8 USE OF GOLD AND OTHER METALS 



collections show a great preponderance of objects of clay, of which the 

 National Museum now owns about lour thousand pieces. Objects of 

 stone are plentiful, comprising perhaps a tenth of the whole number 

 of relics. Objects of metal are comparatively rare; they are described 

 in detail in the following pages. 



USE OF GOLD AND COPPER. 



The Chiriquians, like many of their neighbors in the tropical portions 

 of the American contiuent, were skille<l in the working of metals. Gold, 

 silver, copper, and tin — the latter in alloys with copper forming bronze — 

 are found in the graves. Gold is the most important and is associated 

 with all the others in alloys or as a surface coating. The inhabitants of 

 the Isthmus at the time of the discovery were rich in objects, chietly 

 ornaments, of this metal, and expeditions sent out under Balboa, Pizarro, 

 and others plundered the natives without mercy. When the Indian 

 village of Darien was captured by Balboa (1510) he obtained "plates of 

 gold, such as they hang on their breasts and other parts, and other things, 

 all of them amounting to ten thousand pesos of tine gold."^ From an 

 expedition to Nicaragua, the same adventurers brought back to Panama 

 the value of "112,524 jiieces of eight in low gold and 145 in pearls.'" 

 Early Spanish- American history abounds in stories of this class. 

 Among others we read that Columbus found the natives along the At- 

 lantic coast of Chiriqui and Veragua so rich in objects of gold that he 

 named the district Castillo del Oro. It is said that the illusory stories of 

 an El Dorado somewhere within the continent of South America arose 

 from the lavish use of gold ornaments by the natives whom the Span- 

 iards enconntered, and Costa Rica gets its name from the same circum- 

 stance. It is also recorded that the natives of various parts of Central 

 and South America, at the date of the conquest, were in the habit of 

 opening ancient graves for the purpose of securing mortuary trinkets. 

 The whites have followed their example with the greatest eagerness. 

 As far back as 1042 the Spaniards passed a law claiming all the gold 

 found in the burial places of Spanish America,^ the whole matter being 

 treated merely as a means of revenue. 



The objects of gold for which the tombs of Chiriqui arejustly famous are 

 generally believed to have been simple personal ornaments, the jewelry 

 of the primeval inhabitants, although it is highly probable that many of 

 the figures had, at least as originally employed, an emblematic meaning. 

 They were, doubtless, at all times regarded as possessed of potent charms, 

 and thus capable of protecting and forwarding the interests of the own- 

 ers. They have been found in great numbers within the last twenty- 

 five years, but for the most part, even at this late date, have been es- 



• Herrera, Hist. America, Vol. W, p. 369. 

 2 Herrera, Hist. America, Vol. HI, p. 287. 



3 Mr. Hawes's letter answering questions about Cliiri(jui, read by Mr. Davis before 

 the Am. Eth. Soc, April 17, 1860. 



