Cabuya and henequén — the American agave fibre, described in 1535 and industrial by 1900

The agave fibre of the Indies, set down by Oviedo in 1535 with its whole process — retted under stones like Castilian flax, scutched like hemp, coming off "like very white linen" — and used for the cords of hammocks. The same chapter records what the people in irons did with it: sawing through fetters, and through ships' anchors, with a henequén thread and fine sand. Modern botany names the plant, counts the Maya landraces, and follows it to the cordage industry that reduced them.