VALLEY OF G FAN AG FAX A. 
247 
are very useful, and they begin to be imitated in other Mis* 
sions. _ The soil of Guanaguana is not less fertile than that 
of Aricagua, a small neighbouring village, which has also 
preserved its ancient Indian name. An ahnuda of land 1850 
square t.oises, produces in abundant years from 25 to 30 
fanegas of maize, each fanega weighing 100 poimds. But 
here, as in other places, where the bounty of nature retards 
industry, a very small number of acres are cleared, and the 
culture of alimentary plants is neglected. Scarcity of sub- 
sistence is felt, whenever the harvest is lost by a protracted 
drought. The Indians of Guanaguana related to us as a fact 
not uncommon, that in the preceding year they, then’ wives, 
and their children, had been for three months al monte; by 
which they meant, wandering in the neighbouring forests, 
to live on succulent plants, palm-cabbages, fern roots, and 
fruits of wild trees. They did not speak of this nomade life 
as of a state of privation." 
The beautiful valley of Guanaguana stretches towards 
the east, opening into the plains of Punzera and Tere- 
cen. We wished to visit those plains, and examine the 
springs of petroleum, lying between the river Guarapiche 
and the Bio Areo ; but the rainy season had already arrived, 
and we were in daily perplexity how to dry and preserve 
the plants we had collected. The road from Guanaguana 
to the village of Punzera runs either by San Felix or by 
Caycara and Guayuta, which is a farm for cattle (hato) 
of the missionaries. In this last place, according to the 
report of the Indians, great masses of sulphur are found, 
not in a gypseous or calcareous rock, but at a small depth 
below the soil, in a bed of clay. This singular phenome- 
non appears to me peculiar to America; we found it 
also in the kingdom of Quito, and in New Spain. On 
approaching Punzera, we saw in the savannahs small bags, 
formed of a silky tissue suspended from the branches 
oi the lowest trees. It is the secla silvestre, or wild silk 
of the country, which has a beautiful lustre, but is very 
rough to the touch. The phaloena which produces it i; 
probably analagous with that of the provinces of GuaEsr- 
uato and Antioquia, which also furnish wild silk. We 
found in the beautiful forest of Punzei’a two trees known 
hy the names of curueay and canela ; the former, of which 
