298 
AFFINITY OF NATTY £ EAOES. 
numerous. Some families of Guaraunos have been reduced 
and dwell in Missions on the left bank of the Orinoco, 
where the Delta begins. The languages of the Guaraunos 
and that cf the Caribs, of the Cumanagotos and of the 
Cbaymas, are the most general. They seem to belong to 
the same stock ; and they exhibit in their grammatical forms 
those affinities, which, to use a comparison taken from lan- 
guages more known, connect the Greek, the German, tho 
Persian, and the Sanscrit. 
Notwithstanding these affinities, we must consider the 
CJhayinas, the Guaraunos, tho Caribbees, the Quaquas, the 
Aruacas or Arrawaks, and the Cumanagotos, as different 
nations. I would not venture to affirm tho same of tho 
Guayqucries, the Pariagotos, the Piritus, the Tomuzas, 
iind the Chacopatas. The Guayquerias themselves admit 
the analogy between their language and that of the Gua- 
raunos. Doth are a littoral race, like the Malays of the 
ancient continent. With respect to tho tribes who at 
present speak the Cumanagota, Caribbean, and Chayma 
tongues, it is difficult to decide on their first origin, 'and 
their relations with other nations formerly more powerful. 
The historians of the conquest, as well as the ecclesiastics 
who have described the progress of the Missions, contin- 
ually confound, like the ancients, geographical denomina- 
tions with the names of races. They speak of Indians of 
Cumana and of the coast of Paria, as if the proximity of 
abode proved the identity of origin. They most commonly 
even give to tribes the names of their chiefs, or of the 
mountains or valleys they inhabit. This circumstance, by 
infinitely multiplying the number of tribes, gives an air of 
uncertainty to all that tho monks relate respecting the 
heterogeneous elements of which the population of their 
Missions arc composed. How can we now decide, whether 
the Tomu/.a and Piritu be of different races, when botli 
speak the Cumanagoto language, which is the prevailing 
tongue in the western part of the Govierno of Cumana ; 
as the Caribbean and the Chayma are in the southern and 
eastern parts. A great analogy of physical constitution 
increases the difficulty of these inquiries. In the new- 
continent a surprising variety of languages i3 observed 
among nations of the same origin, and which European 
travellers scarcely distinguish by their features ; while in 
