WHITE AND DWARF TRIBES. 
1-63 
a soft state like paste from the little lake Amueu, though 
very prevalent at Angostura, is wholly without foundation, 
A curious geognostic discovery remains to he made in the 
eastern part of America, that of finding in a primitive soil 
a rock of euphotide containing the piedra de Macagua. 
I shall here proceed to give some information respecting 
the tribes of dwarf and fair Indians, which ancient traditions 
have placed near the sources of the Orinoco. I had an op- 
portunity of seeing some of these Indians at Esmeralda, and 
can affirm, that the short stature of the Guaicas, and the fair 
complexion of the Guaharibos, whom Father Caulin calls 
Guaribos blancos, have been alike exaggerated. The Guaicas, 
whom I measured, were in general from four feet seven 
niches to four feet eight inches high (old measure of 
France) * We were assured that the whole tribe were of this 
diminutive size; but we must not forget that what is called 
a tribe constitutes, properly speaking, but one family, owing 
to the exclusion of all foreign connections. The Indians of 
the lowest stature next to the Guaicas are the Guainares and 
the Poignaves. It is singular, that all these nations are 
found in near proximity to the Oaribs, who are remarkably 
tall. They all inhabit the same climate, and subsist on the 
same aliments. They are varieties in the race, which no 
doubt existed previously to the settlement of these tribes, 
(tall and short, fail- and dark brown) in the same country. 
The four nations of the Upper Orinoco, which appeared to 
me to be the fairest, are the Guaharibos of the Eio Gehette 
the Guainares of the Ocamo, the Guaicas of Cano Chiouire' 
and the Maquiritares of the sources of the Padamo, the Jao’ 
and the Ventuari. It being very extraordinary to see natives 
with a fair skin beneath a burning sky, and amid nations of 
a very dark hue, the Spaniards have attempted to explain 
this phenomenon by the following hypotheses. Some assert, 
that the Dutch of Surinam and the Eio Esscquibo may have 
intermingled with the Guaharibos and the Guainares; 
others insist, from hatred to the Capuchins of the Carony, 
and the Observantins of the Orinoco, that the fair Indians 
are what are called in Dalmatia muso di frate, children 
whose legitimacy is somewhat doubtful. In either case 
the bulios blancos would be mestizos, that is to say, children 
* About live feet three inches English measure. 
