This region includes the mountainous district in northwestern South America, west of the basin of the Orinoco and north of the equator--but without rigid adherence to these lines. The character of its culture differed considerably from that found in the Atlantic regions and was much more closely assimilated to that of Peru. Three lofty mountain chains traverse New Granada from north to south, the intervening valleys being beds of powerful rivers, rich in fish and with fertile banks. This configuration of the soil has exerted a profound influence on the life and migrations of the native inhabitants, severing them from the fellow-members of their race to the east and directing their rovings in a north and south direction. The productive valleys were no doubt densely populated; though we must regard as a wild extravagance the estimate of a modern writer that at the conquest the native inhabitants of New Granada reached “six to eight millions”[227]; and I hope that the historian Herrera was far beyond the truth when he asserted that in Popayan alone, in a single year fifty thousand of the Indians died of starvation, five thousand were killed and eaten by the famishing multitude, and a hundred thousand perished from pestilence![228] _1. Tribes of the Isthmus and Adjacent Coast._ At the discovery, the Isthmus of Panama was in the possession of the _Cunas_ tribe, as they call themselves. They are the same to whom were applied later the names Darien Indians (Wafer), Tules, Cunacunas, Cuevas, Coybas, Mandingas, Bayanos, Irriacos, San Blas Indians, Chucunacos, Tucutis, etc. They extended from the Gulf of Uraba and the river Atrato on the east to the river Chagres on the west. In that direction they were contiguous to the Guaymis, while on the right bank of the Atrato their neighbors were the Chocos. The Cunas are slightly undersized (about 1.50), but symmetrical and vigorous. Their color is light, and individuals with chestnut or reddish hair and grey eyes have always been noted among them, and have erroneously been supposed to be albinos. Their skulls are markedly brachycephalic (88) and their faces broad. In spite of the severe measures of the Spaniards, they have never been thoroughly reduced, and still manifest an unconquerable love of freedom and a wild life. When first met they lived in small villages composed of communal houses, raised maize and cotton, working the latter into garments for the women, and possessed some gold, which they obtained from the mountain streams and by working auriferous veins. The men usually appeared naked and used poisoned arrows. The Cuna language does not seem to be positively connected with any other stock, nor have dialects of it been discovered elsewhere. A number of verbal similarities have been pointed out with the Chibcha, and it has also a certain similarity to the Carib;[229] but with our present knowledge it would be hasty to class it along with any other.