231 



to the age of ten or twelve, have the arms, 

 shoulders, and upper part of the breast naked. 

 The tunic is so cut, that the fore part is joined 

 to the back by two narrow bands, which cross 

 the shoulders. When we met the natives, with- 

 out the Mission, we saw them, especially in 

 rainy weather, stripped of their clothes, and 

 holding their shirts rolled up under their arms. 

 They preferred receiving the rain on their body 

 quite naked, to wetting their clothes. The 

 oldest women hid themselves behind trees, and 

 laughed aloud when they saw us pass. The 

 missionaries complain in general, that the sen- 

 timents of decency are scarcely more felt by 

 young girls than by the men. Ferdinand Co- 

 lumbus * relates, that in 1498 his fatlier found 

 the women entirely naked in the island of Trin- 

 idad ; while the men wore the guayuco, which 

 is rather a narrow bandage than an apron. At 

 the same period, on the coast of Paria, the girls 



* Life of the Admiral, cap. 71 (ChurchilVs Collection, 1723, 

 vol. ii, p. 586). This Life, written after the year 1537, 

 from original notes in the handwriting of Christopher Co- 

 lumbus, is the most valuable record of the history of his dis- 

 coveries. It exists only in the Italian and Spanish transla- 

 tions of Alphonso de Ulloa and Gonzales Barcia ; for the 

 original, carried to Venice in 1571 by the leared Fornari, 

 has neither been published nor found since. Napione della 

 Patria di Colombo, 1804, p. 109 and 295. Cancellieri sopra 

 Christ, Colombo, 1809, p. 129. 



i 



