The New International Encyclopædia/Chibcha

CHIB′CHA, or Muysca (So. Amer. Indian, men). An important nation or confederacy centring, at the time of the Spanish Conquest, on the upper Magdalena River, about Bogotá, Colombia, their language being the general trade language throughout the whole mountain region of that country. Detached tribes of the same stock were fouud along the isthmus, and in Costa Rica. In culture the Chibchas ranked close to the Quichuas, practicing agriculture by the aid of an extensive system of irrigation, weaving cotton cloth, and working gold with a high degree of skill, although ignorant of the use of copper and bronze. They offered heroic resistance to the Spaniards, but were finally subdued and well-nigh exterminated, only a few remnants still surviving in their native mountains.