DARIEN, a province of South America, in the vice-royalty of New Grenada, bounded on the north-west by Panama, on the north-east by the Gulf of Darien, on the east by the province of Carthagena, on the south by Choco, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. The country is for the most part mountainous and rugged, but there are interspersed plains which are very fertile, though deserted and uncultivated, and producing only a small quantity of cacao or tobacco. It is watered by a number of rivers, the streams of which wash down gold from the mountains. This province was the first place in Terra Firma where the Spaniards established themselves; but most of the settlements have since been abandoned, owing as much to the savage character of the natives as to the moist and unhealthy nature of the climate.