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forty thousand Indians. We passed the river of 
Chambo by the bridge of PenipC;, in the month 
of June, 1802. This is one of those bridges of 
ropes, which the Spaniards call puMe de maro- 
ma, or de hamaca ; and the Peruvian Indians, in 
the qquichua language, or that of the Incas, 
cimppackaca, from cimppa, or cimpasca, ropes, 
tresses, and chaca, a bridge. The ropes, three or 
four inches in diameter, are made of the fibrous 
part of the roots of the agave Americana. On 
each bank they are fastened to a clumsy frame- 
work, composed of several trunks of the schinus 
molle. As their weight makes them bend to- 
ward the middle of the river, and as it would be 
imprudent to stretch them with too much force, 
they are obliged, when the banks are low, to 
form steps or ladders at both extremities of the 
bridge of hamac. That of Penip6 is a hundred 
and twenty feet long, and seven or eight broad ; 
but there are bridges, which have more consider- 
able dimensions. The great ropes of pitte are 
covered transversely with small cylindrical pieces 
of bamboo. These structures, of which the 
people of South America made use long before 
the arrival of the Europeans, remind us of the 
chain bridges at Boutan, and in the interior of 
Africa. Mr. Turner in his interesting account 
f Account of an Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo 
Tama in Thibet, 1800, page 55. 
