OTHER NATIVE TRIBES. 103 



Orinoco, and owe their independence to the nature 

 of their country. In order to raise their houses 

 above the inundations of the river, they support 

 them on the trunks of the mangrove and mauritia 

 palm. They make bread of the flour obtained from 

 the pith of the latter tree. Their excellent qualities 

 as seamen, their perfect knowledge of the mouths 

 and inosculations of that magnificent stream, and 

 their great number, give them a certain degree of 

 political importance. They run with great address 

 on marshy ground, where the whites, the negroes, 

 or other Indian tribes, will not venture ; and this 

 circumstance has given rise to the idea of their 

 being specifically lighter than the rest of the natives. 



The Guayquerias are the most intrepid fishermen 

 of these countries, and are the only persons well 

 acquainted with the great bank that surrounds the 

 islands of Coche, Margarita, Sola, and Testigos. 

 They inhabit Margarita, the peninsula of Araya, and 

 a suburb of Cumana. 



The Quaquas, formerly a very warlike tribe, are 

 now mingled with the Chaymas attached to the mis- 

 sions of Cumana, although their original abode was 

 on the banks of the Assiveru. 



The Cumanagatoes, to the number of more than 

 twenty thousand, subject to the Christian stations 

 of Piritoo, live westward of Cumana, where they 

 cultivate the ground. At the beginning of the six- 

 teenth century they inhabited the mountains of the 

 Brigantine and Parabolota. 



The Caribbees of these countries are part of the 

 remnant of the great Carib nation. 



The natives of America may be divided into two 

 great classes. To the first belong the Esquimaux 

 of Greenland, Labrador, and Hudson's Bay, and the 

 inhabitants of Behring's Straits, Alaska, and Prince 

 William's Sound. The eastern and western branches 

 of this great family, the Esquimaux proper and the 

 Tschougages, are united by the most intimate simi- 



