551 



vided the questions be simplified, and repeated 

 to several individuals under different forms. 

 The variety of idioms that are spoken on the 

 banks of the Meta, the Oroonoko, the Cassi- 

 quiare, and the Rio Negro, is besides so prodi- 

 gious, that a traveller, however great may be 

 his talent for languages, can never flatter himself 

 with learning enough to make himself understood 

 along the navigable rivers, from Angostura to 

 the small fort of San Carlos del Rio Negro. In 

 Peru and Quito it is sufficient to know the 

 Qquiehua, or the Inca language ; in Chili, the 

 Araucan; and in Paraguay, the Guarany; in 

 order to be understood by the greater part of 

 the population. But it is not the same in the 

 missions of Spanish Guyana, where nations of 

 different races are mingled in the same vil- 

 lage. It is not even sufficient, to have learned 

 the Caribbee or Carina, the Guamo, the Gua- 

 hive*, the Jaruro, the Ottomack, the May pure, 

 the Saliva, the Marivitan, the Maquiritare, and 

 the Guaica, ten languages, of which there exist 

 only imperfect grammars, and which have less 

 affinity with each other than the Greek, the Ger- 

 man, and the Persian. 



The environs of the mission of Carichana ap- 

 peared to us to be delightful. The little village 

 is situate in one of those plains covered with 



* Pronounce Gua.iva, in Spanish Guajiva. 



