The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-06 00:00:00

The Indians of Darien.

The Atlantic coast of Darien is inhabited by the Tule,
Sa❑ Bias, or Mandinga Indians, a handsome race, of
low stature, but stoutly built, with the copper-coloured
skin, straight, coarse, black hair, and other characteristics
of Red Indians. They live very peaceably together, are
honest, cleanly, and industrious, occupying themselves in
fishing, hunting, and cultivating plantains, cassava, cocoa
(theobroma cocoa), and a little eugar and tobacco. They
carry on some trade with foreigners in cocoanuts, cocoanut
oil, cocoa, turtle shell, cotton hammocks, grass hammocks,
vegetable ivory, and canoes of calli-calli, a very durable
timber which they barter for coloured calicoes, shirts,
calico trowsers, looking glasses, beads, cutlasses for cutting
bush, hatchets, guns, powder and shot, tobacco, rum, brandy,
&o. A very profitable trade might be carried on with them
in dyewoods. timber, gums, resins, and a fine grass,
which they use for hemp and flax, and of which they make
a beautiful and most durable kind of hammock. They will
take no money in exchange for any of their commodities ;
nor will they sell gold dust, it being strictly forbidden by
their taw to bring down gold dust to the coast.
The principal occupation is hunting deer, peccaris or
wild hogs, wild turkeys, &,., and fishing for the turtle,
which abound near the Kaye. They are expert sailors,
several of them having made voyages to Jamaica and the
United States. They are very independent, never having
been subdued by the Spaniards, to whom they bear great
animosity. They used to make it a point to kill all of that
nation Rho happened to fall into their hands. Patterson,
in his report to the directors of the Scotch colony of
Darien, of 1698, says of them :—" They expressed a won-
derful hatred and horror for the Spaniards, and seemed
not to understand how we could be at peace
with them." " They pressed us hard," says Mr Rose, one
of the colonists, in his journal, " to come and live by them,
as also jointly to make war with the Spaniards, whom they
would engage, upon the forfeiture of their heads, if we
would but assist them with 100 men and as many arms,
with 2,000 of their own people, to drive not only out of all
the mines—which are but three days' journey from us—but
even out of Panama itself." In former times, they were
very friendly to the English buccaneers, whose allies they
were in many incursions against the Spaniards. 1 heir
kindness to the English, however, did not always meet with
a proper return, as is shown by the following despatch from
Sir Charles Wager to Admiral Vernon, written July 9,
1740, in the time of the famous Portobello expedition :
" I am told that the trading ships or privateers have be-
haved in such a manner to the Darien Indians, b) abusing
the women, and carrying sou of the men to Jamaica,
and selling them for slaves, that we have lost their
friendship, and that they have, for that reason, made peace
with the Spaniards, and will join with them against us
where they have the opportunity; and that we have done
the same to the Mu..quitos. If it be so, it is an abominable
thing, but not unlike that sort of Englishmen. I hope our
troops will Pehava better," They are at present very
friendly to English and Americans, but, nevertheless, will
not permit them to land on the coast. When a vessel
anchors, it is boarded by the Indians, who bring off their
produce themselves, and do not allow their captain and
crew to land. The trade is carried on by a few sloops and
schooners from Jamaica and Curacoa. Occasionally the
Abingdon, or some other clipper from Baltimore, finds her
way to the coast. The principal fareign traders are the
brothers Abraham, of,Portobello ; Captain Raimon Iglesias,
of Carthagena, Ricardo Illhes, or Ellis, of enrage, and Juan
Soya. of Carthagena, a native of Malaga, who traded with
them for twenty-six years, and never once lauded on the
coast. I have heard of Lephyrino, Richard Marks, and
Capt. Latham, as traders, and the old Indians often spoke
to me of the late Capt. Shepherd, of San Juan de Nicara-
gua, who used to trade with them in his schooner, the
Mandeville. There is a half Indian son of his at Tarena
called Zapata, as they pronounce Shepherd.
Their Government is purely patriarchal, the oldest and
most experienced man in each settlement being accounted
chief by general consent, and universally looked up to and
obeyed as such. The present chief of all the Indians is
Calogwa, of Carti, in San Blas Bay, who is nearly 100 years
of age. The) are accustomed to the use of firearms, and are
good marksmen, but their principal weapons are spears and
arrows. They have the woorali or curare, poison which
they say they get from the Indians of Choco, and call ina
or coret•a. The arrows, which are very slender and only a
foot long, have one end smeared with woorali, which has
the consistence and appearance of hard extract of opium.
When about to be used a little cotton or silk
cotton, from tha Bombay ceiba, is wrapped round
the other end; the dart, which is of ebony wood,
is then blown through a long tube of bamboo, called boro-
kera. The deadly effect of a mere scratch is almost instan-
taneous, The Indians of the coast live on the coast, and
the islets and trays off it, and rarely go into the interior.
They wear shirts and trousers on grand occasions, the
shirt always outside of the trousers; but generally go
naked. The Indians of the interior live near the sources of
the rivers which fall into the Pacific, and rarely descend
any cf them. They keep entirely aloof from the Grandiana
of. the south, whom they dislike very much, and kill any
of them whom they catch ascending any of the rivers
towards the Atlantic. In 1850 they killed four negroes
whom they fonnrl fi•rhin¢ in Chiman river, And in 1852
they killed five negroes who had strayed too far towards
the Atlantic. They are very fond of adopting English
names, and have often asked me to give them some, which
I have done, giving the names of Fox, Henderson, Brassey,
Haslewood, Vincent, and Cullen. They have a great
objection to tell their own names. When one
is asked " iki pe pe nukka (what ' s your
name ?) he invariably replies, " nukkachulii" (I have
no name). They place great faith in the divining powers
of their celes, or priests, who advise them in all important
matters, and pretend to foretell events. They have a great
dread of the smallpox, which is one of their reasons for not
allowing foreigners to enter their country, Another is that
they fear they would take their women; but the principal
reason is their very natural desire for independence, and
their idea that God made the country for them alone.
It is not unusual to meet with albinos among them. At
Perdon Island, off Cape San Bias. I saw three children by
the same father and mother, two of whom were albinos,
with very white skins, white hair and eyelashes, and the
weakness of vision, under which albinos labeur, awing to
the deficiency of the pigment of the iris. A moment's ex-
posure to the sun was sufficient to redden their skins, and
smart them so much as to oblige them to run back into the
rancheria or hut.

