanish control during the colonial era.

The Jicaque (Tolupan), fleeing into the hills, manage to retain considerable cultural autonomy.

Other indigenous groups, however, are increasingly brought under Spanish influence and begin to lose their separate identities.

This assimilation is facilitated by occasional expeditions of government and church officials into new areas.

One such expedition into Yoro in 1689 finds forty villages of native people living outside of effective Spanish control.