1851.] 
BOAT-BUILDING. 
237 
from Spain and Portugal, in tlie construction of vessels 
for the coast and inland trade. When the independence 
of these countries took place, all such establishments 
were broken up, and a long succession of revolutions 
and disturbances occurred. The Indians employed had 
however learnt an art they did not forget, but taught it 
to their children and countrymen. By eye and hand alone 
they will form the framework and fit on the planks of 
fine little vessels of a hundred tons or more, with no 
other tools than axe, adze, and hammer. Many a Por- 
tuguese, who has scarcely ever seen a boat except during 
his passage to Brazil, gets together half-a-dozen Indians 
with some old Indian carpenter at their head, buys a 
dozen axes and a few thousands of nails, and sets up as 
a shipbuilder. The products of the Upper Rio Negro, 
principally piassaba, pitch, and farinha, are bulky, and 
require large vessels to take them down, but their value 
in iron and cotton goods can be brought up again in a 
very small canoe. Large vessels, too, cannot possibly 
return up the cataracts. Those made on the Upper 
Rio Negro, therefore, never return there, and the small 
traders require a new one annually. They are used 
below in the navigation of the Amazon, and of all its 
branches not obstructed by falls or rapids. The vessels 
are made very cheaply and roughly, and seldom of the 
best timbers, which are difficult to obtain in sufficient 
quantity. On an average these canoes do not last more 
than six or eight years, — many not more than two or 
three, though there are woods which will stand for thirty 
years perfectly sound. Owing to these peculiar circum- 
stances, there is a constant demand for these Spanish 
