114 PROGRESS OF THE MISSIONS. 
latter a small piece of ground suffices to afford sub- 
sistence for a family. 
In these provinces the Europeans advance slowly; — 
and the religious orders have founded establish- 
ments between the regions inhabited by them and 
those possessed by the independent Indians. The 
missions have no doubt encroached on the liberty 
of the natives, but they have generally been fa- 
vourable to the increase of the population. As the 
preachers advance into the interior the planters in- 
vade their territory ; the whites and the castes of 
mixed breed settle among the Indians; the missions 
become Spanish villages ; and finally, the old inha- 
bitants lose their original manners and language. 
In this way civilisation advances from the coasts to- 
wards the centre of the continent. 
New Andalusia and Barcelona contain more than 
fourteen tribes of Indians. Those of the former are 
the Chaymas, Guayquerias, Pariagotoes, Quaquas, 
Aruacas, Caribs, and Guaraounoes ; and those of the 
latter, the Cumanagatoes, Palenkas, Caribs, Piritoos, 
Tomoozas, Topocuares, Chacopatas, and Guarivas. 
The precise number of the Guaraounoes, who live in 
huts elevated on trees at the mouth of the Ori- 
noco, isnot known. There are two thousand Guay- 
querias in the suburbs of Cumana and the penin- 
sula of Araya. Of the other tribes the Chaymas of 
the mountains of Caripe, the Caribs of New Barce- 
lona, and the Cumanagatoes of the missions of Pi- 
ritoo, are the most numerous. The language of the 
Guaraounoes, and that of the Caribs, Cumanagatoes, 
and Chaymas, are the most general, and seem to 
belong to the same stock. 
Although the Indians attached to the missions 
