300 DISTRIBUTION OF NATITE HORDES 



of plants in the equinoctial regions that are capable of 

 furnishing caoutchouc, it is to be regretted that this sub- 

 stance, so eminently useful, is not found among us at a 

 lower price. Without cultivating trees with a milky sap, 

 a sufficient quantity of caoutchouc might be collected in 

 the missions of the Orinoco alone for the consumption of 

 civilized Europe.* In the kingdom of New Grenada some 

 successful attempts have been made to make boots and 

 shoes of this substance without a seam. Among the 

 American nations, the Omaguas of the Amazon best under- 

 stand how to manufacture caoutchouc. 



Four days had passed, and our canoe had not yet arrived 

 at the landing-place of the Bio Pimichin. " You want for 

 nothing in my mission," said Father Cereso ; "you have 

 plantains and fish ; at night you are not stung by mos- 

 quitos; and the longer you stay, the better chance you 

 will have of seeing the stars of my country. If your boat 

 be destroyed in the portage, we will give you another; 

 and I shall have had the satisfaction of passing some weeks 

 con gente llanca y de razon" * Notwithstanding our im- 

 patience, we listened with interest to the information given 

 us by the worthy missionary. It confirmed all we had 

 already heard of the moral state of the natives of those 

 countries. They live, distributed in hordes of forty or 

 fifty, under a family government ; and they recognise a 

 common chief (apoto, sibierene) only at times when they 

 make war against their neighbours. The mistrust of these 

 hordes towards one another is increased by the circum- 

 stance that those who live in the nearest neighbourhood 

 speak languages altogether different. In the open plains, 

 in the countries with savannahs, the tribes are fond of 

 choosing their habitations from an affinity of origin, and 

 a resemblance of manners and idioms. On the table-land 

 of Tartary, as in North America, great families of nations 

 have been seen, formed into several columns, extending their 

 migrations across countries thinly-wooded, and easily tra 



* We saw in Guiana, besides thejacio and tkecurvana, two othei trees 

 that yield caoutchouc in abundance ; on the banks of the Atabapo, tLe 

 unamagni with jatropha leaves, and at Maypures the time. 



" With white and rational people/' European self-love usuallj 

 opposes the gente de razon to the yvnte pat-da, or coloured people. 



