This region includes the mountainous district in northwestern South
America, west of the basin of the Orinoco and north of the equator--but
without rigid adherence to these lines. The character of its culture
differed considerably from that found in the Atlantic regions and was
much more closely assimilated to that of Peru. Three lofty mountain
chains traverse New Granada from north to south, the intervening valleys
being beds of powerful rivers, rich in fish and with fertile banks.
This configuration of the soil has exerted a profound influence on the
life and migrations of the native inhabitants, severing them from the
fellow-members of their race to the east and directing their rovings in a
north and south direction.
The productive valleys were no doubt densely populated; though we must
regard as a wild extravagance the estimate of a modern writer that at
the conquest the native inhabitants of New Granada reached “six to eight
millions”[227]; and I hope that the historian Herrera was far beyond the
truth when he asserted that in Popayan alone, in a single year fifty
thousand of the Indians died of starvation, five thousand were killed and
eaten by the famishing multitude, and a hundred thousand perished from
pestilence![228]
_1. Tribes of the Isthmus and Adjacent Coast._
At the discovery, the Isthmus of Panama was in the possession of the
_Cunas_ tribe, as they call themselves. They are the same to whom were
applied later the names Darien Indians (Wafer), Tules, Cunacunas, Cuevas,
Coybas, Mandingas, Bayanos, Irriacos, San Blas Indians, Chucunacos,
Tucutis, etc.
They extended from the Gulf of Uraba and the river Atrato on the east to
the river Chagres on the west. In that direction they were contiguous to
the Guaymis, while on the right bank of the Atrato their neighbors were
the Chocos.
The Cunas are slightly undersized (about 1.50), but symmetrical and
vigorous. Their color is light, and individuals with chestnut or
reddish hair and grey eyes have always been noted among them, and have
erroneously been supposed to be albinos. Their skulls are markedly
brachycephalic (88) and their faces broad.
In spite of the severe measures of the Spaniards, they have never been
thoroughly reduced, and still manifest an unconquerable love of freedom
and a wild life. When first met they lived in small villages composed
of communal houses, raised maize and cotton, working the latter into
garments for the women, and possessed some gold, which they obtained
from the mountain streams and by working auriferous veins. The men
usually appeared naked and used poisoned arrows.
The Cuna language does not seem to be positively connected with any
other stock, nor have dialects of it been discovered elsewhere. A number
of verbal similarities have been pointed out with the Chibcha, and it
has also a certain similarity to the Carib;[229] but with our present
knowledge it would be hasty to class it along with any other.
The _Changuina_ or Dorasque tribes of the Isthmus lived latterly on
the River Puan, a branch of the Telorio, and are said to have numbered
5000 persons, though but a few miserable remnants are surviving.
They are lighter in color than the Guaymis, with whom they were in a
constant state of quarreling. In earlier times they were bold warriors,
lived by hunting, and were less cultured than their neighbors; yet a
remarkable megalithic monument in the pueblo of Meza is attributed to
them.[230] At the period of the conquest they dwelt in the high Sierras
back of the volcano of Chiriqui and extended to the northern coast
near Chiriqui Lagoon, where the River Changuina-Aula (_aula_, in the
Mosquito language, means river), still preserves their name. They were an
independent warlike tribe, and gave the Spaniards much trouble. Finally,
these broils led to their practical extinction. The last member of the
Dorasque branch died in 1882, and few others remain.