281 



The Guaikeries inhabit the island of Marga- 

 retta, the peninsula of Araya, and that suburb 

 of Cumana, which bears their name. We have 

 already observed*, that they believe their lan- 

 guage to be a dialect of that of the Guaraou- 

 noes. This would connect them with the great 

 family of the Caribbee nations ; for the mis- 

 sionary Gili -Jh thinks, that the idiom of the 

 • Guaikeries is one of the numerous branches 

 of the Caribbean tongue. These affinities are 

 interesting, because they lead us to perceive 

 an ancient connection between nations dis- 

 persed over a vast extent of country, from the 

 mouth of the Rio Caura^: and the sources of 



* Vol. ii, ch. IV, p. 198. (See also Hervas, Cat., p. 

 49). If the name of the Port Pam-patar in the Island of 

 Margaretta, be Guaiquerie, as we have no reason to doubt 5 

 it exhibits a feature of analogy with the Cumanagoto tongue, 

 which approaches the Caribbean and Tamanack. In Terra 

 Firma, in the Piritoo Missions, we find the village of Caygua- 

 patar, which signifies house of Caygua. 



+ Vol. ii, chap. IV, p. 198. Vater, Tom. iii, P. II, 

 p. 676. 



X Are the Guaikeries, or O-aikeries, now settled on the 

 borders of the Erevato, and formerly between the Rio Cau- 

 ra and the Cuchivero, near the little town of Alta Gracia, 

 of a different origin from the Guaikeries of Cumana ? I 

 know also in the interior of the country, in the Missions of 

 the Piritoos, near the village of San Juan Evangelista del 

 Guarive, a ravine very anciently called Guayquiricuar. These 

 indications seem to prove migrations from the south-west 

 toward the coast. The termination cuar, found so often in 



