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servance. We scarcely know on what the right 

 of property is founded in those uninhabited 

 countries, the natural limits of which are un- 

 known, and which no attempt has been made to 

 cultivate. The inhabitants of the Portugueze 

 missions assert, that their territory extends to all 

 the spots at which they can arrive in a boat 

 upon a river, the mouth of which is in the Por- 

 tugueze possessions. But occupation does not 

 always constitute a right of property ; and, ac- 

 cording to what we have shown of the multiplied 

 interbranchings of rivers, it might prove alike 

 dangerous for the courts of Madrid and of Lis- 

 bon, to sanction this strange axiom of the juris- 

 prudence of the missions. 



The chief object of the incursions by the Rio 

 Cababuri is the collection of sarsarparilla and 

 the aromatic seeds of the puchery laurel (laurus 

 pkhurim). These valuable articles of commerce 

 are sought for as far as two days journey from 

 Esmeralda, on the borders of a lake, which is on 

 the north of the Cerro Unturan, passing by 

 portages from the Paeimoni to the Idapa, and 

 from the Idapa to the Mavaca, near the lake of 

 this name. The sarsaparilla of these countries 

 is celebrated at Grand Para, Angostura, Cu- 

 mana, Nueva Barcelona, and in other parts of 

 Terra Firma, by the name of zarza del Rio 

 Negro. It is the most active of all that are 

 known, and is much preferred to the zarza of 



