Pre-Columbian rafts

Pre-Columbian rafts plied the Pacific Coast of South America for trade from about 100 BCE, and possibly much earlier.

It is likely that traders using rafts, constructed of balsa wood logs, voyaged as far as Mexico and introduced metallurgy to the civilizations of that country.

[2] A contemporary account of the encounter is: [The Spanish] captured a ship [raft] with as many as 20 men aboard of whom 11 threw themselves into the water.

The keel was made of canes [balsa logs] as thick as posts bound together with ropes of what they call henequen, which is like hemp.

[3]The chronicler, Francisco de Xerez, said that the raft carried a cargo of "silver objects, tiaras, crowns, bands, tweezers and bells, all of this they brought to exchange for some [sea] shells.

"[5] Logs from the balsa tree (Ochroma lagopus) are distinguished by their light weight and large size (up to 90 centimetres (35 in) in diameter).

The source of balsa logs for rafts was the valley of the Guayas River, north of the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador.

During historic (and probably pre-historic) times the platform might include a hut to shelter the passengers and crew and a fire pit for cooking.

Raising, lowering, or removing some of the guaras or moving them toward the bow or stern reduced or increased sub-surface tension and made it possible to steer the raft.

[15] The maritime trade had two centers: the northern coast of Ecuador and Chincha about 200 kilometres (120 mi) south of present-day Lima, Peru.

[16] Scholars have calculated that a one-way trip from Ecuador to Mexico would have taken six to eight weeks, sailing at an average of 4 knots for 12 hours each day.

To enjoy the best weather, traders would most likely leave Ecuador in early December and arrive in Mexico in late January.

[19] The various voyages have demonstrated the seaworthiness of prehistoric rafts and, in the words of an early Spaniard, that the Indians who sailed them were "great mariners."

The Spanish colonists in Peru and Ecuador from the 16th to the 19th centuries relied on the Indians of the Peruvian and Ecuadorian coasts and their rafts for coastal trade.