Photo by H. Pittier 



THE tre;u-umbs are ali. strikingly 



GROWING IN ONE DIRECTION (P. 63 1 ) 



disappears, to give place to recks and 

 grassy slopes. 



In clear weather the panorama from 

 the summit is splendid : to the south, the 

 vast expanse of the Pacific and the beau- 

 tiful lowlands of Chiriqui, all interlaced 

 forests and savannas ; to the north, a 

 labyrinth of unexplored valleys, covered 

 totally by virgin forest running down to 

 the Caribbean Sea ; westward, the Costa 

 Rican mountains familiar to the writer ; 

 and to the east, many a lofty peak of no 

 despicable prominence and virgin yet of 

 any white man's footprints. In our as- 

 cent we had only glimpses of all this, as 

 a thick fog was gathering at the time. 

 From the top we had only a momentary 

 vision of a far-looking silvery ribbon, 

 the Rio Chiriqui Vie jo, several thousand 

 feet below us to the west. 



The return trip can be efifected easily 

 in one day. 



THE ABORIGINAL TRIBES OE PANAMA 



Our tramp through Panama now takes 

 us to scenes quite different from those 

 we have just described, among what is 

 left of the aborigines of the country. 



In the years 1501 to 1503, when Rod- 

 rigo de Bastidas and Christopher Co- 

 lumbus visited the northern coast of the 

 Isthmus, they found it densely popu- 

 lated. About ten years later Balboa met 

 with identical conditions along the south- 



ern coast, and all subsequent reports of 

 early explorers give evidences of the fact 

 that the whole country was in possession 

 of numerous clans, the names of many 

 of which have been preserved. 



The two principal nations were the 

 Guaymies, extending from the Chiriqui 

 Volcano eastward to what is today the 

 Canal Zone, and the Cuna-Cuna, on the 

 opposite side of the Isthmus. West of 

 the volcano, in the valleys of the Chiriqui 

 Viejo, Changuena and Diquis rivers, and 

 possibly a little farther east, along the 

 Pacific Ocean, were the Dorasques, a 

 warlike and more civilized race, to whom 

 the beautiful pottery and the gold orna- 

 ments found in the ancient graves of 

 Chiriqui are often attributed. As can be 

 deduced from these relics, the Dorasques 

 had trade relations with the Niquirans 

 and Chorotegans, of Costa Rica, and 

 through them felt in some degree the 

 influence of the Nahuatl, in far-away 

 Mexico. Today they have completely 

 disappeared as a tribal entity. 



On the southeastern border of the 

 present Republic of Panama dwelt the 

 Chocoes, who are still numerous and ex- 

 tend from the Pacific coast northward 

 to and even beyond the Atrato River. 

 They formed a kind of buffer state be- 

 tween the Central and South American 

 nations. 



In the course of my work I had the 

 opportunity of spending many weeks 

 among representatives of the three 

 groups still in existence — that is to say, 

 the Guaymies, the Cuna-Cuna, and the 

 Chocoes. 



THE GUAYMIES 



Up in the forbidding mountains and 

 valleys that form a background to the 

 landscape for the traveler on the steam- 

 ers plying between Panama and David 

 dwell the mass of the present Guay- 

 mies, about 5,000 in number, in their 

 homes scattered through savannas and 

 forests. From the time of the conquest 

 to the beginning of the past century, 

 they have been more or less under the 

 influence of Catholic missionaries, but 

 have since been left to go back to most 

 of their ancient customs and ways of 

 living. 



Among the few vestiges left of that 

 transitory semi-civilized condition under 



636 



