222 



lies, and eight thousand one hundred and 

 seventy persons *. 



These Missions suffered greatly in 1681, 1697, 

 and 1720, from the invasions of the Caribbees, 

 then independent, who burnt whole villages. 

 From 1730 to 1736, the population diminished 

 from the ravages of the small-pox, a disease 

 always more fatal to the copper-coloured In- 

 dians, than to the whites. Many of the Gua- 

 raounoes, who had been assembled together, 

 fled back again to their marshes. Fourteen 

 old Missions remained deserted, and have not 

 been rebuilt. The Chaymas are in general 

 short; and they appear so particularly, when 

 compared, I shall not say with their neighbours 

 the Caribbees, or with the Payaguas or Guay- 

 quilits ^ of Paraguay, equally remarkable for 

 their stature, but with the ordinary natives of 

 America. The common stature of a Chayma 

 is T57 met. or four feet ten inches [five feet 

 two inches nearly], their body is thick set, 

 shoulders extremelv broad, and breast flat. 



* Cultivated land (labrunzas), belonging to these thirty -five 

 villages, 6554 almudas. The number of cows in 1792 amount- 

 ed only to 1883. 



f The ordinary stature of the Guayquilits or Mbayas, 

 who live between the 20th and 22d degrees of south latitude, 

 is, according to Azzara 184 met. or five feet eight inches 

 [six feet and half an inch Eng.] The Payaguas, equally 

 tall, have given their name to Payaguay, or Paraguay. 



