/ 



214 



are unwearied in their praises of this noble palm - 

 tree, which might be called the peach palm, and 

 which we found cultivated in abundance at San 

 Fernando, San Balthasar, Santa Barbara, and 

 wherever we advanced toward the south or the 

 east along the banks of the Atabapo, and the 

 Upper Oroonoko. In those wild regions are 

 we involuntarily reminded of the assertion of 

 Linnaeus, that the country of palm-trees was 

 the first abode of our species, and that man is 

 essentially palmivorous*. On examining the 

 provision accumulated in the huts of the In- 

 dians, we perceive that their subsistence during 

 several months of the year depends as much on 

 the farinaceous fruit of the pirijao, as on the 

 cassava and plaintain. The tree bears fruit but 

 once a year, but to the amount of three clus- 

 ters, consequently from one hundred and fifty, 

 to two hundred fruits. 



San Fernando de Atabapo, San Carlos, and 

 San Francisco Solano, are the most considerable 

 settlements among the missions of the Upper 

 Oroonoko. We found at San Fernando, as 

 well as in the neighbouring villages of San Bal- 

 thazar and Javita, pretty parsonage houses, 

 covered by lianas, and surrounded by gardens, 



+ Homo habitat intra tropicos, vescitur palmis, lotopha- 

 gus ; hospitatur extra tropicos sub novercante Cerere, earn!-* 

 vorus. (Syst. Nat., vol. i, p. 24.) 



