Boat provided by South American god (6)
I believe the answer is:
sampan
'boat' is the definition.
(sampan is a kind of boat)
'by south american god' is the wordplay.
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'south' becomes 'S' (abbreviation).
'american' becomes 'Am' (abbreviation in some contexts).
'god' becomes 'pan' (Pan is a Greek god).
's' put next to 'am' is 'sam'.
'sam'+'pan'='SAMPAN'
'provided' is the link.
(Other definitions for sampan that I've seen before include "Small Asian rowing boat" , "Small flat-bottomed boat in China" , "Small Chinese flat-bottomed boat" , "Asian skiff" , "Flat-bottomed Chinese skiff" .)