The periodical inundation of the Orinoco begins in April and ceases in August; in October the flood is low, arriving at its shallowest point in February; the rise is equal to thirteen fathoms at the distance of ninety leagues from the ocean. The mouth of the great estuary is in 8° 30' north-latitude, and 59° 50' west longitude.
The caymans, or alligators, are very numerous, and very formidable throughout its whole length, which may be estimated at about 1250 miles.
Indians.– On the banks of the Orinoco the Indian tribes are not numerous, consisting only of from 500 to 2000 warriors each; of these, the Caribs are the most powerful as well as the most formidable. The Otomacs follow them, and all are nearly in the same state of nature. In this part of the Caraccas, the total number of the natives cannot be accurately ascertained; but in the province of New Andalusia, they amount to 24,000, and in the two provinces of Barcelona and Cumana to 60,000. In Cumana they live almost wholly under the missionaries in little towns or amongst the Europeans, each mission containing about five or six hundred. In the province of Barcelona, the Indian villages contain from two to even three thousand inhabitants. The Guaraounoes, who inhabit the islands of the Orinoco, are independent of the Spaniards, and amount to about six thousand.
To the north of the Orinoco, there are few natives in a state of absolute barbarism; it is only to the south of this river that the efforts of missionaries have been ineffectual.
The provinces of New Andalusia and Barcelona contain fourteen tribes, the Chaymas, Guayquerias, Pariagotoes, Quaquas, Araucas, Caribbees, Guaraounoes, Cumanagotoes, Palenkas, Piritoos, Tomoozas, Topocuares, Chacopatas, and Guarivas.
The Guayquerias, who are civilized Indians residing at Cumana and Araya, amount to 2000.
The Chaymas, the Caribs of the Savannahs, and the Cumanagotoes, are the most numerous. A few, and only a few, of the savages of the islands of the Orinoco, who build their huts on trees, have been formed into missions on the left bank of the Orinoco. These four last possess languages which are the most universal in this part of the world, the Cumanogoto language prevailing in the western part of the captain-generalship, and the Caribbean and Chayman in the southern and eastern districts.
The missions are not always formed of the same tribe, but often consist of families of different nations, speaking different languages; they all cultivate the land, their huts are all erected in the same style, and they have all a common field for the uses of the community, and are governed by fixed laws; the magistrates are chosen from among themselves, and each village is superintended in its religious and civil affairs by a monk.
The Chaymas were reduced to subjection in the seventeenth century, by Francisco of Pamplona, a monk who had been the captain of a ship; and the oldest mission bears its date from 1660. Of these there are at present twenty-five, containing 15,000 souls. They suffered much from 1681 to 1720 from the Caribs, who burnt the settlements.
In stature, the natives of this tribe are short, being not more than five feet two inches, their body thick, with broad shoulders and flat chest, their colour a dull brown, and they are of a melancholic temperament.
They have a great aversion to European clothing, and remain naked whilst in their houses, but when obliged to go out, they put on a vest with sleeves, which reaches almost to the knees; the women wear this habit without the sleeves, and both sexes use a narrow bandage tied round the loins: they also carefully eradicate the hair from the chin, and are a neat people, keeping their persons, houses and utensils very clean.
Their language, as well as those of the Caribs and Cumanagotoes, has each had a dictionary composed for the use of the missionaries; no word begins with l, and it is destitute of f, b and d.
The Pariagotoes are mixed with the Chaymas, in the missions; and exist in the villages on the banks of the Caroni. They speak a language peculiar to themselves.
The Guaraounoes build their huts on the trunks of the mangrove and palm trees, to raise them above the waters in the great inundations of the Orinoco; as we before observed, they are independent, with the exception of a very few, who have been converted by the monks. Sir Walter Raleigh describes them under the names of Aroottes, Trititivas and Warawites. They make their bread of the flour extracted from the palm tree, which they cut down for this purpose, just previous to the appearance of the flowers.
Five or six hundred of this race quitted the islands a short time ago, and formed two villages on the north and south banks of the great river, twenty-five leagues distant from the sea, where they live independent of the missionaries. They are of a middle size, and very strong, and are able to run on the mud of the marshes, where no other Indians can walk. These people are the pilots of the Orinoco, possessing a perfect knowledge of its navigation, and are concerned in the clandestine commerce carried on from Trinidad.
The Guayquerias will be described in speaking of the town of Cumana which they chiefly inhabit.
A tribe called the Quaquas are mixed with the Chaymas in the missions, and inhabit an immense tract of country as far as the main Cordilleras of the Andes.
The Cumanagotoes, to the amount of 26,000, live in the west of Cumana, in the missions of Piritoo. The chief mission of the Piritoos (so called on account of a thorny palm of which pipes are made) was founded in 1556, and was named La Conception.
In this country, the Caribbees are spread over a great extent, existing also in French Guyana, and in Trinidad; and the Guarivas, as well as many others, are Carib tribes. A few missions are found in the great plains, in which some of these people are settled. The Caribs are distinguished in the Caraccas by their great size.
A tribe on the banks of the Orinoco, named the Otomacs, raise their dead at the end of twelve months, and place the bones in a general burying place; they cover their grain, fish, vegetables, &c., with earth, to preserve them, and devour their food mingled with the soil in which it has lain. The substances become quite hard in these pits, by the incrustations of the soil, and some of them are said to eat a pound and a half of the earth in a day. The Indians of all these tribes, who prefer a wandering life to the subjected state of their brethren in the missions, are frequently attacked in the night by the monks and their followers, and made prisoners. When the missionaries give the young people to the converted Indians as slaves, in which capacity they remain until of an age to marry, in consequence of this, the mission Indians frequently instigate the priests to attack these unfortunate people, being eager to possess them. Those who are thus taken are called Poitos, and in general consist only of children, torn with unrelenting severity from the arms of their terrified parents. The motive assigned by the monks for such arbitrary measures, is the hope of their ultimate conversion.
Lakes– The lakes of Caraccas are chiefly those of Valencia and Maracaybo. Maracaybo is a body of water of an oval form, lying in a north and south direction, and communicating with the gulf of Venezuela by a very narrow channel. In length it is 150 miles, in breadth 90, and 450 in circumference; its waters being always fresh, excepting when violent storms force the salt waters of the gulf into it. There is generally a considerable undulation on its surface, and in some winds, particularly those from the north, the waves rise to a great height. The depth of this lake is very profound, and it is navigable for vessels of the greatest burthen.
The produce of the interior is conveyed by the rivers which feed