CHARACTER OF THE INDIANS. 115 
are all agriculturists, cultivate the same plants, build 
their huts in the same manner, and lead the same 
kind of life, yet the shades by which the several 
tribes are distinguished remain unchanged. There 
are few of these villages in which the families 
do not belong to different tribes, and speak dif- 
ferent languages. ‘The missionaries have, indeed, 
prohibited the use of various practices and cere- 
monies, and have destroyed many superstitions ; 
but they have not been able to alter the essential 
character common to all the American races, from 
Hudson’s Bay to the Straits of Magellan. The in- 
structed Indian, more secure of subsistence than 
the untamed native, and less exposed to the fury of 
hostile neighbours or of the elements, leads a more 
monotonous life, possesses the mildness of character 
which arises from the love of repose, and assumes a 
sedate and mysterious air; but the sphere of his 
ideas has received little enlargement, and the ex- 
pression of melancholy which his countenance ex- 
hibits is merely the result of indolence. 
The Chaymas, of whom more than fifteen thou- 
sand inhabit the Spanish villages, and who border on 
the Cumanagatoes toward the west, the Guaraounoes 
toward the east, and the Caribs toward the south, 
occupy part of the elevated mountains of the Cocollar 
and Guacharo, as also the banks of the Guarapiche, 
Rio Colorado, Areo, and the Cano of Caripe. The 
first attempt to reduce them to subjection was made 
in the middle of the seventeenth century by Father 
Francisco of Pamplona, a person of great zeal and 
intrepidity. The missions subsequently formed 
among these people suffered greatly in 1681, 1697, 
and 1720, from the invasions of the Caribs ; while 