Their language is very sweet and euphonous, abourrfing
in vowels, as a few examples will show :—Whence did your
friends come ? Peysmala Piya Kartanigi ? The tide is
falling. T'mureti arreogali. When will the; canoe come
from down the river ? Ulo chana ulnonigi diba to yala-
kari ? My brother is in the bush hunting. Angmeehati
wirchanati. Loose the sail. Wur nola parmite—Wtst
wind. Chagri puruaga. The word. Tule, which is the
name of the tribe, signifies people.
The women wear gold nose-rings so large that they hang
down below their mouths, and must be raised up when they
eat. They drag down the septum of the nose considerably.
They are diamond shaped, cut at one cf the angles to admit
of their being put in and taken out, and weigh about a
quarter of an ounce, being very thick, and made of gold,
22 carats fine. Their necks, wrists, ankles, knees, and
hips are adorned with glass beads, strings cf coral, gold
trinkets, tigers', sharks', and alligators' teeth, pieces of
money, and a variety of miscellaneous articles. They
prized very highly a lot of gilt buttons which I cut off an
Armenian jacket that I bought at Constantinople in 1848.
During my intercourse with this interesting tribe I was
invariably treated with the greatest kindness and hospi-
tality, although the old men were strongly opposed to my
project for cutting a canal across the Isthmus, notwith-
standing that I represented to them that the line which I
proposed would not interfere with any of their settlements,
as it would traverse a country entirely uninhabited. I take
this opportunity of earnestly urging the justice and policy
of dealing with this fine race, in all future transactions, in a
spirit of conciliation and friendship, and with the strictest
integrity and honour.

1 do not believe the Indian population of the whole
Isthmus of Darien amounts to 3,000 souls. In 1747
Governor Joaquin Valcarcel de Miranda estimated it at
5,000 families, If his calculation was correct, there has
been a lamentable falling off in the last century. The
Indians live entirely on the Atlantic coast, and the islets
and kays oft it, and at the sources of the rivers which rise
in the Pacific elope of the Cordillera. As the Cordillera
runs parallel to the Atlantic, and is only from three to six
miles distant from it, the whole Indian population of Darien
may be considered to reside within 10 miles of the Atlantic.
Further south, the only inhabitants of the Isthmus are
about 1,100 negreea, citizens of the Republic of New
Grenada, who speak Spanish, and reside in the
villages of Chapigana, Real de Santa Maria, and
Molineca, on the Tuyra; Yavisa, on the Chuquabaqua ;
and Tucuti and Camoganti, on the La Mares ; and about
200 civilised Indians, whose ancestors were domesticated
by the Jesuit missionaries, and who live in Pinogana, on
the Tuyra. Thus, strange to say, 4,300 people, mostly
savages, occupy a country 180 miles in length, with an
average breadth of 50 miles, having asoil of amazing fertility,
capable of yielding the most valuable products, and occu-
pying the most commanding position fur commerce, situated
as it is between the Atlantic and Pacific, with magnificent
harbours oa each, and at only eight days' steaming from
New York and eighteen from England. It seems still more
strange, when we reflect, that the narrowest part between
the two oceans is there, and that there, also, the first settle.

ment was made after the di-covery of America—Santa
IVaria de el Antigua del Darien, near the mouth of the
Atrato, ....aving been the first town built on the American

continent. Nevertheless, there is now neither path, track,
trail, nor line of transit of any kind across the Isthmus of
Darien, nor even across the Isthmus of Panama, except
from Chagres and Aspinwall, Navy Bay, to Panama,—The
Isthmus of .Darien, by Dr. Cullen.

