The Native Races (Complete 5 Part Edition). Hubert Howe Bancroft

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СКАЧАТЬ docility. The natives of Boca del Toro are barbarous and averse to change. In Chiriquí they are brave and intelligent, their exceeding courage having obtained for them the name of Valientes or Indios Bravos from the early discoverers; they are also noted for honesty and fair dealing. The same warlike and independent spirit and fearlessness of death prevails among the nations of Veragua, Panamá, and Darien. The inhabitants of Panamá and Cueba are given to lechery, theft, and lying; with some these qualities are fashionable; others hold them to be crimes. The Mandingos and natives of San Blas are an independent and industrious people, possessing considerable intelligence, and are of a docile and hospitable disposition. The inhabitants of Darien are kind, open-hearted, and peaceable, yet have always been resolute in opposing all interference from foreigners; they are fond of amusements and inclined to indolence; the latter trait is not, however, applicable to all, a noticeable exception being the Cunas and Chocos of the Atrato Valley, who are of a gentle nature, kind, hospitable, and open-hearted when once their confidence is gained; they are likewise industrious and patient, and M. Lucien de Puydt says of the former: "Theft is altogether unknown amongst the Cunas." Colonel Alcedo, speaking of their neighbors, the Idibaes, calls them treacherous, inconstant, and false. In the interior and mountain districts the inhabitants are more fierce than those from the coast; the former are shy and retiring, yet given to hospitality. On the gulf of Urabá the people are warlike, vainglorious, and revengeful.1040

      Thus from the icy regions of the north to the hot and humid shores of Darien I have followed these Wild Tribes of the Pacific States, with no other object in view than faithfully to picture them according to the information I have been able to glean. And thus I leave them, yet not without regret: for notwithstanding all that has been said I cannot but feel how little we know of them. Of their mighty unrecorded past, their interminable intermixtures, their ages of wars and convulsions, their inner life, their aspirations, hopes, and fears, how little do we know of all this! And now as the eye rests upon the fair domain from which they have been so ignobly hurried, questions like these arise: How long have these backings and battlings been going on? What purpose did these peoples serve? Whence did they come and whither have they gone?—questions unanswerable until Omniscience be fathomed and the beginning and end made one.

      TRIBAL BOUNDARIES.

      The Wild Tribes of Central America, the last groupal division of this work, extend from the western boundary of Guatemala, south and eastward, to the Rio Atrato. I have divided the group into three subdivisions, namely: the Guatemalans, the Mosquitos, and the Isthmians.

      The Guatemalans, for the purposes of this delineation, embrace those nations occupying the present states of Guatemala, Salvador, and portions of Nicaragua.

      The Lacandones are a wild nation inhabiting the Chammá mountains on the boundary of Guatemala and Chiapas. 'Mountains of Chammá, inhabited by the wild Indians of Lacandón … a distinction ought to be drawn between the Western and Eastern Lacandónes. All the country lying on the W., between the bishopric of Ciudad Real and the province of Vera Paz, was once occupied by the Western Lacandónes. … The country of the Eastern Lacandónes may be considered as extending from the mountains of Chammá, a day and a half from Cobán, along the borders of the river de la Pasion to Petén, or even further.' Escobar, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xi., pp. 93–4. Upon the margin of the Rio de la Passion. Juarros' Hist. Guat., p. 271. 'Un tribu de Mayas sauvages appelés Lacandons, qui habitent un district immense dans le centre du continent, embrasse toute la partie occidentale du Peten; erre sur les bords supérieurs de l'Usumasinta et le pays qui se trouve au sud de l'endroit d'où j'écris.' Galindo, in Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., p. 67. 'The vast region lying between Chiapa, Tabasco, Yucatan, and the republic of Guatemala … is still occupied by a considerable body of Indians, the Lacandones and others.' Squier, in Hist. Mag., vol. iv., p. 65, 'The vast region embracing not less than from 8000 to 10,000 square miles, surrounding the upper waters of the river Usumasinta, in which exist the indomitable Lacandones.' Id., p. 67. 'Mais la contrée qui s'étendait au nord de Cahabon, siége provisoire des Dominicains, et qui comprenait le pays de Dolores et celui des Itzas, était encore à peu près inconnue. Là vivaient les Choles, les belliqueux et féroces Mopans, les Lacandons et quelques tribus plus obscures, dont l'histoire a négligé les noms.' Morelet, Voyage, tom. ii., p. 78, tom. i., p. 318. 'They are reduced to-day to a very insignificant number, living on and near Passion river and its tributaries.' Berendt, in Smithsonian Rept., 1867, p. 425. 'In the north of Vera Paz, to the west of Peten, and all along the Usumacinta, dwell numerous and warlike tribes, called generally Lacandones.' Boyle's Ride, vol. i., pref., p. xvi.; Fossey, Mexique, p. 471; Pimentel, Mem. sobre la Raza Indígena, p. 197.

