Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Free
Hordes Have Everywhere A Powerful Interest In Opposing The Progress Of
Cultivation And The Encroachments Of The Whites.
The Caribs and the
Aruacas procure fire-arms at Essequibo and Demerara; and when the
traffic of American slaves (poitos) was most active, adventurers of
Dutch origin took part in these incursions on the Paragua, the
Erevato, and the Ventuario.
Man-hunting took place on these banks, as
heretofore (and probably still) on those of the Senegal and the
Gambia. In both worlds Europeans have employed the same artifices, and
committed the same atrocities, to maintain a trade that dishonours
humanity. The missionaries of the Carony and the Orinoco attribute all
the evils they suffer from the independent Caribs to the hatred of
their neighbours, the Calvinist preachers of Essequibo. Their works
are therefore filled with complaints of the secta diabolica de Calvino
y de Lutero, and against the heretics of Dutch Guiana, who also think
fit sometimes to go on missions, and spread the germs of social life
among the savages.
Of all the vegetable productions of those countries, that which the
industry of the Catalonian Capuchins has rendered the most celebrated
is the tree that furnishes the Cortex angosturae, which is erroneously
designated by the name of cinchona of Carony. We were fortunate enough
to make it first known as a new genus distinct from the cinchona, and
belonging to the family of meliaceae, or of zanthoxylus. This salutary
drug of South America was formerly attributed to the Brucea ferruginea
which grows in Abyssinia, to the Magnolia glauca, and to the Magnolia
plumieri. During the dangerous disease of M. Bonpland, M. Ravago sent
a confidential person to the missions of Carony, to procure for us, by
favour of the Capuchins of Upata, branches of the tree in flower which
we wished to be able to describe. We obtained very fine specimens, the
leaves of which, eighteen inches long, diffused an agreeable aromatic
smell. We soon perceived that the cuspare (the indigenous name of the
cascarilla or corteza del Angostura) forms a new genus; and on sending
the plants of the Orinoco to M. Willdenouw, I begged he would dedicate
this plant to M. Bonpland. The tree, known at present by the name of
Bonplandia trifoliata, grows at the distance of five or six leagues
from the eastern bank of the Carony, at the foot of the hills that
surround the missions Capapui, Upata and Alta Gracia. The Caribbee
Indians make use of an infusion of the bark of the cuspare, which they
consider as a strengthening remedy. M. Bonpland discovered the same
tree west of Cumana, in the gulf of Santa Fe, where it may become one
of the articles of exportation from New Andalusia.
The Catalonian monks prepare an extract of the Cortex angosturae which
they send to the convents of their province, and which deserves to be
better known in the north of Europe. It is to be hoped that the
febrifuge and anti-dysenteric bark of the bonplandia will continue to
be employed, notwithstanding the introduction of another, described by
the name of False Angostura bark, and often confounded with the
former. This false Angostura, or Angostura pseudo-ferruginea, comes,
it is said, from the Brucea antidysenterica; it acts powerfully on the
nerves, produces violent attacks of tetanus, and contains, according
to the experiments of Pelletier and Caventon, a peculiar alkaline
substance* analogous to morphine and strychnine. (* Brucine. M.
Pelletier has wisely avoided using the word angosturine, because it
might indicate a substance taken from the real Cortex angosturae, or
Bonplandia trifoliata. (Annales de Chimie volume 12 page 117.) We saw
at Peru the barks of two new species of weinmannia and wintera mixed
with those of cinchona; a mixture less dangerous, but still injurious,
on account of the superabundance of tannin and acrid matter contained
in the false cascarilla.) As the tree which yields the real Cortex
angosturae does not grow in great abundance, it is to be wished that
plantations of it were formed. The Catalonian monks are well fitted to
spread this kind of cultivation; they are more economical,
industrious, and active than the other missionaries. They have already
established tan-yards and cotton-spinning in a few villages; and if
they suffer the Indians henceforth to enjoy the fruit of their
labours, they will find great resources in the native population.
Concentered on a small space of land, these monks have the
consciousness of their political importance, and have from time to
time resisted the civil authority, and that of their bishop. The
governors who reside at Angostura have struggled against them with
very unequal success, according as the ministry of Madrid showed a
complaisant deference for the ecclesiastical hierarchy, or sought to
limit its power. In 1768 Don Manuel Centurion carried off twenty
thousand head of cattle from the missionaries, in order to distribute
them among the indigent inhabitants. This liberality, exerted in a
manner not very legal, produced very serious consequences. The
governor was disgraced on the complaint of the Catalonian monks though
he had considerably extended the territory of the missions toward the
south, and founded the Villa de Barceloneta, above the confluence of
the Carony with the Rio Paragua, and the Ciudad de Guirior, near the
union of the Rio Paragua and the Paraguamusi. From that period the
civil administration has carefully avoided all intervention in the
affairs of the Capuchins, whose opulence has been exaggerated like
that of the Jesuits of Paraguay.
The missions of the Carony, by the configuration of their soil* and
the mixture of savannahs and arable lands, unite the advantages of the
Llanos of Calabozo and the valleys of Aragua. (* It appears that the
little table-lands between the mountains of Upata, Cumanu, and
Tupuquen, are more than one hundred and fifty toises above the level
of the sea.) The real wealth of this country is founded on the care of
the herds and the cultivation of colonial produce. It were to be
wished that here, as in the fine and fertile province of Venezuela,
the inhabitants, faithful to the labours of the fields, would not
addict themselves too hastily to the research of mines.
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