188 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



in the low grounds of the Delta, at the mouth 

 of the Oroonoko, strangers sailing up the river 

 at night are astonished at seeing the tops of the 

 trees illuminated by large fires. The poor natives 

 suspend strong mats between the trunks of the 

 trees, and fill them with moist clay, on which 

 they kindle the fire necessary for their household 

 wants. These people have preserved their inde- 

 pendence, and probably owe it to the quaking 

 and swampy soil which they alone know how to 

 pass over, to their dwellings in the trees. 



This mauritia palm is called the Tree of Life 

 by the missionaries ; for it not only affords the 

 Indian a safe dwelling, but supplies him with 

 food and wine, and cordage. Its fruit and fari- 

 naceous pith supply food its saccharine juice 

 ferments into wine, and the fibres of the 

 leaf-stalks furnish thread fit for weaving ham- 

 mocks, or twisting into ropes. How very sin- 

 gular, Mamma, to see a whole nation of human 

 creatures depending on one single species of 

 palm-tree for their existence ! 



We had much conversation about the various 

 species of palms which we saw ; and particularly 

 the real sago-tree, which grows in the East, and 

 which exceeds all other plants in the quantity of 

 nutriment it affords to mankind. My uncle told 

 me that a single tree, in its fifteenth year, some- 

 times yields six hundred pounds weight of sago 

 or meal ; for the word sago signifies meal, in 



