THE QTJAIQTTEHIE3. 
asp 
vellers, wlo mav visit those marshy regions, will rectify what 
1 have advanced. 
HI. The Ouaiowries or Guailceri, are the most able and 
most intrepid fishermen of these countries. These people 
alone are well acquainted with the bank abounding with fish, 
which surrounds the islands of Coche, Margareta, Sola, and 
Testigos ; a bank of more than four hundred square leagues, 
extending east and west from Maniquarez to the Boca del 
Draco. The Guaiqueries inhabit the island of Margareta, 
the peninsula of Anita, and that suburb of Cumana which 
bears their name. Their language is believed to be a dia- 
lect of that of the Gunrnons. This would connect them 
with the great family of the Caribbee nations ; and the mis- 
sionary Gill is of opinion that the language of the Guai- 
queries is one of the numerous branches of the Caribbean 
tongue.* These affinities are interesting, because they lead 
us te perceive an ancient connection between nations dis- 
persed over a vast extent of country, from the mouth of the 
llio Laura and the sources oi the Hr ova to, in Parimn, to 
French Guiana, and the coasts of Paria.f 
IV. The Quaquas , whom the Tamanacs call Mnpoje, are a 
tribe formerly very warlike and allied to the Caribbees. It 
is a curious phenomenon to find the Quaquas mingled with 
the Chaymas in the Missions ol Cumana, lor their language, 
as well as the A turn, of the cataracts of the Orinoco, is a 
* If the name of the port Pam-patar , in the island of Margareta, be 
Guaiquerean, as we have no reason to doubt, it exhibits a feature of 
analogy with the Cumanagoto tongue, which approaches the Caribbean 
and Tumanae. In Terra Pinna, in the Piritn Missions, we find the 
village of Cayi/uapalar, which signifies house of Cayt/ua. 
^ f Are the Guaiqueries, or O-aikorics , now settled on the borders of the 
Erevato, and formerly between the Rio Caura and the Cuchivero, near 
the little town of Alta Gracia, of a different origin from the Guaikeries of 
Cumana ? 1 know also, in the interior of the country, in the Missions of 
the Piritus, near the village of San Juan Evangelista del Guarive, a ravine 
'ery anciently called Guayquiricuar. These resemblances seem to prove 
migrations from the south-west towards the coast. The termination cuar, 
found so often in Cumanagoto and Caribbean names, means a ravine, as 
Hi Guaymacuar (ravine of lizards). Pirichucuar (a ravine overshaded by 
pirichu or piritu palm-trees), Chiyuatacuar (a ravine of land-shells). 
Raleigh describes the Guaiqueries under the name of Ouikeries. He calls 
the Chaymas, Saimas, changing (according to the Caribbean pronuncia 
tion) the oh into t 
