330 
colo at oj? mis indiass. 
of the Caura, and the plains to the north-east of the sources 
of the Orinoco, are distinguished by their almost gigantic 
size from all the other nations I have seen in the new 
continent. Must it on this account be admitted, that the 
Caribbees are an entirely distinct race? mid that the 
Guaraons and the Tamanacs, whoso languages have au 
affinity with the Caribbee, have no bond of relationship 
with them ? I think not. Among the nations of the same 
family, one branch may acquire an extraordinary develop- 
ment of organization. The mountaineers of the Tyrol and 
Salzburgh are taller than the other Germanic races; the 
Samoiedes of the Altai arc not so little and squat as 
those of the scn-coast. In like manner it would he difficult 
to deny that the Galibis are really Caribbees ; and yet, not- 
withstanding the identity of languages, how striking is the 
difference in their stature and physical constitution ! 
Before Cortez entered the capital of Montezuma in 1521, 
the attention of Europe was fixed ou the regions we have 
just traversed. In depicting the manners of the inhabitants 
of Paria and Cutnana, it was thought that the manners of 
all the inhabitants of the new continent were described. 
This remark cannot escape those who read the historians 
of the Conquest, especially the letters of Peter Martyr of 
Anghiera, written at the court of Ferdinand the Catholic. 
These letters are full of ingenious observations upon Chris- 
topher Columbus, Leo X, and Luther, and are stamped by 
noble enthusiasm for the great discoveries of an age so rich 
in extraordinary events. Without entering into any detail 
on the maimers of the nations which have been so long 
confounded one with another, under the vague denomination 
of Cinnamons ( Ouvumeses ), it appears to me important to 
clear up a fact which I have often heard discussed in Spanish 
America. 
The Pariagotos of the present time are of a brown red 
colour, as are the Caribbees, the Chaymas, and almost all 
the nations of the New World. Why do the historians of the 
sixteenth century affirm that the first navigators saw white 
men with fair hair at the promontory of Paria ? Were they 
of the same race as those Indians of a less tawny hue, 
whom M. Bonplat.d and myself saw at Esmeralda, near the 
sources of the Orinoco? But tjiese Indians had hair aa 
