PAUM-CORDAGe. 
387 
pressed us to depart, in order to reach the island of Dapa, 
where the pig was to he killed and roasted during the 
night. We had scarcely time to examine iu the convent (con- 
vento) the great stores of mani resin, and cordage of the 
chiquichiqui palm, which deserves to he more known in 
Europe. This cordage is extremely light; it floats upon 
the water, and is more durable in the navigation of rivers 
than ropes of hemp. It must he preserved at sea by being 
often wetted, and little exposed to the heat of the tropical 
sun. Don Antonio Santos, celebrated in the country for his 
journey in search of lake Parima, taught the Indians of the 
Spanish Rio Negro to make use of the petioles of the chiqui- 
chiqui, a palm-tree with pinnate leaves, of which we saw 
neither the flowers nor the fruit. This officer is the only 
white man who ever came from Angostura to Grand Para, 
passing by land from the sources of the Rio Carony to 
those of the Rio Branco. He had studied the mode of 
fabricating ropes from the cliiquichiqui in the Portuguese 
colonies ; and, on his return from the Amazon, he introduced 
this branch of industry into the missions of Guiana. It 
were to be wished that extensive rope-walks could he estab- 
lished on the banks of the Rio Negro and the Cassiquiare, 
m order to make these cables an article of trade with Eu- 
rope. A small quantity is already exported from Angostura 
to the West Indies ; and it costs from fifty to sixty per 
cent less than cordage of hemp. Young palm-trees only 
being employed, they must be planted and carefully culti- 
v ated. 
A little above the mission of Davipe, the Rio Negro 
receives a branch of the Cassiquiare. the existence of which is 
? v ery remarkable phenomenon in tire history of the brandi- 
ng 8 of rivers. This branch issues from the Cassiquiare, 
north of Yasiva, bearing the name of the Itinivini; and, 
•uter flowing for the length of twenty-five leagues through a 
■“f and almost uninhabited country, it falls into the Rio 
A egro under the name of the Rio Conorichite. It appeared 
to me to be more than one hundred and twenty toises broad 
P ear its mouth. Although the current of the Conorochite 
18 Ve ry rapid, this natural canal abridges by three days the 
passage from Davipe to Esmeralda. We cannot he sur- 
prised at a double communication between the Cassiquiare 
2 c 2 
