14 BULLETIN 134, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



short trousers of homespun cotton, and the women appear in the 

 attractive pollera." 



The inhabitants of the Caribbean coast villages west of the Canal 

 Zone are principally Negroes or negroid, with a small admixture of 

 Spanish and more of Indian, while the leading village storekeepers 

 are largely Chinese. 



Many of the Spanish explorations and settlements in Darien were 

 prompted by a desire for precious metal, notably in consequence of 

 the discover} 7 of the Pearl Islands near the Bay of Panama by 

 Balboa, who, after having seen the canoe of the chief, Tumaco, 

 richly ornamented with pearls, demanded to be shown where they 

 came from. Also settlements were made within the confines of 

 San Miguel Bay and the upper reaches of the Tuyra River at Santa 

 Cruz de Cana, where ancient native gold mines were taken over and 

 worked by the Spanish. The mine called Potosi by Bancroft was 

 the chief cause of many raids by the Indians and the buccaneers 

 until it was closed in 16S5. The founding of other settlements, 

 such as Porto Bello and Nombre de Dios on the San Bias coast was 

 due to the need for storehouses from which shipments of treasure 

 to Spain might be made. Old Panama was founded in 1519. and, 

 although outside the boundaries of southeastern Panama (Darien), 

 is of interest because of its influence on the lives and fortunes of the 

 natives of Darien. The cruelty practiced on the enslaved Indians 

 resulted in the death of thousands of them, who had been forced to 

 work in mines as carriers and to do other hard tasks to which they 

 were ill adapted, and led to the revolt of the tribes living along the 

 San Bias coast as early as 151S and the expulsion of the Spanish from 

 that region. 



The " Gold Road " led from Porto Bello on the Caribbean «to Old 

 Panama; over this roughly paved route flowed all the traffic from 

 Spain to the settlements along the west coast of South America, 

 likewise all the loot from Peru and western Mexico, and diverted 

 Spanish interest and Spanish settlements away from the unfruitful 

 Darien, where the Indian gold mines soon proved unprofitable. 

 " Over this highway passed armor-clad soldiers, proud hidalgoes, 

 sandaled monks and friars, and hardy Conquistadores. And flowing 

 in the opposite direction was the stream of heavily laden mules, of 

 fettered slaves, of returning Dons, carrying the treasures of New 

 Spain to fill the coffers of the Spanish Crown." 



Negroes. — Before 1570 the natives had rebelled and fled from 

 their oppressor in Old Panama and in the mines. Negro slaves from 

 the Guinea coast were imported to take their place. This proved 

 to be the undoing of the Spanish, as the Negro slaves soon out- 

 numbered the white Spanish colonists and in other ways contributed 

 to the undermining of Spanish rule. Many Negro slaves escaped 



