GUMS AND RESINS.
357
(where there is neither pine, thuya, t a x o d i u m , n o r even a podooarpus,) resins, balsams, and aromatic g u m s , are furnished b y t h e maronobea, the icica, and t h e amyris. T h e collecting o f these g u m m y and resinous substances is a trade in the village of Javita. T h e most celebrated resin bears t h e name o f mani; and o f this w e saw masses o f several hundred-weight, resembling c o l o p h o n y and mastic. T h e tree called mani by the Paraginis, which M . Bonpland believes t o b e t h e M o r o n o b ĂŚ a c o c c i n e a , furnishes b u t a small quantity o f the substance e m p l o y e d in t h e trade with Angostura. T h e greatest part c o m e s from t h e mararo o r caragna, which is an amyris. I t is remarkable e n o u g h , that the name mani, which A u b l e t heard a m o n g t h e Galibis* o f Cayenne, was again heard by us at Javita, three hundred leagues distant from French Guiana. The moronobĂŚa o r symphonia o f Javita yields a y e l l o w r e s i n ; t h e caragna, a resin strongly odoriferous, and white as s n o w ; t h e latter beomes yellow where it is adherent t o t h e internal part o f old bark. W e w e n t every day t o see h o w o u r canoo advanced on the portages. T w e n t y - t h r e e I n d i a n s were employed in dragging it by land, placing branches o f trees t o serve as rollers. In this manner a small boat proceeds in a day o r a day and a half, from t h e waters o f t h e Tuamini t o those o f the Cano Pimichin, which flow into t h o Rio N e g r o . O u r canoe b e i n g very large, and having t o pass the cataracts a second time, it was necessary t o avoid with particular care any fried ion o n t h e b o t t o m ; c o n s e quently the passage occupied more than four days. I t is only since 1795 that a road has been traced t h r o u g h t h e forest. By substituting a canal for this portage, as I proposed t o t h e ministry of king Charles I V , the communication between the Rio Negro and Angostura, between the Spanish O r i n o c o and the Portuguese possessions o n the A m a z o n , would be singularly facilitated. In this forest we at length obtained precise information * T h e Galibis or Caribis (the r has been changed into l, as often happens) are of the great stock of the Carib nations. T h e products useful in commerce and in domestic life have received the same denomination in every part of America which this warlike and commercial people have overrun.