Ch. IX. SOUTH AMERICA, . i8i 



all winds, being entirely open, without having any 

 wall, or fence, except the pofts or ftancheons by 

 which the building is fupported. For whatever coft . 

 was expended on the ground floor, it would be wholly 

 ufelefs in the winter, when all the country is turned 

 to mud. Such houfes, however, as ftand beyond the 

 reach of inundations, have ground floors, walled and 

 fin idled like the other apartments, and ferve as ware- 

 houfes for goods ; but thofe within the inundations 

 are built, as it were, in the air, the water having a 

 free pafl^age under them. All the inhabitants have 

 their canoes for pafling from one houfe to another, 

 and are fo dextrous in the management of thefe fkifi^s, 

 that a little girl ventures alone in a boat fo fmall and 

 flight, that any one lefs fkilful would overfet in ftep- 

 ping into it, and without fear croflTes rapid currents, 

 which an expert failor, not accuftomed to them, would, 

 find very difficult. 



The continual rains in winter, and the flightnefs of 

 the materials with which thefe houfes are built, render 

 it neceflary to repair them during the fummer ; but 

 thofe of the poorer fort, which are low, muft be every 

 year rebuilt, efpecially thofe parts which confift of cane, 

 bejuco, and vijahua, while the principal ftancheons, 

 which form the foundation, ftill continue ferviceable, 

 and able to receive the new materials. 



From the houfes I proceed to give an account of 

 the vefifels, w^hich (omitting the Chatas and canoes as 

 common) are called Balzas, i. e. rafts. The name 

 fufficiently explains their conftru^lion, but not the me- " » 



thod of managing them, which thefe Indians, ftrangers 

 to the arts and faiences, have learned from necefllty. 



These Balzas, called by the Indians Jungadas *, 

 are compofed of live, feven, or nine beams of a fort 

 of wood, which, though known here only by the name 



* They are the fame that are called Catamorans in the Eafl:- 

 Indies. A. 



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