287 



Mexico, before he entered the capital of Monte- 

 zuma in 1521, the attention of Europe was 

 fixed on the regions, which we have just tra- 

 versed. In painting the manners of the inha- 

 bitants of Paria and Cumana, it was thought 

 that the manners of all the inhabitants of the 

 new continent were described. This remark 

 cannot escape those, who read the historians of 

 the Conquest, especially the letters of Peter 

 Martyr of Anghiera, written at the court of 

 Ferdinand the Catholic, filled with ingenious 

 observations upon Christopher Columbus, Leo 

 X, and Luther, and inspired by a noble enthu- 

 siasm for the great discoveries of an age so rich 

 in extraordinary events. Without entering into 

 any detail on the manners of the nations, which 

 have been so long confounded under the vague 

 denomination of Cumanians (Cumaneses), it 

 appears to me important to clear up a fact, 

 which I have often heard discussed in Spanish 

 America. 



The Pariagotoes at present are of a brown 

 red, as are the Caribbees, the Chaymas, and 

 almost all the nations of the New World. Why 

 do the historians of the 16th century affirm, that 

 the first navigators saw white men with fair 

 hair, at the promontory of Paria ? Were they 

 of the same race as those Indians, with a skin 

 less tawny, whom Mr. Bonpland and myself 

 saw at Esmeralda, near the sources of the 



