P'egefable Materials for Cordage, &fC. 33 



portation.* Great quantities are sent to Cuba to make cofFee-bags, 

 and since the year 1825, numerous cargoes have been imported into 

 the United States, and worked up into hawsers, running rigging, and 

 small ropes. Much of the late importation I am informed, has been 

 of a quality far inferior to the early stock. In Yucatan, about Me- 

 rida, the most beautiful sewing thread is made of the fibre, some of 

 which Capt. Hayes brought home, and used in his family. The 

 coarsely prepared fibre for ropes and hawsers, resembles the Manilla 

 hemp, but is harsher to the touch : this may be owing to the great size 

 of the leaves, and to a careless preparation of them, for the fibre 

 from Hayti is much finer than that from Sisal, and the small ropes 

 made from it are beautiful and glossy. 



The plant has a very extensive range in Asia, South America, 

 Mexico, and the West Indies, and wherever found, is applied more 

 or less to the same purposes as hemp or flax. In Yucatan the fibre 

 is called " hennequin :" in other places " pita,"f the name by which 

 the thread and twine made of it are also known. In Colombia the 

 prepared fibre is called " coquise," and the name -pita, given to that 

 of a tree, called mariclii.X The cordage from the Agave plant is 

 said to be liable to mildew, and to lose its pliability after being wet, 

 faults that do not attach to the Manilla rope. It is also thought to be 

 inferior in strength to this last. Hawsers made of it are much less 

 durable than those composed of Manilla hemp. 



I was led to the preceding investigations by the following occur- 

 rence, to which I have already alluded. 



In the autumn of 1829, Mr. F., a merchant of Philadelphia, im- 

 ported a quantity of " coir cordage," and also a large parcel of the 



* " The leaves vary from five to eight feet in length, but some consitlerabJy ex- 

 ceed these dimensions." — Ward's Mexico, Vol. I. p. 55. — Mr. Bullock measured 

 some ten feet long, fifteen inches wide, and eight inches thick. — Residence in Mex- 

 ico, p. 71. — In Hayti they seldom exceed five feet in length. Humboldt has given 

 a very interesting account of the various uses to which the plant is applied, in his 

 Political Essay on the Kiyigdom of New Spain. Mr. Ward, in the account of his 

 iilission to Mexico, has also stated some of them, and given a line plate of the plant. 



f This is its name in Guatimala, according to Dunn, p. 241. 



X The fibre of this tree is saiJ to be ten or twelve feet long, and finer and more 

 silky than that of the Agave. It is used for sewing half boots and shoes. — Notes 

 on Colombia, by Lieut. Bachc, U. S. Army, p. 89, 1827. — It is to be regretted that 

 no further account is given of so valuable a tree or its produce, and that no speci- 

 men of the fibre has been brought home. 



Vol, XXI.— No. 1. 5 



