268 



PALM-WINE. 



boiling, yields the manteca de corozo, which is used 

 for lighting churches and houses. 



After an hour's walk they found several inhabit- 

 ants collecting palm- wine. The tree which affords 

 this liquid is the Palma dolce or Cocos butyracea. 

 The trunk, which diminishes but little towards the 

 summit, is first cut down, when an excavation 

 eighteen inches long, eight broad, and six in depth, 

 is made below the place at which the leaves and 

 spathse come off. After three days the cavity is 

 found filled with a yellowish- white juice, having a 

 sweet and vinous flavour, which continues to flow 

 eighteen or twenty days. The last that comes is less 

 sweet, but having a greater quantity of alcohol, it is 

 more highly esteemed. On their way back to the 

 shore they met with Zambos carrying on their shoul- 

 ders cylinders of palmetto three feet in length, of 

 which an excellent food is prepared. Night sur- 

 prised them,; and, having broken an oar in return- 

 ing on board, they found some difficulty in reaching 

 the vessel. 



The Rio Sinu is of the highest importance for pro- 

 visioning Carthagena. The gold- washings which 

 were formerly of great value, especially between its 

 source and the village of San Geronimo, have almost 

 entirely ceased, although the province of Antioquia 

 still furnishes, in its auriferous veins, a vast field for 

 mining speculations. It would, however, be of more 

 importance to direct attention to the cultivation of 

 colonial produce in these districts, especially that 

 of cacao, which is of superior quality. The real 

 febrifuge Cinchona also grows at the source of the 

 Rio Sinu, as well as in the mountains of Abibe and 

 Maria ; and the proximity of the port of Carthagena 

 would enhance its value in the trade with Europe. 



On the 27th March the sloop weighed anchor at 

 sunrise. The sea was less agitated, although the 

 wind blew as before. To the north was seen a suc- 

 cession of small conical mountains, rising in the 



