CULTURE OF PEOPLE OF SOUTHEASTERN PANAMA 15 



and fled to the jungle, where, in the lower river valleys and along 

 the coast, they gradually pushed back the Indian natives. Along 

 the Caribbean there are many settlements of the descendants of 

 former West Indian and Spanish slaves, notably at Porto Bello, 

 Nombre de Dios, Palenque, and Viento Frio. Negroes also live 

 along the banks of the Atrato or near the mouths of its tributaries, 

 where they cultivate bananas, plantains, corn, sugar cane, and bread- 

 fruit. 



The Pacific coast of Darien has also numerous settlements of 

 Negroes at Chepo, Chiman, Garachine, as well as in the Tuyra 

 River basin. White blood is intermingled to some extent with that 

 of the Negro, so that mulattoes as well as zamboes, that is, a Negro 

 and Indian hybrid, are found living with the more pure blooded 

 Africans. At Garachine, on the east shore of San Miguel Gulf, 

 a typical Panamanian Negro settlement, the houses are built of reeds 

 on the ground level, so low that during the rainy season it is possi- 

 ble to travel from house to house by boat. Under and around the 

 houses is a varied assortment of garbage rotting in the sun, pigs, 

 chickens, and other live stock. Cock-fighting and loafing occupy 

 the time of the inhabitants. Similar conditions prevail in such vil- 

 lages as La Palma and El Real with their circular huts of vertical 

 reed walls and thatched conical roofs reminiscent of Africa. An 

 ethnic map of southeastern Panama would show that the area occu- 

 pied by the negroid population at the present time is equal to that 

 occupied by the native Indians. An entirely different cultural level 

 exists among the Negroes inhabiting the Caribbean coast northwest 

 of the Gulf of San Bias and beyond the Canal Zone at Palenque, 

 where the descendants of fugitive slaves are more industrious and 

 also good woodsmen. 



Buccaneers. — The buccaneers. Watling, Wafer, Sharp, Bullman, 

 Dampier, Coxon, Baskerville, and their followers disappeared from 

 Darien as suddenly as they came, leaving no settlements or traceable 

 element in the population. The term, " buccan," employed by the 

 Indians to designate smoked meat, later became " buccaneer " in 

 the English language as applied to the cattle hunters on the West 

 Indies who were gathering ships' meat supplies. Their unsavory 

 reputation grew and the term began to be applied to the privateers 

 (as Wafer refers to himself) whose main purpose was the seeking 

 of Spanish gold. In their sporadic journeying across the Isthmus 

 they were assisted by natives who had many reasons in wishing the 

 destruction of the Spanish. Wafer's and Dampiers accounts of 

 their travels and of the Indian tribes are still valuable. 



Newer immigrants. — As early as 1719 Jesuit missionaries had 

 penetrated into the heart of Darien, only to be massacred by the 

 Indians. Hostility to the Spanish continued and villages were built 



