The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-01-11
A MONGREL POPULATION
And Land of Bugs, Buzzards and Naked Babies
BY MERRILL A. LEAGUE
Special Correspondent of the Morning News.

A,lf', in Panama is in reality the nine
+v-and-nine, and in the general domes-
.ic conditions surrounding its living it
% hut a few degrees removed from
savagery. OF the other one in this par
.i.,,1ar equation it may be said that
- lives under domestic and social con-
ditions commonly found In those coun-
tries where the glory of Spain is a
memory centuries old. Far up in the
Western portion of the new republics
domain there live some natives who
claim to be the descendants of those
whom the Spaniards found when they
discovered and conquered the coun-
try and who seem to have retained
the true native customs, speech and
nhvsical type. In that same section,
notably in the province of Chiriqui, as
well as Porto Bello and Nombre de
7,os to the eastward of Colon, on the
caribbean coast, there live to this day
dora wing remnants of the old Spanish
gentility. OF these it is hardly worth
while to speak, for they are so shut
off from the world, living such narrow,
stunted lives, that they WELD practi
callv no influence, nor are they mat
Ter of any public concern,
To the eastward of Nombre de Dios,
stretching away for many miles to-
ward the Darien Gulf, are the haunts
Of the San Bias Indians, a race of
stockily-built, bullet-headed, shocky-
haired aborigines, dominated by pecu-
liar ideas and marked by most peculiar
traits. These Indians trade a little with
white men, and occasionally small par
ties of them make their way into Co.
lon. bringing cocoanuts or tortoise
shells for barter; but the one great
pim of their existence is to keep their
blood untainted. To attain this end
they have q hard-andfast rule under
which their women are never permit
ted communication with white men,
and to save their blood from pollution
white men are absolutely excluded
from their coast at nightfall. The go
ing down of the sun is signal for ev-
cry white man who happens to be on
this coast to go aboard ship or stand
offshore during the night in his cayuca,
IT,
ity that, so rigidly is the rule en-
forced, that no white man has ever
slept a night on the land belonging to
the San Bias Indians.
Raise Boys for Servitude.
This race recognized no dominion
save its own, acknowledges no sover-
eighty except that of its own tribe; yet
strange as are their ways, and careful
as they are to preserve their blood
from admixture with that of whites
they realize and appreciate the benefits
of AngIo-Saxon association. Their
method of securing. that association is
however most peculiar. From the
days Of, their infancy the youths OF
this tribe are taught that some day
or other white man will come to take
them away and make servants of them
This idea is drilled into these young
sters until they come to accept it as a
matter of course, and it actually works
out. The white man visiting the 18TH
mus and wishing to procure the serv-
ices of a boy into whom the idea OF
servitude has been thoroughly drilled
mas only TO communicate with these
Indians. The answer will be the ap-
pearance at the place appointed of such
san Bias youth. accompanied by his
father or one of the minor chiefs of the
tribe. With very little parleying the
lad will be handed over to the white
man, the only covenant eXacted by the
Indians being d pledge that the boy
shall be clothed and fed and educated
IN the English tongue.
From that day forth the boy will be
servant to his MASTER faithful, obedi-
eht, respectful and willing: but there
comes time when this relationship
ENDS. Sometime or other the white
man viii note the disappearance of the
kerVant-Ihe boy will have gone to his
Destiny with his tribe. for, while the
Youngsters are taught that a white man
VIII take them away, they aBe taught
100 that when they reach the age of
ABOUT Is years they are to slip away
from the white mans home and return
10 their native coast. This they do in
vanably, working their way back to
me lsthmus as common sailors and re-
joining the tribe. Their fate thereafter
Is not unpleasant, for upon their return
ihey are made minor chiefs or become
teachers. So common has this practice
Deeh for many decades among the San
BIAS Indians that to-day the tribe I'M
suage freely, and, while forbidding him
lnelr coast after shutdown, is always
gao 10 welcome and entertain an Eng
Iish- speaking man during the day, and
10 trada freely with him. These. In
uians live in the most primitive fash
loh observing all their tribal forms and
ceremonies, and are not, therefore, to
We considered in connection with the
actual domestic and social problems on
the isthnus
Conditions Most Depraved.
These problems are many and per-
plexlng. by far the most interesting
having to do with the ninety-and- mine.
ms mass of the population is thor
Iushly mongrel; to it morality judged
w modern institutions, is a thing en-
GIeV unknown. OF the pure blooded
Colomolans or Spaniards there are
none to be found in the great body of
sHe people. This mass is composed of
oil races and colors-West Indian ne
sloes, Indians, mulattoes, Chinese, de-
oased whites, Syrians, Malayans, and
an lnnnitude of others, who have lived
nnsre for two or three decades and
,Hlehded their blood so indiscriminate-
y mat racial types and characteristics
lave Deen lost in a bewildering mix
ls' Living, as it does, entirely sep
T,ale and apart from any and all civ
nZlhg and ennobling influences, this
S4