281 



The Guaikeries inhabit the island of Marga- 

 retta, the peninsula of Araya, and that suburb 

 of Cumana, which bears their name. We have 

 already observed *, that they believe their lan- 

 guage to be a dialect of that of the Guaraou- 

 noes. This would connect them with the great 

 family of the Cai ibbee nations ; for the mis- 

 sionary Gili ~{~ thinks, that the idiom of the 

 Guaikeries is one of the numerous branches 

 of the Caribbean tongue, These affinities are 

 interesting, because they lead us to perceive 

 an ancient connection between nations dis- 

 persed over a vast extent of country, from the 

 mouth of the Rio Caura % and the sources of 



* Vol. ii, ch. IV, p. 198. (See also Hervas, Cat., p. 

 49). If the name of the Port Pam-patar in the Island of 

 Margaretta, be Guaiquerie, as we have no reason to doubt 5 

 it exhibits a feature of analogy with the Cumanagoto tongue, 

 which approaches the Caribbean and Tamanack. In Terra 

 Firma, in the Piritoo Missions, we find the village of Caygua- 

 patar, which signifies house of Caygua. 



+ Vol. ii_, chap. IV, p. 198. Vater, Tom. iii, P. II, 

 p. 676. 



X Are the Guaikeries, or O-aikeries, now settled on the 

 borders of the Erevato, and formerly between the Rio Cau- 

 ra and the Cuchivero, near the little town of Alta Gracia, 

 of a different origin from the Guaikeries of Cumana ? I 

 know also in the interior of the country, in the Missions of ' 

 the Piritoos, near the village of San Juan Evangelista del 

 Guarive, a ravine very anciently called Guayquiricuar . These 

 indications seem to prove migrations from the south-west 

 toward the coast. The termination cuar, found so often in 



