One of the most important additions to our knowledge of the province and its archæologic treasures is furnished in the manuscript notes of Mr. J. A. McNiel, who made the greater part of the collection now deposited in the National Museum. This explorer has personally supervised the examination of many thousands of graves and has forwarded the bulk of his collections to the United States. His explorations have occupied a number of years, during which time he has undergone much privation and displayed great enthusiasm in pursuing the rather thorny pathways of scientific research. In the preparation of this paper his notes have been used as freely as their rather disconnected character warranted, and since Mr. McNiel’s return to the United States, in July, 1886, I have been favored with a

series of interviews with him, and by this means much important information has been obtained.

[PEOPLE.]

At the present time this district is inhabited chiefly by Indians and natives of mixed, blood, who follow grazing and agriculture to a limited extent, but subsist largely upon the natural products of the country. These peoples are generally thought to have no knowledge or trustworthy tradition of the ancient inhabitants and are said to care nothing for the curious cemeteries among which they dwell, except as a source of revenue. Mr. A. L. Pinart states, however, that certain tribes on both sides of the continental divide have traditions pointing toward the ancient grave builders as their ancestors. There is probably no valid reason for assigning the remains of this region to a very high antiquity. The highest stage of culture here may have been either earlier or later than the period of highest civilization in Mexico and South America or contemporaneous with it. There is really no reason for supposing that the tribes who built these graves were not in possession of the country, or parts of it, at the time of the conquest. As to the affinities of the ancient middle isthmian tribes with the peoples north and south of them we can learn nothing positive from the evidences of their art. So far as the art of pottery has come within my observation, it appears to indicate a somewhat closer relationship with the ancient Costa Rican peoples than with those of continental South America; yet, in their burial customs, in the lack of enduring houses and temples, and in their use of gold, they were like the ancient peoples of middle and southern New Granada.[5]

The relics preserved in our museums would seem to indicate one principal period of occupation or culture only; but there has been no intelligent study of the contents of the soil in sections exposed in modern excavations, the exclusive aim of collectors having generally been to secure either gold or showy cabinet specimens. The relics of very primitive periods, if such are represented, have naturally passed unnoticed. Mr. McNiel mentions the occurrence of pottery in the soil in which the graves were dug, but, regarding it as identical with that contained in the graves, he neglected to preserve specimens.

In one instance, while on a visit to Los Remedios, a pueblo near the eastern frontier of Chiriqui, he observed a cultivated field about which a ditch some 8 or 9 feet in depth had been dug. In walking through this he found a continuous exposure of broken pottery and stone implements. Some large urns had been cut across or broken to conform to the slope of the ditch, and were exposed in section.

Although not apparently representing a very wide range of culture or distinctly separated periods of culture, the various groups of relics exhibit considerable diversity in conception and execution, attributable, no doubt, to variations in race and art inheritance.

[ THE CEMETERIES.]

The ancient cemeteries, or huacals, as they are called throughout Spanish America, are scattered over the greater part of the Pacific slope of Chiriqui. It is said by some that they are rarely found in the immediate vicinity of the sea, but they occur in the river valleys, on the hills, the plateaus, the mountains, and in the deepest forests. They are very numerous, but generally of small extent. The largest described is said to cover an area of about twelve acres. They were probably located in the immediate vicinity of villages, traces of which, however, are not described by explorers; but there can be no doubt that diligent search will bring to light the sites of dwellings and towns. The absence of traces of houses or monuments indicates either that the architecture of this region was then, as now, of destructible material, or, which is not likely, that so many ages have passed over them that all traces of unburied art, wood, stone, or clay, have yielded to the “gnawing tooth of time.”

One of the most circumstantial accounts of these burial places is given by Mr. Merritt, who was also the first to make them known to science.[6] Mr. Merritt was director of a gold mine in Veragua, and in the summer of 1859 spent several weeks in exploring the graves of Chiriqui; he therefore speaks from personal knowledge. In the autumn of 1858 two native farmers of the parish of Bugaba, or Bugava, discovered a golden image that had been exposed by the uprooting of a plant. They proceeded secretly to explore the graves, the existence of which had been known for years. In the following spring their operations became known to the people, and within a month more than a thousand persons were engaged in working these extraordinary gold mines. The fortunate discoverers succeeded in collecting about one hundred and thirty pounds weight of gold figures, most of which were more or less alloyed with copper. It is estimated that fifty thousand dollars’ worth in all was collected from this cemetery, which embraced an area of twelve acres.