WHITE AND DWABF TBIBES. 4G3 



soft state like paste from the little lake Anmcu, though 

 very prevalent at Angostura, is wholly without foundation. 

 A curious geognostic discovery remains to be made in the 

 eastern part of America, that of finding in a primitive soil 

 a rock of euphotide containing the piedra de Macagua. 



I shall here proceed to give some information respecting 

 the tribes of dwarf and fair Indians, which ancient traditions 

 have placed near the sources of the Orinoco. I had an op- 

 portunity of seeing some of these Indians at Esmeralda, and 

 can affirm, that the short stature of the Guaicas, and the fair 

 complexion of the Guaharibos, whom Father Caulin calls 

 Gitaribos blancos, have been alike exaggerated. The Gruaicas, 

 whom I measured, were in general from four feet seven 

 inches to four feet eight inches high (old measure of 

 France).* We were assured that the whole tribe were of this 

 diminutive size ; but we must not forget that what is called 

 a tribe constitutes, properly speaking, but one family, owing 

 to the exclusion of all foreign connections. The Indians of 

 the lowest stature next to the Guaicas are the Guainares and 

 the Poignaves. It is singular, that all these nations are 

 found in near proximity to the Caribs, who are remarkably 

 tall. They all inhabit the same climate, and subsist on the 

 same aliments. They are varieties in the race, which no 

 doubt existed previously to the settlement of these tribes, 

 (tall and short, fair and dark brown) in the same country. 

 The four nations of the Upper Orinoco, which appeared to 

 me to be the fairest, are the Gruaharibos of the Rio Gehette, 

 the Guainares of the Ocamo, the Guaicas of Caiio Chiguire, 

 and the Maquiritares of the sources of the Padamo, the Jao, 

 and the Ventuari. It being very extraordinary to see natives 

 with a fair skin beneath a burning sky, and amid nations of 

 a very dark hue, the Spaniards have attempted to explain 

 this phenomenon by the following hypotheses. Some assert, 

 that the Dutch of Surinam and the Rio Essequibo may have 

 intermingled with the Guaharibos and the Guainares; 

 others insist, from hatred to the Capuchins of the Carony, 

 and the Observantins of the Orinoco, that the fair Indians 

 are what are called in Dalmatia muso di frate, children 

 whose legitimacy is somewhat doubtful. In either case 

 the Indios blancos would be mestizos, that is to say, children 

 * About five feet three inches English measure. 



