CHARACTER OF THE INDIANS. 



99 



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., is not known. There are two thousand Guay- 

 querias in the suburbs of Cumana and the peninsula 

 of Araya. Of the other tribes the Chaymas of the 

 mountains of Caripe, the Caribs of New-Barcelona, 

 and the Cumanagatoes of the missions of Piritoo, 

 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 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 different 

 languages. The missionaries have, indeed, pro- 

 hibited the use of various practices and ceremonies, 

 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 instructed In- 

 dian, more secure of subsistence than the untamed 

 native, and less exposed to the fury of hostile neigh- 

 bours 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 expression of 

 melancholy which his countenance exhibits is merely 

 the result of indolence. 



The Chaymas, of whom more than fifteen thousand 



