the rudest implements.
The Spaniards are said to have employed some of their canoes which could
carry one hundred men. Those in use even at the present day are capable
of carrying fifty people.

Though scattered throughout the country, the proper territory of their
nation is on the low swampy country which borders the banks of the
Orinoco; but their lands being completely inundated by the overflowing
of the rivers for some months in each year, they construct their
dwellings above the water, among the mauritia palms, whose crowns of
fan-like leaves wave above their heads and shield them from the rays of
the burning sun. Not only does this palm afford them shelter and the
materials for constructing their habitations, but it gives them an
abundance of food for the support of life. To the upright trunks of the
trees, which they use as posts, they fix the lower beams of their
habitations, a few feet above the highest level of the water. On this
framework they lay the split trunks of smaller palms for flooring.
Above it a roof is formed, thatched with the leaves of the same tree,--
from which they also procure their chief means of subsistence. From the
upper beams the hammocks are suspended; while on the flooring a hearth
of clay is formed, on which fires are lit for cooking their food. Then
their canoes, or woibakas, as they are called, enable them to procure
food from the water, and give them the means of moving from place to
place.

No tree is more useful to the natives than the mauritia. Before
unfolding its leaves its blossoms contain a sago-like meal, which is
dried in thin, bread-like slices. The sap is converted into palm-wine.
The narrow scaled fruit, which resembles reddish pine-cones, yields
different articles of food--according to the period at which it is
gathered--whether the saccharine properties are fully matured, or
whether it is still in a farinaceous condition.

The Guaranis have of late years come under the influence of Christian
Protestant missions.

THE MACUSIS.

In the neighbourhood of the Lake Parima, the Macusis, as well as other
tribes, have their homes. The former are noted for being the
manufacturers of the celebrated wourali poison described by Waterton.
Numerous other tribes, or sections of tribes with different names, exist
in the far interior,--both westward and to the north and south. Those
inhabiting the Lower Amazon possess some degree of civilisation, and are
known under t