VALPARAISO. 



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cutting the out-lying palms so close may injure them so as to prevent 

 the growth of the fruit. This tree, when it is old, that is, when the 

 people calculate that it may have seen a hundred and fifty years pass 

 by, is cut down; and, by the application of fire, a thick rich juice 

 distils from it, called here miel, or honey. The taste is between that 

 of honey and the finest molasses. The quantity yielded by each tree 

 sells for 200 dollars. Some other species of palms I know produce a 

 sort of sugar. The date tree is one ; but that, I remember, used to be 

 tapped for the saccharine juice in the East Indies. I mean to suggest 

 to some of my friends to try whether this tree, like the true cocoa-nut 

 and the palmetto of Adamson, as well as the cycas or todda-pana, 

 yields the toddy from which the best East Indian arrack is distilled. 

 Pedro Ordonez de Cevallos says the Indians call it Maguey, and 

 make honey, wine, vinegar, cloth, cord, and thatch from it. * 



After stopping some time at the first group of palms, we rode 

 along the Caxon by the wood- cutters' paths, till stopped by the 

 thickets, following the course of the stream ; which sometimes flowed 

 through a smooth valley, and sometimes between mountains so steep 

 that the sun had not reached the bottom by noon-day, and the shrubs 

 were sparkling with white dew. On our return, we met the first 

 flock of sheep I had seen here. They are rather small ; the fleeces 

 appear fine and thick ; they fetch at present from two to three, or 

 even four reals, when very fine ; but just now the price of the whole 

 sheep would not exceed seven reals. I am happy to say, that during 

 my ride I saw several fields newly brought into cultivation : it is 

 painful to see the waste of fertile land here ; but the country wants 



* Is this the honey which Cabeza de Vacca found among the Guaranies in such plenty 

 when he crossed from St. Catherine's to Assumption over-land ? The bread made of pine 

 flour may have been plentiful, but not very agreeable. The nut fresh is larger, but like 

 the pine-nut of Italy : there are two kinds ; one like the chocolate-nut, the other longer, 

 paler, and shining ; both produced in great abundance in the Cordillera de los Andes. 

 The Chilian Agave is also described under the name of Maguey ; and, in the northern 

 provinces, its juices are converted into a kind of treacle and a fermented drink. The fibres 

 of the leaves make good canvass and cordage. I suspect this is the true Maguey. 



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