279 



ana. The whites only, particularly the soldiers 

 of the little fort of San Carlos, know how to pro- 

 cure pure salt, either from the coast of Caraccas, 

 or from Chita* by the Rio Meta. Here, as 

 throughout America, the Indians eat little meat, 

 and consume scarcely any salt ; the salt-duty 

 therefore produces little profit to the revenue, 

 even where the number of natives is very consi- 

 derable, for instance, at Mexico^ and Guatimala. 

 The chivi of Javita is a mixture of muriat of po- 

 tash and of soda, of caustic lime, and of several 

 other earthy salts -f. The Indians dissolve a 

 few particles in water, fill with this solution 

 a leaf of heliconia folded in a conical form, and 

 let drop a little, as from the extremity of a filter, 

 on their food. 



May the 5 th. We set off, to follow on foot 

 our canoe, which had arrived at length by the 

 portage at Canno Pimichin. We had to ford a 

 great number of streams ; and those passages 

 require some caution, on account of the vipers 

 with which the marshes abound. The Indians 

 pointed out to us on the moist clay the traces of 

 the little black bears, which are so common on 

 the banks of the Temi. They differ at least in 



* North of Morocote, at the eastern declivity of the 

 Cordillera of New Grenada. The salt of the coasts, which 

 the Indians call yuqvira, costs two piastres the almuda at San 

 Carlos. 



+ Compare Azzara, Voy* au Paraguay, vol. i, p. 55. 



