Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Their Territory Occupies A Space Along The
Elevated Mountains Of The Cocollar And The Guacharo, The Banks Of
The Guarapiche, Of The Rio 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 Aragonese
Capuchins of Cumana, nineteen Mission villages, of which the oldest
was established in 1728, containing one thousand four hundred and
sixty-five families, and six thousand four 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 villages. From 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
peculiarities which for ages past have been unalterably transmitted
from generation to generation.
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