THE CHAXJIAS. 
30.1 
the Kio Colorado, of the Areo, and of the Cano de Caripe. 
According to a statistical survey made with great care by 
the father prefect, there were, in the Missions of the Ara- 
gonese Capuchins of Cumana, nineteen Mission villages, of 
which the oldest was established in 1728, containing one 
thousand four hundred and sixty-live families, and six thou- 
sand lour hundred and thirty-three persons : sixteen doctrina 
villages, of which the oldest dates from 1660, containing 
one thousand seven hundred and sixty-six families, and eight 
thousand one hundred and seventy persons. These Missions 
suffered greatly in 1681, 1697, and 1720, from the invasions 
of the Caribbees (then independent), who burnt whole vil- 
lages. Prom 1730 to 1736, the population, was diminished 
by the ravages of the small-pox, a disease always more fatal 
to the copper-coloured Indians than to the whites. Many 
of the Guaraunos, who had been assembled together, fled 
back again to their native marshes. Fourteen old Missions 
were deserted, and have not been rebuilt. 
The Chaymas are in general short of stature and thick- 
set. Their shoulders are extremely broad, and their chests 
flat. Their limbs are well rounded, and fleshy. Their colour 
is the same as that of the whole American race, from the 
cold table-lands of Quito and New Grenada to the burning 
plains of the Amazon. It is not changed by the varied 
influence of climate; it is connected with organic pecu- 
liarities which for ages past have been unalterably trans- 
mitted from generation to generation. If the uniform tint 
of the skin bo redder and more coppery towards the north, 
it is, on the contrary, among the Chaymas, of a dull brown 
inclining to tawny. The denomination of copper-coloured 
men could never have originated in equinoctial America to 
designate the natives. 
The expression of the countenance of the Chaymas, with- 
out being hard or stern, has something sedate and gloomy. 
The forehead is small, and but little prominent, and in 
several languages of these countries, to express the beauty 
of a woman, they say that ‘ she is fat, and has a narrow 
forehead.’ The eyes of the Chaymas are black, deep-set, 
and very elongated: but they are neither so obliquely 
placed, nor so small, as in the people of the Mongol race. 
The comer of the eye is, however, raised up towards tha 
