dii 



KUMBER OF ABORIGINES. 



Number of 

 aborigines. 



Missionary 

 Elutiuus 



cilAP. IX. covered by forests and intersected by rivers, presented 

 Avandering tribes, separated by differences .of language 

 and manners. 



In Cumana and New Barcelona, the aborigines still 

 form fully one-half of the scanty population. Their 

 number may be about 60,000, of which 24,000 inhabit 

 New Andalusia. This amount appears large when we 

 refer to the hunting- tribes of North America, but seems 

 the reverse when we look to those districts of New 

 Spain where agriculture has been followed for more than 

 eight centuries. Thus, the intendancy of Oaxaca, which 

 forms part of tlie old Mexican empire, and which is one- 

 third smaller than the two provinces of Cumana and 

 Barcelona, contains more than 400,000 of the original 

 race. The Indians of Cumana do not all live assembled 

 in the missions, some being found dispersed in the neigh- 

 bourhood of towns along the coasts. The stations of the 

 Arragonese Capuchins contain 15,000, almost all of the 

 Chayma tribe. The villages, however, are less crowded 

 than in the province of Barcelona, their indigenous 

 population being only between five and six hundred ; 

 whereas, more to the west, in the establishments of the 

 Franciscans of Piritoo, there are towns of 2000 or 3000 

 inhabitants. Besides the G0,000 natives of the provinces 

 of Cunuina and Barcelona, there are some thousands of 

 Guaraunos wlio have preserved their independence in 

 the islands at the mouth of the Orinoco. Excepting a few 

 families, there are no wild Indians in New Andalusia. 



The term wild or savage, Humboldt says he uses with 

 regret, because it implies a difference of cultivation wliich 

 does not always exist between the reduced or civilized 

 Indian, living in the missions, and the free or independ- 

 ent Indian. In tlie forests of South America there are 

 tribes which dwell in villages, rear plantains, cassava, 

 and cotton, and are scarcely more barbarous than those 

 in the religious establishments, who have been taught to 

 make the sign of tlie cross. It is an error to consider all 

 the free natives as wandering hunters ; fur agriculture 

 existed on the contineut lont? before the arrival of the 



Distinction 

 araontr ttic 



Tn diarx 



