_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.