My principal aim in writing this study has been to throw further light on the evolution of inter-ethnic relations on a contested colonial frontier. These chapters, therefore, have focused on both the diversity of Spanish approaches towards, and strategies for, subduing, subordinating and governing the native inhabitants of this extremely important gold-producing territory, and the varied ways in which indigenous peoples, principally but not exclusively the Citará, sought to control and direct the nature and extent of contact with the world that lay beyond the boundaries of the Chocó itself. No rigid classification of action and reaction has been possible, of course, for this analysis has shown not only that Indian peoples – acting as individuals, communities or groups – responded in different ways, at different times, to the challenges and opportunities presented by the introduction of European ideas and artefacts and the imposition of European customs and institutions, but reserved to themselves the right to vary attitudes, as local needs and interests dictated, towards the range of new possibilities opened by the presence of outsiders in the native world.

Over the course of the seventeenth century, we have seen, many indigenous peoples made their peace with the Spaniards, in exchange for the metal tools and other items that facilitated food procurement and preparation, and made more efficient such necessary activities as the construction of dwellings and the manufacture of canoes. Others proved open to making ever greater concessions to protect their association with Europeans, along with the titles and rewards that enhanced their own status and set them apart from their fellow Indians. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, some individuals within indigenous society had also come to accept such aspects of Spanish rule as they could no longer change, but devised new ways to negotiate the conditions of their subjection to European domination, and to protect the rights and privileges accorded native peoples under colonial law. Others, however, while perhaps not rejecting all aspects of the material culture of the Europeans, remained consistently opposed to co-operating with the intruders, opting instead to exploit the advantages of a region that was of interest to Spaniards for its precious metal, rather than for settlement and development, in order to establish and re-establish their communities, according to traditional principles, alongside the many rivers that intersected this heavily forested and sparsely populated terrain.