450 
ON  MYROXYLON  TOLUIFERUM,  ETC. 
was  recommended  to  me,  however,  as  having  a  wonderful 
knowledge  of  all  kinds  of  M  hervas  y  remedies"  and  who  said 
he  knew  where  some  of  the  balsam-trees  grew.  With  this  man 
I  started  in  a  canoe  for  a  place  called  Espino,  about  three 
leagues  distant  from  Mompox,  and  situated  on  the  margin  of 
one  of  the  large  swamps  called  "  ceinigas"  so  common  on  the 
lower  part  of  the  river. 
On  reaching  this  place  we  entered  the  forest  ;  and  after  hav- 
ing toiled  through  it  for  a  couple  of  hours,  during  which  I  was 
gradually  losing  faith  in  the  probity  of  my  guide,  he  suddenly 
pointed  out  a  tree  which  he  assured  me  was  the  balsam-tree. 
This  confirmed  the  opinion  I  had  been  forming — that  he  knew 
nothing  about  it,  for  the  tree  was  certainly  not  a  Myroxylon, 
nor  anything  like  one. 
I  returned  to  Mompox  in  disgust.  The  gentleman  who  re- 
commended the  black  was  much  disappointed  on  learning  the 
result  of  our  excursion,  but'said  he  had  found  another  man, 
who  would  undertake  to  guide  me  to  a  place  where  the  tree 
was  to  be  found.  I  went  with  him  a  few  days  afterwards,  but 
with  no  better  success. 
I  have  no  doubt  that  the  tree  occurs  within  perhaps  a  day's 
journey  of  Mompox,  but  not  in  its  immediate  vicinity  ;  for  the 
ground,  for  leagues  around  that  place,  is  low  and  swampy  ;  in- 
deed, it  was  nearly  all  under  water  when  I  arrived  there,  and  I 
afterwards  found  that  the  tree  is  never  found  in  the  low  tracks 
adjoining  the  river,  but  in  the  higher  rolling  ground  beyond, 
where  the  soil  is  dry. 
Finding  that  the  tree  was  not  known  in  Mompox,  I  left  for 
Plato  on  the  17th  December.  Taking  the  steamer  to  Las 
Mercedes,  I  went  from  thence  to  Plato  in  a  canoe.  Las  Mer- 
cedes is  the  port  of  El  Carmen,  and  it  consists  only  of  a  large 
storehouse  for  the  tobacco  brought  from  the  interior,  and  the 
imported  goods  received  in  exchange.  It  was  here  I  first  saw 
the  balsam.  In  the  store  were  upwards  of  thirty  tins  full  of 
it,  ready  for  exportation ;  most  of  the  tins  contained  ten 
pounds  of  the  balsam,  but  there  were  also  a  few  of  a  larger 
size,  each  containing  an  arroba  of  twenty-five  pounds.  The 
store-keeper  told  me  that  that  lot  of  balsam  had  come  from 
Plato  only  a  day  or  two  before,  and  that  he  expected  some  more 
