Note XXII‑1 — Chapter XXII · AFFAIRS IN PANAMÁ. 1551-1600.

Cimarron, a Spanish word, primarily signifies 'wild' as applied to plants, and 'untamed' as applied to animals; hence the appropriateness of the epithet. The cimarrones played a somewhat conspicuous part in the subsequent troubles of the country, and are not to be confounded with a tribe of Indians of similar name, the Simerones referred to in Native Races, iii. 794 this series. The mistake is made, however, by the author of Drake, Cavendish, and Dampier, 60, and also by Bidwell, Panamá, 53. Garcilaso de Vega, Hist. Peru, ii. 466, says the epithet had its origin in the Windward Islands—'vocablo del language de las isles de Barlovento.'