Ch. IX. SOUTH AMERICA. 18 1 



all winds, being entirely open, without having any 

 wall, or fence, except the pofts or ftancheons by 

 which the building is lupported. For whatever coil 

 was expended on the ground floor, it would be wholly 

 ufelefs in the winter, when all the country is turned 

 to mud. Such houfcs, !)owever, as itand beyond the 

 reach of inundations, have ground floors, wailed and 

 iinifhed like the other apartments, and ferve as ware-: 

 houfes for goods ; but thofe within the inundations 

 are built^ as it were, in the air, the water having a 

 free paflage under them. All the inhabitants have 

 their canoes for pa (ling from one houfe to another^ 

 andaré fo dexterous in the management of thefe Ikifls, 

 that a little girl ventures alone in a boat fo fmall and 

 flight, that any one lefs flcilful would overiet in ftep- 

 ping into it, and without fear crofles rapid currents, 

 which an expert failor, not accuflomed to them, would 

 iind very difficult. 



The continual rains in winter, and the flightneili of 

 the materials with which thefe houfes are built, render 

 it neceflary to repair them during the lum iier ; but 

 thofe of the poorer fort, which are low, mud be every 

 year rebuilt, efpeci ally thofe parts which confiirof cane, 

 bejuco, and vijahua, while the principal itancbeons, 

 which form the foundation, flill continue f'rviceal)ie, 

 and able to receive the new materials. 



From the houfes I proceed to give an account of the 

 vcflTels, which (omitting the Gtiatas and canoes, as 

 common) are called Balzas, i. e. raüs. The nam>e 

 fufficientiy explains their conftrncf ion, but not the me- 

 thod of managing them, which thele Indians, ftran^ers 

 to the arts and ibiences, have learned from neceííity. 



These Balzas, culled by the Indians Jungadas*, 

 are compofed of five, feven, t>r nine beams of a fort 

 of woodj which, though known here only b)v the name 



* They are the fame that are called Catamorans in the Eaft lu- 

 iljcs. A. 



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