191 



The suburbs of Cumana are almost as popu- 

 lous as the ancient town. We reckon three 

 that of the Serritos, on the road to the Plaga 

 Chica, where we meet with some fine tamarind 

 trees ; that of St. Francis, toward the south-east ; 

 and the great suburb of the Guayquerias, or 

 Guayguerias. The name of this tribe of Indians 

 was quite unknown before the conquest. The 

 natives who bear this name formerly belonged 

 to the nation of the Guaraounoes, of which we 

 find no remains but in the swampy lands of the 

 branches of the Oroonoko. Old men have assur- 

 ed me, that the language of their ancestors was 

 a dialect of the Guaraouno ; but that for a cen- 

 tury past no native of that tribe at Cumana,. or 

 in the island of Margaretta, has spoken any other 

 language than the Castilian. 



The denomination of Guayquerias, like those 

 of Peru and Peruvian,, owes it's origin to a mere 

 mistake. The companions of Christopher Co- 

 lumbus, coasting along the island of Margaretta, 

 where still on the northern coasts resides the 

 noblest portion of the Guayqueria nation*, met 

 a few natives, who were harpooning fish by 



subjection to those imaginary laws. (Plato, apud Plut. de 

 Placit. Philos., lib. iii, c. 15, ed. Reiske, t. ix, p. 551.) 



* The Guayquerias ofla Banda del Norte consider them- 

 selves as the most noble race, because they think, that they 

 are less mixed with the Chayma Indian, and other copper- 



