THE PRINCIPAL RIVER-ROUTES. 211 



carrying on their shoulders the cylinders of palmetto, im pro* 

 perly called " the cabbage palmj" three feet long, and five 

 to six feet thick. The stem of the palm-tree has been for 

 a^es an esteemed article of food in those countries. 1 believe 

 it to be wholesome, although historians relate that, when 

 Alonso Lopez de Ayala was governor of Uraba, several 

 Spaniards died, after having eaten immoderately of the 

 palmetto, and at the same time drinking a great quantity of 

 water. In comparing the herbaceous and nourishing fibres 

 of the young undeveloped leaves of the palm-trees, with the 



. of the Mauritia, of which the Indians make bread, 

 similar to that of the root of the Jatropha mnnihot, we 

 involuntarily recallect the striking analogy which modern 

 chemistry has proved to exist between ligneous matter and 

 the amylaceous fecula. We stopped on the shore to collect 

 lichens, opegraphas, and a great number of mosses (Bo- 

 lt- 1 us, Hydnum, Helvela, Thelephora) that were attached 

 to the mangroves, and there, to my great surprise, vege- 

 tating, although moistened by the sea-water. 



Before I quit this coast, so seldom visited by travellers, 

 and described by no modern voyager, I may here offer some 

 information which I acquired during my stay at Carthagena, 

 The Rio Sinu, in its upper course, approaches the tributary- 

 streams of the Atrato, which, to the auriferous and platim- 

 ferous province of Choco, is of the same importance as 

 the Magdalena to Cundinamarca, or the Rio Cauca to the 

 provinces of Antioquia and Popayan. The three great 

 rivers here mentioned have heretofore been the only 

 commercial routes, I might almost add, the only channels 

 of communication, for the inhabitants. The Kio Atrato 



;ves, at twelve leagues distance from its mouth, the Rio 



i<>, on the east ; the Indian village of San Antonio is 

 situated on its banks. Proceeding upward beyond the Rio 



irando, you arrive in the valley of Sinu. After several 

 fruitless attempts on the part of the Archbishop Gongora 



-tablish colonies in Darien del Norte and on the eastern 

 coast of the gulf of Uraba, the Viceroy Espeleta recom- 

 mended the Spanish Government to fix its whole attention 

 on the Rio Sinu ; to destroy the colony of Cayman ; to fix the 

 planters in the Spanish village of San Bernardo del Viento, 

 in the jurisdiction of Lorica ; and from that post, which ia 



