210 COLLECTIOK OF 



pies, a white man, were he barefooted, should never accept 

 money " in the presence of those vi}e coloured people !" 

 (gente parda). Less disdainful than our European country- 

 man, we saluted politely the group of men of colour, who 

 were employed in drawing off into large calabashes, or 

 iruits of the Crescentia cujete, the palm-tree wine, from 

 the trunks of felled trees. We asked them to explain to us 

 this operation, which we had already seen practised in the 

 missions of the Cataracts. The vine of the country is the 

 palma dolce, the Cocos butyracea, which, near Mai gar, in 

 the valley of the Magdalena, is called " the wine palm-tree," 

 and here, on account of its majestic height, "the royal 

 palm-tree." After having thrown down the trunk, which 

 diminishes but little towards the top, they make just, below 

 the point whence the leaves (fronds) and spathes issue, an 

 excavation in the ligneous part, eighteen inches long, eight 

 broad, and six in depth. They work in the hollow of the 

 tree, as though they were making a canoe ; and three days 

 afterwards this cavity is found filled with a yellowish- white 

 juice, very limpid, with a aweet and vinous flavour. The 

 fermentation appears to commence as soon as the trunk 

 foils, but the vessels preserve their vitality ; for we saw that 

 the sap flowed even when the summit of the palm-tree 

 (that part whence the leaves sprout out) is a foot higher 

 than the lower end, near the roots. The sap continues to 

 mount as in the arborescent Euphorbia recently cut. 

 During eighteen to twenty days, the palm-tree wine ia 

 daily collected ; the last is less sweet, but more alcoholic 

 and more highly esteemed. One tree yields as much as 

 eighteen bottles of sap, each bottle containing forty-two 

 cubic inches. The natives affirm that the flowing is more 

 abundant, when the petioles of the leaves, which remain 

 fixed to the trunk, are burnt. 



The great humidity and thickness of the forest forced us to 

 retrace our steps, and to gain the shore before sunset. In 

 several places, the compact limestone rock, probably of ter- 

 tiary formation, is visible. A thick layer of clay and mould 

 rendered observation difficult ; but a shelf of carburetted and 

 shining slate seemed to me to indicate the presence of more 

 ancient formations. It has been affirmed that coal is to be 

 found on the banks of the Sinu. "We met with Zambos, 



