PALM-CORDAG*,. 387 



pressed us to depart, in order to reach the island of Dapa, 

 where the pig was to be killed and roasted during the 

 night. We had scarcely time to examine in the convent (con- 

 vento) the great stores of mani resin, and cordage of the 

 chiquichiqui palm, which deserves to be more known in 

 Europe. This cordage is extremely light; it floats upon 

 the water, and is more durable in the navigation of rivers 

 than ropes of hemp. It must be preserved at sea by being 

 often wetted, and little exposed to the heat of the tropical 

 sun. Don Antonio Santos, celebrated in the country for his 

 journey in search of lake Parima, taught the Indians of the 

 Spanish Rio Negro to make use of the petioles of the chiqui- 

 chiqui, a palm-tree with pinnate leaves, of which we saw 

 neither the flowers nor the fruit. This officer is the only 

 white man who ever came from Angostura to Grand Para, 

 passing by land from the sources of the Eio Carony to 

 those of the Eio Branco. He had studied the mode of 

 fabricating ropes from the chiquichiqui in the Portuguese 

 colonies ; and, on his return from the Amazon, he introduced 

 this branch of industry into the missions of Gruiana. It 

 were to be wished that extensive rope-walks could be estab- 

 lished on the banks of the Eio Negro and the Cassiquiare, 

 in order to make these cables an article of trade with Eu- 

 rope. A small quantity is already exported from Angostura 

 to the "West Indies ; and it costs from fifty to sixty per 

 cent less than cordage of hemp. Young palm-trees only 

 being employed, they must be planted and carefully culti- 

 vated. 



A little above the mission of Davipe, the Eio Negro 

 receives a branch of the Cassiquiare, the existence of which is 

 a very remarkable phenomenon in the history of the branch- 

 ings of rivers. This branch issues from the Cassiquiare, 

 north of Vasiva, bearing the name of the Itinivini ; and, 

 after flowing for the length of twenty-five leagues through a 

 flat and almost uninhabited country, it falls into the Eio 

 Negro under the name of the Eio Conorichite. It appeared 

 to me to be more than one hundred and twenty toises broad 

 near its mouth. Although the current of the Conorochite 

 is very rapid, this natural canal abridges by three days the 

 passage from Davipe to Esmeralda. We cannot be sur- 

 prised at a double communication between the Cassiquiare 



2 o 2 



