bays of San Miguel and 

 Atrato. In the course of 

 the conquest they offered 

 a steady and stubborn re- 

 sistance, and, though they 

 have been graduahy de- 

 prived of a large part of 

 their former territory, it 

 is certain that to this 

 day they never have been 

 really subjugated. 



The history of the last 

 four centuries shows not 

 only many instances of 

 their bloody struggle 

 against the hated invader, 

 but also proofs of their 

 ability for political in- 

 trigue. During the pirati- 

 cal warfare of the bucca- 

 neers, or free-booters, the 

 Cuna - Cuna were their 

 constant allies against the 

 Spaniards, because they 

 well understood that while 

 the latter had come to 

 stay, the former had no 

 idea of securing a perma- 

 nent foothold in the Isth- 

 mus. 



When in 1698 Patter- 

 son landed on the beach 

 of Caledonia Bay with his 

 small army of settlers, the 

 Cuna-Cuna received him 

 with open arms, readily ceded the re- 

 quired portion of their land, and were 

 to the end the trusted and trusting allies 

 of the luckless Scotchmen. 



Today, after 200 years, the natives of 

 the San Bias coast still keep in their heart 

 a warm feeling not only for the latter, 

 but for the British in general. The late 

 Queen Victoria is revered among them 

 almost as a divinity, and even vested by 

 some with the attribute of immortality. 

 Two or three times, indeed, during my 

 short stay among them, I was asked the 

 question : And Queen Victoria — how is 

 she? And my assertion that she had 

 been dead for several years was always 

 received with the utmost incredulity. 



Their diplomacy has been shown fur- 

 ther in the course of recent events, when 

 the secession of Panama was followed 

 by the advent of the Americans in the 

 Canal Zone, who from the beginning 



Photo by H. Pittier 

 the: IvlTTl,:^ GUAYMI GIRI.S OP'TEN HAVE SWEET EACES 

 AND BEAUTIFUE EYES 



have been looked upon by the Indians 

 as new and formidable conquerors, more 

 dangerous to their race than the Span- 

 iards of old. Such an impression, origi- 

 nating in reports from the Colombian 

 side, could but be confirmed and intensi- 

 fied by the many men of Nargana, Ur- 

 gandi, and other places along the coast, 

 who had repeatedly come to this country 

 and stayed in it for longer or shorter 

 intervals, thus becoming eye-witnesses of 

 its might and irresistible power. 



So the San Bias people were thor- 

 oughly awed, and, as they distrusted the 

 capacity of little Panama to give them 

 the protection they needed, they turned 

 to their former masters, for whom they 

 felt all at once a love and loyalty which 

 years of involuntary and passive submis- 

 sion had not been able to foster. 



The venerable chieftain Inanaquina 

 undertook the long voyage to Bogota to 



645 



