The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas Volume I, II, and III

670 Louis Allaire
and Belize, reaching south as far as the island of Trinidad and the delta
of the Orinoco River in Venezuela. The mainland of the South American
continent set the Caribbean's shores to the west, and the West Indian
islands mark its eastern and northern boundaries in the form of a massive
barrier to the open Atlantic. Continuous communication was at least
potentially feasible all around its periphery even before European contacts,
and despite stretches of difficult coastlines, simple open boats could
progress along the coasts even without sails. Overland communication
along coastal plains and valleys must also be considered in spreading
peoples, commerce, and ideas to the entire region.
At the time of the earliest European contacts, communication by land
or by sea was regularly maintained between almost all contiguous points
of the periphery of the Caribbean Sea. The highlands of Guatemala were
in touch with Central America as far away as Costa Rica, mainly across
well-traveled overland trails. Contacts between Panama and the Caribbean
lowlands of Colombia — that is, between lower Central America
and South America — are also known to have existed, albeit infrequently,
by either land or sea, possibly across the Gulf of Darien. From Colombia
to western Venezuela, a long-established overland route out of the Magdalena
lowlands followed the Rio Cesar and Rio Rancheria along the foot
of the Andes leading to the Goajira Peninsula, and bypassing the high
mountains of the Sierra de Santa Marta. Further east, all the Caribbean
islands, including the Bahamas, maintained continuous and regular contacts
with simple watercraft. This is also well illustrated by the historic
Island Caribs of the Lesser Antilles, whose peoples are well known to
have regularly plied the sea from Puerto Rico to the Guianas in the east,
and the Cumana Area of Venezuela to the west, in their simple dugout
canoes.
The Orinoco River in Venezuela opened communication beyond the
coast from not only the Venezuelan Llanos but also the heart of the
Amazonian Basin itself through the interconnected systems of the Rio
Negro and the Casiquiare Canal — hence, the important Amazonian
element in the development of cultures in the eastern parts of the Caribbean
region that must never be ignored. Accordingly, the Gulf of Paria
that today separates Trinidad from the mainland must be seen as a major
crossroad of trade and influences reaching far into the Guianas and the
Amazon. The only areas where contacts seem to have never occured are
the narrow channels between Cuba and Yucatan or Florida, each within
a few kilometers of the Greater Antilles. Likewise, it may be possible to
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