It is believed that native coastal Chiriqui inhabited the islands for hundreds of years until the first Spanish conquests. There is documentation that by the time Diego Ruiz de Campos arrived in 1891, the islands were completely deserted. It has been argued that the Indians of these islands may have been exterminated or taken into slavery, while those that survived probably made their way back to the mainland. Today many of the descendants of the Chiriqui live on the mainland in and around the city of David and in the verdant hills beyond.