      THE MAMES OF GUATEMALA.

      The Mames 'occupied the existing district of Güegüetenango, a part of Quezaltenango, and the province of Soconusco, and in all these places the Mam or Pocoman language is vernacular. It is a circumstance not a little remarkable, that this idiom is also peculiar to places very distant from the country of the Mams: viz. in Amatitan, Mixco, and Petapa, in the province of Sacatepeques; Chalchuapa, in St. Salvador; Mita, Jalapa, and Xilotepeque, in Chiquimula.' Juarros' Hist. Guat., p. 169. 'El Mame ó Pocoman le usan los mames ó pocomanes, que parecen no ser mas que dos tribus de una misma nacion, la cual formaba un estado poderoso en Guatemala. Se extendió por el distritó de Huehuetenango, en la provincia de este nombre, y por parte de la de Quetzaltenango, así como por el distrito de Soconusco en Chiapas. En todos estos lugares se hablaba mame ó pocoman, lo mismo que en Amatitlan, Mixco y Petapa, de la provincia de Zacatepec ó Guatemala; en Chalchuapa, perteneciente á la de San Salvador; y en Mita, Jalapa y Jiloltepec, de la de Chiquimula.' Balbi, in Pimentel, Cuadro, tom. i., p. 81. 'Leur capitale était Gueguetenango, au nord-est de la ville actuelle de Guatemala, et les villes de Masacatan, Cuilco, Chiantla et Istaguacan étaient enclavées dans leur territoire.' Squier, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1857, tom. cliii., p. 177. 'A l'ouest, jusqu'aux frontières de Chiapas, s'étendaient les Mams, proprement dits Mam-Yoc, dans leurs histoires, partagés en plusieurs familles également puissantes qui gouvernaient souverainement cette contrée, alors désignée sous le nom commun d'Otzoya (de otzoy, sortes d'écrevisses d'or): c'étaient d'un côté les Chun-Zak-Yoc, qui avaient pour capitale Qulaha, que son opulence et son étendue avaient fait surnommer Nima-Amag ou la Grande-Ville, dite depuis Xelahun-Quieh, ou Xelahuh, et Quezaltenango; les Tzitzol, dont la capitale était peut-être Chinabahul ou Huehuetenango, les Ganchebi (see note below under Ganchebis) et les Bamaq. Ceux-ci, dont nous avons connu les descendants, étaient seigneurs d'Iztlahuacan (San-Miguel-Iztlahuacan), dont le plateau est encore aujourd'hui parsemé de ruines au milieu desquelles s'élève l'humble bourgade de ce nom: au dessus domine, à une hauteur formidable, Xubiltenam (ville du Souffle). … Ganchebi, écrit alternativement Canchebiz, Canchevez et Ganchebirse. Rien n'indique d'une manière précise où régnait cette famille: mais il se pourrait que ce fût à Zipacapan ou à Chivun, dont les ruines existent à trois lieues au sud de cette dernière localité; là était l'ancien Oztoncalco.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, introd., pp. 264–5. 'Habitaban el Soconusco, desde tiempos remotos, y era un pueblo autócton; los olmecas que llegaron de la parto de México, les redujeron á la servidumbre, y una fraccion de los vencidos emigró hasta Guatemala.' Orozco y Berra, Geografía, p. 168. The Mamey, Achi, Cuaahtemalteca, Hutateca, and Chirichota 'en la de los Suchitepeques y Cuaahtemala.' Palacio, in Pacheco, Col. Doc. Inéd., tom. vi., p. 7. Mame 'Parlé dans les localités voisines de Huehuetenango.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, MS. Troano, tom. ii., p. viii. 'On retrouve encore aujourd'hui leurs restes parmi les Indiens de la province de Totonicapan, aux frontières de Chiapas et des Lacandons, an nord-ouest de l'état de Guatémala. La place forte de Zakuléu (c'est-à-dire, Terre blanche, mal à propos orthographié Socoléo), dont on admire les vastes débris auprès de la ville de Huéhuétenango, resta, jusqu'au temps de la conquête espagnole, la capitale des Mems. Cette race avait été antérieurement la maîtresse de la plus grande partie de l'état de Guatémala.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, СКАЧАТЬ