DARIEN. 



581 



Darien. then Cease, and are succeeded by the vcudibales, which, 

 >m ~^.-~ mm/ however, do not extend farther than 12 or 12^ degrees 

 of latitude, beyond which the brisas blow, with less 

 steadiness and regularity, however. At the period 

 when the brisas blow strongest, a very impetuous cur- 

 rent sets into the Gulf of Darien ; and on the contrary, 

 while the vcndibales blow, the current sets out of the 

 Gulf with equal violence. 



Darien was the first province in Terra Firma in 

 which the Spaniards established themselves. It was 

 conquered by Vasco Nunez de Balboa, and was the 

 scene of many of the valorous enterprizes of Francisco 

 Pizarro. The settlement of Darien, which is the resi- 

 dence of the governor, was the first that was made on 

 the continent of America, having been founded in 1509; 

 but owing to the badness of the climate, it has now 

 dwindled away to a miserable hamlet, exposed to the 

 constant invasions and attacks of the Indians. 

 Inhabi- The natives of Darien are not numerous: in 1747, 



lautj. they were supposed to amount to 5000 families. They 



are brave, hardy, patient of fatigue and pain, but cruel, 

 stupid, and faithless. The Spaniards have made many 

 attempts to reduce them to subjection, but in vain; nor 

 have they succeeded better in their attempts to convert 

 them to Christianity. They soon relapse into their ido- 

 latrous habits, and retire into their native mountains. 

 They are very skilful in the use of the bow and arrow. 

 The former are made cf a strong and flexible kind of 

 wood, called choata. Their arrows consist of a species 

 . of light cane ; the point being formed of fish bones, or 

 of the same kind of wood as the bows. Their principal 

 and most favourite food is the flesh of monkeys, of which 

 animals there are here a wonderful variety. They fer- 

 ment maize and plantains, from which they make a kind 

 of drink, called mazato; with this they are fond of in- 

 toxicating themselves. They are nearly naked, but are 

 fond of ornaments, especially golden rings pendant from 

 then- nose. The women adorn their legs and arms with 

 strings of coral, beads of glass, and of gold. They pay 

 great deference and respect to their priests, who render 

 their countenances singularly horrible and deformed, 

 by painting their faces of different colours, and making 

 incisions, into which they insert bitumen. They are 

 almost at constant war with the Chocoes. Their enmi- 

 ty to each other is said to have originated in the cir- 

 cumstance of the Indians of Darien having put to death 

 a Christian priest, who was held in great reverence by 

 the Chocoes, about the end of the last century. Since 

 that time, every Indian of Choco carries a skull of an 

 Indian of Darien, whom he has killed in war, out of 

 which he regularly drinks. In consequence of this un- 

 intermitted hostility, and of the ravages of the small- 

 pox, the numbers of the Indians of Darien are much 

 diminished. They bear towards the Spaniards, perhaps, 

 a more deadly'enmity than any other of the Indian race 

 in South America. In 171 9> they rose against them in 

 a body, and committed dreadful cruelties. The war 

 continued till 1740, when a treaty was agreed upon, by 

 the terms of which the Indians were to admit missiona- 

 ries among them : but their efforts and zeal were of no 

 avail, and the Spaniards were so exasperated, and at 

 the same time so apprehensive of them, that it was pro- 

 posed to free the Indians of Choco from then tribute, 

 on the condition that they would join in exterminating 

 the Indians of Darien : this plan, however, was aban- 

 doned. In 1786, another attempt was made to subju- 

 gate them. The viceroy of Santa Fe dispatched a large 

 force against them, which succeeded in forming differ- 

 ent establishments and settlements, but these were soon 



abandoned, in consequeice of the badness of the cli- Darien. 

 mate, and the ferocity of the natives. "*■" "Y""*"' 



The advantageous situation of this province commu- Darien 

 nicating with the two seas, its natural fertility, but scheme, 

 above all, the reputation of its gold mines, have indu- 

 ced foreigners, at different periods, to attempt establish- 

 ing themselves in it. Of these attempts, the most re- 

 markable is that which was made by Patterson, a 

 Scotchman, towards the close of the 17th century. It 

 is said that he was originally a Buccaneer; who after- 

 wards became a clergyman, and under pretence of con- 

 verting the Indians, visited the New World. He was 

 undoubtedly a man of an original mind, and of a bold 

 and enterprising disposition. He was the first projec- 

 tor of the Bank of England, and being defrauded of his 

 just recompence by those who adopted his plans, he re- 

 solved to confine his future schemes to the benefit of 

 his native country. On his original and ostensible de- 

 sign of establishing an East India trade in Scotland, he 

 engrafted the secret and magnificent plan of forming an 

 emporium on each side of the Isthmus of Darien, for 

 the trade of the opposite continents. According to his 

 idea, the manufactures of Europe were to be sent to the 

 Gulf of Darien, and thence conveyed by land across the 

 ridge of mountains that intersects the Isthmus, where 

 they were to be exchanged for the produce of South 

 America and of Asia ; and thus, to use his own empha- 

 tic language, he would wrest the keys of the world from 

 Spain. In order to attract encouragement and support, 

 he proposed to render his settlement a free port, and to 

 banish all distinction of party, religion, or nation. But 

 Scotland was at this time very poor; and the difficul- 

 ties arising from her poverty were increased by the op- 

 position which the plan met with in England. An 

 alarm, first excited by the East India Company, and 

 the West India merchants, soon spread over the whole 

 nation. Even the parliament addressed the king in a 

 violent and absurd address, remarkable for narrow and 

 illiberal views ; and the king appearing to fall in with 

 the clamour, the Indian Company, whom Patterson 

 had succeeded in establishing, withdrew their subscrip- 

 tion, and relinquished their designs. But Patterson 

 himself was not to be easily intimidated ; and the Scotch 

 nation, indignant at the opposition which the plan had 

 met with in England, avowedly because it would be be- 

 neficial to Scotland, immediately subscribed L.400,000. 

 Besides this sum, L.300,000 was subscribed at Ham- 

 burgh, which, however, was withdrawn, in consequence 

 of the threatening memorial presented by the English 

 resident to the senate of that city. The Scotch, never- 

 theless, persisted in their scheme : five large vessels, la- 

 den with merchandise, military stores, and provisions, 

 with a colony of 1200 persons, sailed for the Isthmus of 

 Darien. King William, however, still opposed it : his 

 policy and wish were to oppose the aggrandisement of the 

 House of Bourbon ; and to accomplish this, he wished to 

 keep well with Spain. In the mean time, the fleet arrived 

 in the Gulf of Darien ; and the settlement was very ju- 

 diciously formed at Acta, a place at an equal distance 

 between Porto Bello and Carthagena. Here is a secure 

 and capacious harbour, formed by a peninsula, which 

 the colonists fortified, and named Fort St Andrew. To 

 the settlement they gave the name of New Caledonia. Of 

 the 1200 persons who had embarked, 300 were gentle- 

 men, unaccustomed to labour, fatigue, or homely fare, 

 and totally unacquainted with any of those arts which 

 are indispensibly necessary in a new colony. These 

 consequently were of little use ; and even the peasants, 

 habituated to a cold climate, were unequal to the fa- 



