91 
[ Hep. 'No. 654. ] 
great difference in price is no doubt a great object. When the ropes get 
a little used, it is alwa^'s well that a slight coat of tar and tallow be given; 
it preserves them from getting mildewed and prevents rotting. For small 
lofty sails no doubt the Jenequin is preferable, being so very light and 
pliable; for standing rigging it will not answer by any means, as it gives 
too much. 
I should think it would be excellent for making paper, I hav4 also seen, 
made here such stuff as is used for muscjuito-bars, which no doubt is very- 
durable. 
I am, respectfully, your most obedient servant, 
JNO. L. McGregor. 
To FIeney Pereine, Esq. 
BROMELIA PITA. 
Exti'cict of a Utter to the Secretary of the Navy, dated 
Campeachy, November 10, 1834. 
“ The specimens of Pita, in their imperfectly-cleaned condition, will 
suggest the special uses which may be made of them after perfect dress¬ 
ing. It is, indeed, passing strange that an article which has been propa¬ 
gated and prepared, from time immemorial to the present date, on the 
southern border of the Mexican sea, should not yet have attracted suffi¬ 
cient attention, either in Mexico or other countries, to ascertain the species 
of the plant, or its habits of growth. 
“ In the statistics of Vera Cruz, published in Jalapa in 1831, it is stated 
that, in 1830, there were exported from Goazacoalcos, for that port alone, 
943 bales of Pita, of 200 pounds each, or 188,600 pounds. Although 
the poor Indian cultivator, or propagator, often receives only to 124 
cents per pound, yet, in Campeachy, whole cargoes are sold at 30 to 374 
cents a pound. The same statistical compilation states that in 1830, there 
were in the department of Acayucam 1,231 Pita-patches, around seven 
villages, and that the propagation of the plants, and the preparation of 
the fibres, were augmenting every year; while the cultivation of cotton, 
in this the finest country in the world for its perennial production, was 
declined to the lowest degree. To the subscriber, this voluntary transfer 
of the labor of indolent Indians from Cotton to Pita, is the strongest pos¬ 
sible evidence in favor of the superior productiveness of the latter, with 
a given amount of labor. The cultivation, or rather propagation,- of the 
Istle, can be effacted more readily than the propagation of the Henequen, 
in Florida, as the latter requires that the land should be entirely cleared, 
and the former is content to occupy the place of the undergrowth in for¬ 
ests of enormous trees. Samuel Baldwin, a rugged Pennsylvanian, who 
arrived at Goazacoalcos in 1825, and who brought cargoes of Pitaio 
Campeachy, gave me the following information relative to the Istle, which 
has been confirmed by other residents of Goazacoalcos.”—[See the letter 
of S. Baldwin.] 
