OTHER NATIVE TRIBES. 119 
Little information, however, is furnished respecting 
them. 
The Guaraounoes are dispersed in the delta of 
the Orinoco, and owe their independence to the na- 
ture 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 knowledgeof the mouths and in- 
osculationsof that magnificent stream, and their great 
number, give them a certain degree of political im- 
portance. They run with great address on marshy 
ground, where the whites, the negroes, or other In- 
dian 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 fisher- 
men 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. 
