THE PlilliUlPAL R1VER-K0UTE3. 
211 
carrying on their shoulders the cylinders ot palmetto, iinpro< 
perly called “the cabbage palm',” three feet long, and five 
to six feet thick. The stem of the palm-tree has been for 
ttges an esteemed article of food in those countries. 1 believe 
it to be wholesome, although historians relate that, when 
Alonso Lopez de Ayala was governor of Uraba, several 
Spaniards died, after having eaten immoderately ot the 
palmetto, and at the same time drinking a great quantity ot 
'vater. In comparing the herbaceous and nourishing fibres 
of the young undeveloped leaves ot the palm-trees, with the 
sago of the Mauritia, of which the Indians make bread, 
similar to that of the root of the Jatropha manihot, wo 
involuntarily recallect the striking analogy which modern 
chemistry has proved to exist between ligneous matter and 
the amylaceous fecula. AVe stopped on the shore to collect 
lichens, opegraphas, and a great number of mosses (13o- 
letus, Hydnuni, llelvela, Thelephora) that were attached 
to the mangroves, and there, to my great surprise, vege- 
tating, although moistened by the sea-water. 
Before I quit tiiis coast, so seldom visited by travellers, 
and described by no modern voyager, I may here oiler some 
information which I acquired during my stay at Carthageua. 
'i'he Bio Siiiu, iu its upper course, approaches the tributary 
streams of the Atrato, which, to the auriferous aud platiiu- 
lerous province of Choco, is of the saine_ importance as 
the Maffdalena to Cundiuamarca, or the Kio Cauea to the 
provinces of Antioquia and Popayan_. The three great 
''ivers here mentioned have heretotore heen tlie on y 
vommercial routes, I might almost add, the only chanuels 
cf communication, for the iuhahit.ants. iiie Bio Atrato 
I'cceives, at twelve leagues distance from its mouth, the Kio 
«ncio, on the east ; the Indian village of ban Antonio is 
situated on its banks. Proceeding upward beyond the Kio 
I’abarando, vou arrive in the valley of Snuu .^uter seieral 
fruitless attempts on the part of the Arclibisliop G-oiigora 
in establish colonies in Darien del Norte and on the eastern 
coast of the gulf of Uraha, the Viceroy Espelcta recom- 
'neiided the Spanish Government to fix its whole attention 
nn the Bio Sinu ; to destroy the colony of Cayman ; to fix the 
planters in the Spanish village of Sail Bernardo del 
lathe jurisdiction of Lorica;and Irora that pos^, which is 
