t8sij BOAT-BUILDING. 163 



out drawing or design. During the time when Brazil and 

 Venezuela were under the Portuguese and Spanish govern- 

 ments, building-yards were established in several places where 

 good timber was to be found, and the Indians were employed, 

 under naval architects from Spain and Portugal, in the con- 

 struction of vessels for the coast and inland trade. When the 

 independence of these countries took place, all such establish- 

 ments were broken up, and a long succession of revolutions 

 and disturbances occurred. The Indians employed had, how- 

 ever, learnt an art they did not forget, but taught it to their 

 children and countrymen. By eye and hand alone they will 

 form the framework and fit on the planks of fine little vessels 

 of a hundred tons or more, with no other tools than axe, adze, 

 and hammer. Many a Portuguese, who has scarcely ever seen 

 a boat except during his passage to Brazil, gets together half- 

 a-dozen Indians with some old Indian carpenter at their J^ead, 

 buys a dozen axes and a few thousands of nails, and sets up as 

 a shipbuilder. The products of the Upper Rio Negro, princi- 

 pally piassaba, pitch, and farinha, are bulky, and require large 

 vessels to take them down, but their value in iron and cotton 

 goods can be brought up again in a very small canoe. Large 

 vessels, too, cannot possibly return up the cataracts. Those 

 made on the Upper Rio Negro, therefore, never return there, 

 and the small traders require a new one annually. They are 

 used below in the navigation of the Amazon, and of all its 

 branches not obstructed by falls or rapids. The vessels are 

 made very cheaply and roughly, and seldom of the best timbers, 

 which are difficult to obtain in sufficient quantity. On an 

 average these canoes do not last more than six or eight years, 

 many not more than two or three, though there are woods 

 which will stand for thirty years perfectly sound. Owing to 

 these peculiar circumstances, there is a constant demand for 

 these Spanish vessels, as they are called ; and the villages of 

 Sao Carlos, Tiriquim, Sao Miguel, Tomo, and Maroa are 

 entirely inhabited by builders of canoes. 



While I was at Tomo the village was being cleaned, by 

 scraping off the turf and weeds wherever they appeared within 

 the limits of the houses. The people show an instance of 

 their peculiar delicacy in this work : they will not touch any 

 spot on which there lies a piece of dung of a dog or any animal, 

 or the body of any dead bird or reptile, but hoe carefully 



