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no zancudoes, but a sky constantly clouded, 

 and without stars. I began to regret the Lower 

 Oroonoko. We still advanced slowly from the 

 force of the current, and stopped a great part 

 of the day in seeking for plants. It was night 

 when we arrived at the mission of San Baltha- 

 sar, or, as the monks say, (Balthasar being 

 only the name of an Indian chief,) at the mission 

 of la divina Pastora de Belthasar de Atabapo. 

 We were lodged with a Catalan missionary, a 

 lively and agreeable man, who displayed in 

 these wild countries the activity that charac- 

 terizes his nation. He had planted a fine gar- 

 den, where the fig-tree of Europe was found in 

 company with the persea, and the lemon-tree 

 with the mammee. The village was built with 

 that regularity, which in the north of Germany, 

 and in protestant America, we find in the ham- 

 lets of the Moravian brethren ; and the Indian 

 plantations seemed better cultivated than else- 

 where. Here we saw for the first time that 

 white and fungous substance, which I have 

 made known by the name of dapicho and zapis*. 

 We immediately perceived, that it was analo- 

 gous to the elastic resin; but, as the Indians 

 made us understand by signs, that it was found 

 under ground, we were inclined to think, till 



* These two words belong to the Poimisano and Paragini 

 tongues. (Pronounce it dapitcho.) 



