216 



ern savannahs of New Barcelona, and the Cu~ 

 managatoes in the Missions of Piritoo, are the 

 most numerous. Some families of Guaraou- 

 noes have been reduced into Missions on the 

 left bank of the Oroonoko, where the Delta 

 begins to be formed. The language of the Gua- 

 raounoes and that of the Caribs, of the Cu- 

 managotoes and of the Chaymas, are the most 

 general. We shall presently see, that they seem 

 to belong to the same stock ; and that they 

 exhibit in their grammatical forms those inti- 

 mate affinities, which, to use a comparison taken 

 from languages more known, connect the Greek, 

 the German, the Persian, and the Sanscrit. 



Notwithstanding these affinities, we must 

 consider the Chaymas, the Guaraounoes, the Ca- 

 ribbees,the Quaquas, the Aruacas or Arrawawks, 

 and the Cumanagotoes, as different nations. 

 I would not venture to affirm the same thing 

 of the Guayquerias, the Pariagotoes, the Piri- 

 toos, the Tomoozas, and the Chacopatas. The 

 Guayquerias themselves admit the analogy of 

 their language with that of the Guaraounoes. 

 Both are a littoral race, like the Malays of the 

 ancient continent. With respect to the tribes 

 who at present speak the Cumanagoto, Carib- 

 bean, and Chayma idioms, it is difficult to 

 decide on their first origin, and their relations 

 with other nations formerly more powerful. 

 The historians of the Conquest, like the eccle- 



