Both in marshy plains, and in the moister woods, you see a great
abundance and variety of reeds; some solid, others hollow. Some are as
thick as a man's thigh, others scarce equal to his thumb: many which are
slenderer than a goose's quill, but full ten yards long, entwine
themselves about the neighbouring trees. You commonly meet with reeds of
such immense size, that they supply the place of wood in building
houses, waggons, and ships, and if cut at proper times would exceed it
in hardness and durability. Some made very large flagons, for the
purpose of holding wine on a journey, of these reeds, and they answered
better than glass, because less fragile. As various kinds of reeds grow
in various parts of the province, the Indians ingeniously conjecture the
name and country of their savage foes who have been travelling the same
way, from the reed of an arrow which they may have chanced to see on the
road. We have often crossed woods of wide extent bristling with
continual reeds, and have been obliged to pass the night there even,
always sleepless, always anxious; for as reeds generally delight in a
marshy soil, they are seminaries and abodes of tykes, snakes, gnats and
other insects, which are always noisy and stinging, and never spare
either the blood or ears of strangers; especially on an impending calm.
If a violent wind comes on, the fire at which you sit, being thereby
scattered up and down, will set fire to the reeds, which are covered
with leaves, and you will be burnt; for no means of extinguishing the
flames are at hand, and there are no opportunities of escape. Those
reeds which the Germans call Spanish canes, and the Spaniards Indian
ones, and which are used for walking-sticks, never grow in Paraguay,
though neither rare nor precious in the provinces of North America.