The Paraguayrian cochineal is produced by winged insects, which sit
continually on certain little thistles, and suck their juice. There are
many kinds of these thistles, which differ from one another in their
form, and fruit. The plant on which the cochineal is found, is called
_tuna_ by the Spaniards, and _opuntia_ by botanists. From a very short
root rises a thick stalk, sometimes four-cornered, green, crooked, with
a white fragile pulp, and covered with thorns: on this, instead of
boughs and leaves, grow other stalks, the same as the former, very long,
and extremely full of juice. Yellow flowers are succeeded by fruit of a
red colour, larger than a common fig, with a sweet, and at the same
time, rather acid flavour, which renders them very delightful to the
palate. Their pulp is full of small, black seeds, like grape stones, and
when peeled has a delicious taste. From these shrubs therefore, the
women collect cochineal, which consists of very small, white, fluid
particles, closely resembling moss. Most of the particles are made into
small, round cakes, and, after exposure to the air, become red and hard.
Nothing further is requisite to fit them for painting, and dying. The
Jesuit priest of the Guarany town Nuestra Senhora de Sta. Fè, took care
to have the tuna thistle planted in a large garden, that they might not
be obliged to seek the cochineal necessary for his town in distant
plains. When the thistles were grown up, those winged insects,
resembling bugs, were carried by the Indians from the plain, and
scattered up and down, with more than the desired success; for so
abundant, and so excellent was the cochineal collected from them, that
it was anxiously bought, at any price, by the neighbouring priests, for
the use of their towns; because it was of a deeper, and brighter red,
than that of the plains, and the woods, and was, moreover, scented with
citron juice. In succeeding years, the same Father prevented all access
to the town by means of these thistles, that the equestrian savages, who
had committed much carnage amongst them, might not be so easily able to
approach it. This kind of living hedge, which the Spaniards use both in
their gardens and estates, became not only a means of security, but at
the same time, an ever fertile nursery of cochineal, which, as well as a
most beautiful paint, affords the Paraguayrians a medicine for
strengthening the heart, creating perspiration, and counteracting
poison; so that it may be safely, and usefully mixed with vinegar, and
other seasoning liquors.