254 



the Chaymas, live the Tamanacks, (Tamanacu) 

 whose language is divided into several dialects. 

 This nation, formerly very powerful, is now re- 

 duced to a small number; is separated from 

 the mountains of Caripe by the Oroonoko, and 

 the vast steppes of Caraccas and of Cumana ; 

 and, what is a barrier far more difficult to sur- 

 mount, by the nations of Caribbean origin, In 

 spite of this distance and these numerous ob- 

 stacles, we perceived on examining the lan- 

 guage of the Ghayma Indians, that it is a branch 

 of the Tamanack tongue. The most ancient 

 missionaries of Caripe have no knowledge of 

 this curious circumstance, because the Capu- 

 chins of Arragon seldom visit the southern 

 banks of the Oroonoko, and are almost igno- 

 rant of the existence of the Tamanacks. I 

 recognised the analogy between the idiom of 

 this nation, and that of the Chayma Indians 

 long after my return to Europe, in comparing 

 the materials which I had collected with the 

 sketch of a grammar published in Italy by an 

 ancient missionary of the Oroonoko. Without 

 knowing the Chaymas, the Abbe Gili had con- 

 jectured, that the language of the inhabitants 

 of Paria * must have some relation to the Ta- 

 manack. 



* Fili, Saggio di Storia Amer., T. iii, p. 201, Vater has 

 also advanced some well founded conjectures on the connex- 

 ion that the Tamanack and Caribbean tongues have with 



/ 



/ 



