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of nations; they afford only simple probabilities. 

 The Caribbees, properly speaking, those who 

 inhabit the Missions of the Cari, in the Llanos 

 of Cumana, the banks of the Caura, and the 

 plains to the north-east of the sources of the 

 Oroonoko, are distinguished by their almost 

 gigantic size from all the other nations I have 

 seen in the* new continent. Must it on this ac- 

 count be admitted, that the Caribbees are an 

 entirely distinct race ? and that the Guaraon$ 

 and the Tamanacks, whose languages have an 

 affinity with the Caribbee, have no bond of rela- 

 tionship with them ? I think not. Among the 

 nations of the same family, one branch may ac- 

 quire an extraordinary developement of it's 

 organization. The mountaineers of the Tyrol 

 and the Salzburgh are taller than the other 

 Germannic races ; the Samoydes of the Altai 

 are not so little and squat as those of the sea- 

 coast. In the same manner it would be diffi- 

 cult to deny, that the Galibis are real Carib- 

 bees ; and yet notwithstanding the identity of 

 languages, what a striking difference in their 

 stature and physical constitution ! 



While indicating the elements of which the 

 indigenous population of the provinces of Cu- 

 mana and Barcelona is at present composed, I 

 would not mingle historical memorials with the 

 simple enumeration of facts. Before Cortez 

 burnt his ships at his landing on the coast of 



