ULLOA's voyage to south AMERICA. 407 



in a few days, finilhes it in the completeft manner. Some of thefe cottages are almofl: 

 equal in dimenfions to thofe of timber. 



The lower part, both of thefe houfes, as well as thofe in the greater part of the 

 jurifdiftion of Guayaquil (which are of the fame form), are expofed to all winds, 

 being entirely open, without having any wall, or fence, except the pofts or ftancheons 

 by which the building is fupported. For whatever coft was expended on the ground 

 floor, it would be wholly ufelefs in the winter, when all the country is turned to mud. 

 Such houfes, however, as ftand beyond the reach of inundations, have ground floors, 

 walled and finiflied like the other apartments, and ferve as warehoufes 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 paffing from one houfe 

 to another, and are fo dexterous in the management of thefe flciffs, that a little girl 

 ventures alone in a boat fo fmall and flight, that any one lefs fl?:ilful would overfet in 

 ftepping into it, and without fear crofles rapid currents, which an expert failor, not 

 accufliomed to them, would find very difficult. 



The continual rains in winter, and the flightnefs of the materials with which thefe 

 houfes are built, render it neceflary to repair them during the fummer ; but thofe of 

 the poorer fort, which are low, mufl: be every year rebuilt, efpecially thofe parts 

 which confifl: of cane, bejuco, and vijahua, while the principal ftancheons, which form 

 the foundation, ftill continue ferviceable, and able to receive the new materials. 



From the houfes I proceed to give an account of the veflels, which (omitting the 

 chatas and canoes as common) are called Balzas, i. e. rafts. The name fufliciently 

 explains their conftru£lion, but not the method of managing them, which thefe Indians, 

 ftrangers to the arts and fciences, have learned from neceflity. 



Thefe Balzas, called by the Indians Jungadas, * are compofed of five, feven, or 

 nine beams of a fort of wood, which, though known here only by the name of Balza, 

 the Indians of Darien called Puero j and, in all appearance, is the ferula of the Latins, 

 mentioned by Columella j Pliny takes notice of two fpecies of it, the lefler by the 

 Greeks called Nartechia, and the larger Narthea, which grows to a great height. 

 Nebrija calls it in Spanifli Canna Beja or Canna Heja. Don George Juan, who faw it 

 growing in Malta, found no other difference betwixt it and the Balza or Puero, only 

 the Canna Beja, called ferula by the Maltefe, is much fmaller. The Balza is a 

 whitifli foft wood, and fo very light, .that a boy can eafily carry a log of three or four 

 yards in length and a foot in diameter. Yet, of this wood are formed the Janjades or 

 Balzas, already mentioned. Over part of it is a ftrong tilt formed of reeds. Inftead 

 of a maft, the fail is hoifted on two poles or flieers of mangrove wood, and thofe which 

 carry a forefail have two other poles ereded in the fame manner. 



Balzas are not only ufed on rivers, but fmall voyages are made at fea in them, and 

 fometimes they go as far as Paita. Their dimenfions being different, they are alfo 

 applied to different ufes; fome of them being fifliing Balzas; fome carry all kinds of 

 goods from the cuftom-houfe to Guayaquil, and from thence to Puna, the Salto de 

 Tumbez, and Paita ; and others, of a more curious and elegant corftrudion, ferve 

 for removing families to their eftates and country-houfes, having the fame convenience 

 as on ftiore, not being the leaft agitated on the river ; and that they have fufficient 

 room for accommodations, may be inferred from the length of the beams, which are 

 twelve or thirteen toifes and about two feet or more in diameter : fo that the nine 



* They are the fame that are called Catamorans in the Eaft Indies. A. 



beams 



