THE TONCA-BEAN THEE 7 



tribe is at feud with all others ; they are the Ishmaelites 

 of the Caura. If Taparitos still exist on the Nichare, it 

 must be in the mountains at the very source of the stream, 

 or at some distance from its banks, for when I subse- 

 quently explored this river for a considerable distance, 

 no signs of any Indians were met with. 



That part of the Caura between the mouth of the 

 Nichare and the Orinoco is fairly well known to the 

 Venezuelans of the district engaged in tonca-bean collect- 

 ing, but in their quest for this product they rarely go 

 beyond Cangrejo, a three days' journey in boats after 

 leaving the last settlement at the rapids of Mura, and 

 two days from the mouth of the Nichare. 



So bound up is the existence in this district of the 

 tonca-bean tree with the presence of the stations of 

 Suapure, Temblador, and La Prision on the banks of the 

 Caura, that any description of the river would be incom- 

 plete without some reference to the industry that has 

 given birth to and continues to foster these stations. 



The Tonqua, Ton-ka, or Tonquin bean of commerce, 

 first reached Europe from the Chinese province of 

 Tonquin. It is the dried seed of the fruit of Dipterix 

 odorata, and it owes the peculiar odour for which it is 

 valued to a crystallisable principle known as coumarin. 

 At least two other known members of the vegetable 

 kingdom, Melilotus officinalis and Anthroxanthum 

 odoratum, are indebted to the same principle for their 

 fragrance. The tree has been found in different parts of 

 tropical America, but the product exported from Para 

 appears to be inferior to that which comes from the 

 region in the vicinity of the Caura and the Cuchivero 

 rivers. The watershed between these two streams consists 

 of several mountain ranges of granitic formation, the 



