In returning from Porto Cabello to Aragua, we stopped at the farm
of Barbula, near which a new road to Valencia is in the course of
construction. We had heard several weeks before of a tree, the sap
of which is a nourishing milk. It is called the cow-tree, and we
were assured that the negroes of the farm, who drink plentifully
of this vegetable milk, consider it a wholesome aliment. It was
offered to us in a calabash. We drank considerable quantities of it
in the evening before we went to bed, and very early in the morning,
without feeling the least injurious effect. Among the great number of
curious phenomena which I have observed in the course of my travels,
I confess there are few that have made so powerful an impression on
me as the aspect of the cow-tree. It is at the rising of the sun that
this vegetable fountain is most abundant. The negroes and natives
are seen hastening from all quarters, furnished with large bowls to
receive the milk, which grows yellow and thickens at the surface;
some empty their bowls under the tree itself, others carry the juice
home to their children.