PREFACE. 



of the Cerra Duida," says Humboldt, " Shirt-trees 

 fifty feet high. The Indians cut off cylindrical 

 pieces two feet in diameter, from which they peel 

 the red and fibrous bark, without making any 

 longitudinal incision. This bark affords them a 

 sort of garment, which resembles sacks of a very 

 coarse texture, and without a seam. The upper 

 opening admits the head, and two lateral holes are 

 cut to admit the arms*." The Cap-tree is a species 

 of Palm-tree, of which the spathe furnishes a kind 

 of pointed cap, resembling coarse net-workf. 

 Strabo observes of the Cocoa Palm, that it is fit 

 for three hundred and sixty uses. It affords 

 wine," says Evelyn, " bread, milk, oil, sugar, 

 vinegar, thread, cloth, caps, dishes, spoons, and 

 other vessels and utensils, baskets, mats, umbrellas, 

 paper, brooms, ropes, sails, and almost all that be- 

 longs to the rigging of ships J." 



Humboldt remarks, that " it is curious to ob- 

 serve, in the lowest degree of human civilization, 

 the existence of a whole tribe depending on a 



* Humboldt's Personal Narrative, vol. v. p. 546. 

 t Ibid. vol. iv. p. 226, 

 t Evelyn's Sylva. 



