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x82 AVOYAGETQ Book IV. 



of Balza, the Indians of Darien called Puero; and, 

 in all appearance, is the ferula of thje Latins, men- 

 tioned by Columella; Pliny takes notice of two. 

 fpecies of it, the leffer by the Greeks called Nartechia, 

 ind the larger Narthea, which grows to a great height. 

 Nebrija calls it in Spanifti Canna Beja, or Canna 

 Heja. Don George Juan, who faw it growing in 

 Malta, found no other difference betwixt it and the 

 Balza or Pvicro, only the Canna Beja, called ferula by 

 the Maltefe, is much fmaller. The balza is a whitifli, 

 fofc wood, and fo very light, that a boy can eafily 

 carry a log of three or four yards in length, and a 

 foot in diameter. Yet, of this wood is formed the 

 Janjades or Balzas, reprefented in Plate IV. Over part 

 of it is a llrong tilt, formed of reeds. Inftead of a 

 maft, the fail is hoifted on two poles or fheers of 

 mangrove wood, and thofe which carry a forefail havq 

 two other poles erected in the fame manner. 



Balzas are not only ufed on rivers, but fmall voy- 

 ages are made at fea in them, and fomctimes they go 

 as far as Paita. Their dimenfions being different, 

 they arc alfo applied to different ufes ; fome of them 

 being flfhing Balzas fome carry all kinds of goods 

 from the cullom-houfe to Guayaquil, and from thence 

 to Puna, the Salto de Tumbez, and Paiata-, and 

 others, of a more curious and elegant conftru(5lion^ 

 ferve for removing families to their -eftates and coun- 

 try houfes, having the fame convenience as on fhore, 

 not being the leaft agitated on the river; and that 

 they have fuf?icient room for accommodations, may 

 be iiifisrred from the length of the beams, which are 

 twelve or thirteen toifes, and about two feet or more 

 in diameter. So that the nine beams of which they 

 eonfift, form a breadth of between twenty and twenty- 

 four Paris feet; and proportional in thofe of fcven, 

 or any other number of beams. 



Ti^ESE beams are faftened or lafhed together by 

 Bejucos, and fo fecurely, that with the crols-pieces at 



each 



