212 riiovrjEit rosrs 



the most westerly, to push forward the peaceful conquests 

 of agriculture and civilization towards the banks of the 

 Pabarando, the Rio Sucio, and the Atrato.* The number of 

 independent Indians who inhabit the lands between Uraba, 

 'Rio Atrato, Rio Sucio, and Rio Sinu, was, according to a 

 census made in 1760, at least 1800. They were distri- 



* I will here: state some facts which J obtained from official documents 

 during my stay at Carthagena, and which have not yet been published. 

 In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the name of Darien was given 

 vaguely to the whole coast extending from the Rio Damaquiel to the 

 Punta de San Bias, on 2 9 of longitude. The cruelties exercised by 

 Pedrarias Davila rendered almost inaccessible to the Spaniards a country 

 which was one of the first they had colonized. The Indians (Dariens and 

 Cunas-Cunas) remained masters of the coast, as they still are at Poyais, 

 in the land of the Mosquitos. Some Scotchmen formed, in 1698, the 

 settlements of New Caledonia, New Edinburgh, and Scotch Port, in the 

 most eastern part of the isthmus, a little west of Punta Carreto. They 

 were soon driven away by the sSpaniards ; but, as the latter occupied nc 

 part of the coast, the Indians continued their attacks against Choco's 

 boats, which from time to time descended the Rjo Atratp. The sanguinary 

 expedition of Don Manuel de Aldarete, in 1729, served only to augment 

 the resentment of the natives. A settlement for the cultivation of the 

 cocoa-tree, attempted in the territory of Urabia, in 1740, by some French 

 planters, under the protection of the Spanish Government, had no durable 

 success ; and the court, excited by th.<^ reports of the archbishop-viceroy, 

 Gongora, ordered, by the cedule of the 15th August, 1783, " either the 

 conversion and conquest, or the destruction (reduction d extincion) of the 

 Indians of Darien." This order, worthy of another age, was executed by 

 Don Antonio de Arebalo: he experienced little resistance, and formed, in 

 1785, the four settlements and forts of Cayman on the eastern coast of 

 the Gulf of Urabia, Concepcion, Carolina, and Mandinga. The Lele, or 

 high-priest of Mandinga, took an oath of fidelity to the King of Spainj 

 but, in 1786, the war with the Darien Indians recommenced, and was 

 terminated by a treaty concluded July 27th, 1787, between the archbishop- 

 viceroy and the cacique Bernardo. The forts and new colonies, which 

 figured only on the maps sent to Madrid, augmented the debt of the trea, 

 sury of Santa Fe de Bogota, in 1789, to the sum of 1,200,000 piastres. 

 The viceroy, Gil Lemos, wiser than his predecessor, obtained permission 

 from the court to abandon Carolina, Concepcion, and Mandinga. The 

 settlement of Cayman only was preserved, on account of the navigation 

 of the Atrato, and it was declared free, under the government of the 

 archbishop-viceroy : it was proposed to transfer this settlement to a more 

 healthy spot, that of Uraba; but lieutenant-general Don Antonio Arebalo, 

 having proved that the expense of this removal would amount to the sura, 

 of 40,000 piastres, the fort of Cayman was also destroyed, by order of the 

 viceroy Espeleta, in 1791, and the planters were compelled to join 

 of the village of San Bernardo. 



