152 



Maeo-Piaroas, to take a drop of brandy, while 

 they were labouring for us, and seemed ex- 

 hausted by fatigue. It will require a longer 

 residence of Europeans in those countries, to 

 spread there the vices, that are already com- 

 mon among the Indians on the coast. In the 

 huts of the natives of Maypures we found an 

 appearance of order and neatness, rarely met 

 with in the houses of the missionaries. 



These natives cultivate plantains, and cassava, 

 but no maize. Seventy or eighty pounds weight 

 of cassava in thin cakes, which are the bread of . 

 the country, cost six reals of plate, or nearly 

 four franks. Like the greater part of the In- 

 dians of the Oroonoko, the inhabitants of May- 

 pures have beverages which may be called 

 nourishing ; one of these, much celebrated in 

 that country, is furnished by a palm-tree, that 

 grows wild in the vicinity of the mission on the 

 banks of the Auvana. This tree is the seje* ; 

 I estimated the number of flowers on one race- 

 mus at forty-four thousand ; and that of the 

 fruit, of which the greater part fall without ripen- 

 ing, at eight thousand. The fruit is a small 

 fleshy drupe. It is immersed for a few minutes 

 in boiling water, in order that the kernel may be 

 separated from the parenchymatous part of the 

 sarcocarp, which has a sweet taste, and is 



* See Nova Genera et Species Plantarum, torn. } , p. 31 U 