POISONING BY TOBACCO.—A very curiou3 case cf
poisoning by the absorption of tobacco through the
skin was mentioned, at a recent meeting of the Academie
des Sciences, by M. Cl. Barnard, who received the infor-
mation from aM. Namias. A smuggler had placed a quan-
tity cf unmanufactured tobacca next his skin, and the heat
and perspiration produced by walking caused the poisonous
properties of the tobacco to enter the system, the cone-
glances of which were very serious,—Once a Week.

The Representation of Hastings,

The nomination of candidates for the representa-
tion of Hastings, rendered vacant by the elevation
of Lord Harry Vane to the peerage, through the
death of the Duke of Cleveland, took place on Tues-
day. The two candidates in the field were the Hon.
George Waldegrave Leslie, who came forward in
the Liberal interest, and Mr P. T. Robertson, who
appeared in that of the Conservative.
The hustings were erected in the cricket ground,
in front of which a large concourse of the electors
and non-electors had assembled. The usual pre•
liminaries having been gone through,
Colonel HARCOURT proposed Mr P. T. Robert-
son as a fit and proper person to represent the
borough of Hastings in Parliament.
Mr BEATTIE seconded the proposition.
Mr W. SCRIVENS then proposed as a candidate
the lion. George Waldegrave Leslie.
Mr PUTLAND seconded the nomination.
There being no other candidates to be proposed,
Mr ROBERTSON addressed the assembly. He said
he had been told, in the course of his canvass, that
the great difference between him and his opponent
was that Mr Leslie would support Lord Palmer-
ston's Government, while his (Mr Robertson's) sup-
port was uncertain. He would wish to know, how-
ever, what the support of Lord Palmerston implied.
A great many of the Hastings electors were in
favour of the ballot. Did Lord Palmerston support
that P (Cries of " Ne, no," and cheers.) Many were
also in favour of the unconditional annihilation of
church rates. Did Lord Palmerston advocate such a
measure P (No, no, and renewed cheers.) To come to
particulars, he had been told in the course of his
canvass that if he was returned the 4d loaf would be
raised to 71 (Laughter.) That was a specimen of
the arguments that had been used against him, and
they were really too ridiculous to require refutation
—as if he, a merchant, were not as much in
favour of free trade as his opponent, and would do
anything that would be contrary to the commercial
interests of this great country, It had been said
that if they did not agree with Lord Pal-
merston in home matters yet they could agree in
supporting him in foreign affairs, With regard to
America, peace there had been preserved in conse-
quence of statesmen of all classes uniting with heart
and hand to maintain neutrality, so that neither
Lord Palmerston nor any of his Cabinet had to be
thanked for this. (Cheers and hisses.) Then with
regard to Denmark Lord Palmerston's Government
had given the assurance that if Germany went to
war with Denmark the latter would not stand
alone. That was a very proper speech to make, pro-
vided we had intended to carry it out. Lord Pal-
merston, however, did not preserve the peace by
his own act; it was because France and Russia
would not join him in going to war. (Cheers.)
After alluding to some local topics, Mr Robertso❑
concluded by saying that he had made a very suc-
cessful canvass, and he begged to thank all the
electors for the support they had given him.
The Hon. G. WALDEGRAVE LESLIE next Came to
the front of the hustings and addressed the elec.
tore. He urged them to exercise the right which
they possessed of returning a member to Parliament
in an independent manner. Ile had been told by
some of the electors that they had pledged them-
selves to support Mr Robertson because he had pro-
mised to advocate liberal measures, He mentioned
this because it was on political principles that he
appeared there to solicit the suffrages of the Has-

tings electors. (A Voice—But Mr Burchell says
you are a poor man.) (Laughter.) Yes, he did, and
" Pity the sorrows of a poor young man—(great
cheering)—whose trembling limbs have borne him
to your door." (Renewed cheering and laughter.)
Mr Leslie then entered into an enumeration of the
reforms that had been effected by the Liberal party
in the House of Commons, which party he pledged
himself to support if returned to Parliament. He
expressed regret that within the last few days at-
tempts had been made to intimidate those electors
who had promised him their support, but he asked
them all, in case it came to a poll—(laughter)—to
record their votes in his favour, and might God de-
fend the right! (Cheers.)
A show of hands was then taken. It appeared to
be pretty (-gunny divided between the two eandi-

dates, but the returning cfficer declared it to be in
favour of Mr Waldegrave Leslie.
A poll was demanded by Mr Robertson.
Yesterday morning the polling was commenced
with much vigour. The excitement was consider-
able on account of the severity of the contest. 'The
friends both of Mr Leslie and of Mr Robertson were
full of hope. At 12 o'clock the poll stood as fol-

