SUBURBS OF CU1I4NA. 
3dJi 
sumptuous and very lofty churches. But the earthquakes 
of Quito are violent only in appearance, and, from the pe- 
culiar nature of the motion and of the ground, no edifice 
there is overthrown. At Cumana, as well as at Lima, and 
in several cities situated far from the mouths of burning 
volcanoes, it happens that the series of slight shocks .is 
interrupted after a long course of years by great catastro- 
phes, resembling the effects of the explosion of a mine. We 
shall have occasion to return to this phenomenon, for the 
explanation of which so many vain theories have been ima- 
gined, and which have been classified according to perpen- 
dicular and horizontal movements, shock, and oscillation.* 
The suburbs of Cumana are almost as populous as the 
ancient town. They are three in number: — Serritos, ou the 
road to the Plaga Chicha, where we meet with some fine 
tamarind trees ; St. Francis, towards the south-east ; and the 
great suburb of the G-uayquerias, or Ghiayguerias. The 
name of this tribe of Indians was quite unknown before the 
conquest. The natives who bear that name formerly be- 
longed to the nation of the Guaraounos, of which we find 
remains only in the swampy lands of the branches of the 
Orinoco. Old men have assured me that the language of 
their ancestors was a dialect of the Guaraouno ; but that for 
a century past no native of that tribe at Cumana, or in the 
island of Margareta, has spoken any other language than 
Castilian. 
The denomination Guayqueria, like the words Peru and 
Peruvian, owes its origin to a mere mistake. The compa- 
nions of Christopher Columbus, coasting along the island of 
Margareta, the northern coast of which is still inhabited by 
the noblest portion of the Guayqueria nation, f encountered 
* This classification dates from the time of Posidonius. It is the 
successio aDd inc/inatio of Seneca ; but the ancients had already judi- 
ciously remarked, that the nature of these shocks is too variable to permit 
any subjection to these imaginary laws. 
+ The Guayquerias of La Banda del Norte consider themselves as the 
most noble race, because they think they are less mixed with the Chayma 
Indian, and other copper-coloured races. They are distinguished from the 
Guayquerias of the continent by their manner of pronouncing the Spanish 
language, which they speak almost without separating their teeth. They 
show with pride to Europeans the Punta de la Galera, or Galley’s Point, 
