286 



day be given to this milky varnish, a, very expe- 

 ditious method, I think, would be found of paint- 

 ing and varnishing our carriages at once. The 

 more we study vegetable chemistry in the torrid 

 zone, the more we shall discover in some remote 

 spot, but attainable by the trade of Europe, and 

 half-prepared in the organs of plants, products 

 that we believe belong only to the animal king- 

 dom, or which we obtain by processes of art, 

 which, though sure, are often tedious and diffi- 

 cult. Already we have found the wax that coats 

 the palm-tree of the Andes of Quindiu, the 

 silk of the palm-tree of Mocoa, the nourishing 

 milk of the palo de vaca, the butter-tree of Afri- 

 ca, and the caseous substance obtained from the 

 almost animalized sap of the carica papaya 

 These discoveries will be multiplied, when, as 

 the political state of the world seems now to 

 indicate, European civilization shall flow in 

 great measure toward the equinoxial regions of 

 the New Continent. 



I mentioned above, that the marshy place 

 hetween Javita and the embarcadera of Pimi- 

 chin is celebrated in the country for the quan- 

 tity of vipers it breeds. Before we took pos- 

 session of the deserted hut, the Indians killed 

 two great mapanarc serpents*. These grow to 



* This name is given in the Spanish colonies to very 

 different species. The coluber mapanare of the province of 

 Caraccas has one hundred and forty-two ventral plates, and 