Lows :

Mr G. Waldegrave Leslie ..
Mr Robertson ........
CLOSE OF THE POLL,
Mr G. Waldegrave Leslie (Liberal) tsB/
Mr Robertson (Conservative)

Majority
.. 41

Death of Mr William Tait,

With much regret we (Scotsman) have to announce the
dea'h of Mr Tait, of Prior Bank, formerly and long known
to the public as a publisher and politician, and from first to
last held in much esteem by a large circle of private friends.
About 16 years ago when Mr Tait retired from business, he
purchased the house and property of Prior Bank, near Mel-
rose, where ho has chiefly resided ever since, though still
retaining his house in Edinburgh. His naturally
vigorous frame and careful and temperate habits
ensured him good health until last January, when
a severe influenza was followed by a slight attack
of a paralytic nature, from which he never quite rallied,
and which was twice repeated. Latterly his weakness in-
creased, and on Monday, though there was no decided
change for the worse, he requested to be taken from Prior
Bank to his house in Walker-street here, where he rapidly
sank and expired at 4 o'clock yestei day morning. His age
was 72. tie was unmarried, and the nearest relative he
leaves is his sister, Mrs Adam Black. Mr Tait was a man
of very distinct individuality of character. You could not
confound his nature with any other person's, or adduce him
as a specimen of a class all thinking and acting in the same
way, He was able in all things to follow the bent of his
own independent will, for his fathc-r, a successful builder,
left him opulent. While in business as a publisher, his
easy circumstances removed from him one motive of very
active exertion—and such attention as he bestowed on his
profession was in a great measure directed towards the pro-
motion of his political opinions—hence it is believed that he
did not add materially to his wealth during t he period of his
business life. In 1832,he established Tait sEdinbai Maga-
zine. It appeared for some time in the shape and at the price
(2s 6d) of the established magazines; but he soon reduced
it to Is, thus taking an important step in the progress of
cheap literature. This periodical did much to stimulate and
freshen the liberal cause, the more so, perhaps, that it was
not very closely bound to party purposes. Anyone who had
a bold and original thing to say, if he could write tolerably,
was pretty sure of getting out the " bit of his mind"
in Tait's Magazine, however much it might offend preju-
dices, public or perpnal. One feature in Mr Tait's con-
nection with literature must not be omitted, Partly from an
independent self-reliance wh ch disinclined him to bow to
established refutations, partly from a real friendliness and
kindness of nature, he gave a good many obscure young
men the opportunity of showing what they were fit for. In
this way, in conjunction with his chief contributor,the late
admirable Mrs Johnstone, he gave Robert Nicol the poet
opportunities for laying the fruits of his genius before the
world—a position he bad little chance of otherwise achieving
within the short span of life which disease had left for
him to enjoy. Mr Tait's politics were professedly those
of an independent Radical, swayed by a strong friendly
feeling to the Whig party. Though not factious, and de-
testing anything like trickiness, he was sometimes rather
provoking to the advocates of a policy and of combined
action who desire to know whom they can count on. They
could always be sure, however, that he would take the course
which ho had in honesty convinced himself to be the right
one. It should not be forgotten that at the great contest for
the representation of Edinburgh in 1817, when a coalition
was formed between the Radicals and the Tories and the
Teetotallers and the publicans, Mr Tait protested against
the conduct of those with whom he usually acted, and came
to the hustings as the seconder of Macaulay. Mr Tait had
received a liberal education, was a considerable reader, and
enjoyed literature both when he was concerned in its practi-
cal furtherance and in the ease of his retirement. Ono of
his chief enjoyments was music. It was a treat to hear him
at the pUno, although his burly frame and powerful hand
were rather ludicrous appendages to that feminine instru-
ment. He was abovo the ordinary size, handsome and strong
built; and his erect walk, with a certain grave expression,
caused by absence of mind, to which he was a good deal
liable, gave him in his favourite walk in Princes-street
something of the kind of air which acquires for one the
title of " bashaw." This, however, was an accident of
manner. He was a good, easy, kindly man at heart—
affectionate to relations, and attentive to friends, of whom
a large circle will long and sincerely mourn his loss.

According to the Italie the official lists of the
victims in the riots at Turin give the number of killed at
42, and wounded at 123.