liJEDUC-ED INDIANS. 
297 
temperate zone, whether in the pvovincias internets of Mexico, 
or in Kentucky, the contact of European colonists has been 
fatal to the natives, because that contact is immediate. 
These causes have no existence in the greater part of 
South America. Agriculture, within the tropics, does not 
require great extent of ground. The whites advance slowly. 
The religious orders have founded their establishments be- 
tween the domain ot the colonists and the territory of the 
free Indians. The M issions may be considered as interme- 
diary states. They have doubtless encroached on the liberty 
of the natives ; but they have almost everywhere tended to 
the increase of population, which is incompatible with the 
restless life of the independent Indians. As the mission- 
aries advance towards the forests, and gain on the natives, 
the white colonists in their turn seek to invade in the oppo- 
site direction the territory of the Missions. In this pro- 
tracted struggle, the secular arm continually tends to with- 
draw the reduced Indian from the monastic hierarchy, and 
the missionaries are gradually superseded by vicars/ The 
whites, and the castes of mixed blood, favoured by the cor- 
regidors, establish themselves among the Indians. The Mis- 
sions become Spanish villages, and the natives lose even the 
rememmbrance of their natural language. Such is the pro- 
gress of civilization from the coasts toward the interior ; a 
slow progress, retarded by the passions of man, hut neverthe- 
less sure and steady. 
The provinces of New Andalusia and Barcelona, com- 
prehended under the name of Govierno de Cumana, at pre- 
sent include in their population more than fourteen tribes 
Those in New Andalusia are the Chaymas, Guayqueries, 
Pariagotos, Quaquas, Aruacas, Caribbees, and Guaraunos; 
in the province of Barcelona, Cumanagotos, Palenkas, Ca- 
ribbees, Piritus, Tomuzas, Topocuares, Chacopatas, and 
Guarivas. Nine or ten of these fifteen tribes consider 
themselves to be of races entirely distinct. The exact 
number of the Guaraunos, who make their huts on the 
trees at the mouth of the Orinoco, is unknown ; the Guay- 
queries, in the suburbs of Cumana and in the peninsula 
of Araya, amount to two thousand. Among the other 
Indian tribes, the Chaymas of the mountains of Caripe, 
the Caribs of the southern savannahs of New Barcelona, 
sr d the Cumanagotos in the Missions of Piritu, are most 
