like the pine-tree: this gum is very good for gout and pains.
[75] Rhus Copallinum (Linn.) The Mexicans gave the name of
"copal," to all resins and odoriferous gums. The "copal," par
excellence, is a white and transparent resin, which flows from a
tree whose leaves resemble those of the oak, but longer; this
tree is called "copal-qua-huitl," or tree which bears the copal;
they have also the "copal-qua-huitl-petlahuae," whose leaves are
the largest of the species, and like those of the sumach. The
"copal-quauhxiotl," with long and narrow leaves; the
"tepecopulli-qua-huitl," or copal of the mountains, whose resin
is like the incense of the old world, called by the Spaniards,
"incienso de las Indias," and some other inferior kinds.
There is also a root which is named patate, and which they cook like
pears at the fire:[76] it has a taste similar to that of chesnuts.
[76] Batatas--sweet potatoe, yam.
In the said country, there are numbers of melons of strange size, which
are very good; the flesh is quite orange-colour; and there is another
sort, of which the flesh is white, but they are not of such good
flavour as the others. There are also quantities of cucumbers, very
good; artichokes, good lettuces, like those called with us "romaines,"
cabbages, and numerous other kitchen herbs; also pumpkins, which have
red flesh, like the melons.
[Illustration: _etched by M.M._]
There are also apples, which are not very good, and pears, of tolerably
good taste, which grow there naturally. I think that if any one would
take the trouble to plant these good fruit trees in our climate, they
would succeed very well.
Throughout New Spain, there is a kind of snake,[77] which is of the
length of a pike, and as thick as the arm; the head as large as a hen's
egg, on which they have two plumes; at the end of the tail they have a
rattle, which makes a noise as they glide along. They are very
dangerous with their teeth, and with their tail; nevertheless, the
Indians eat them, after having taken away the two extremities.
[77] Champlain clearly means the rattle-snake (Crotulus), but
seems to have confounded it with the horned snake, from the
"plumes" on the head.
There are also dragons of strange figure, having the head approaching
to that of an eagle, the wings like those of a bat, the body like a
lizard, and has only two rather large feet; the tail somewhat scaly,
and it is as large as a sheep; they are not dangerous, and do no harm
to any body, though to see them, you would say the contrary.
I have seen a lizard of such strange size, that if it had been related
to me by another, I should not have believed it. I assure you that they
are as large as a quarter pipe. They are like those that we see here,
as to their form; their colour is greenish-brown, and greenish-yellow
under the belly: they run very fast, and hiss in running; they are not
mischievous to men, although they do not fly from them unless pursued.
The Indians eat them, and find them very good.[78]
[78] Probably "Lacerta Iguana" (Linn.), some of which grow to a
great size. The flesh was considered a delicacy by the Indians
and by many Europeans, but eating of it too frequently was
supposed to occasion a wasting of the body. De Rochefort says:
"On ne conseille neanmoins d'en manger souvent a cause qu'elle
desseche trop le corps et lui fait perdre tout son
embonpoint."--_Hist. Nat. et Morale des Antilles._
I have also many times seen in that country, animals that they call
caymans, which are, as I believe, a kind of crocodile,[79] and so large,
that certain of the said caymans are twenty-five and thirty feet in
length, and are very dangerous; for if they should find a man unawares,
without doubt they would devour him. They are of a whitish-yellow
colour under the belly, the back armed with strong scales of
brownish-green colour, having the head very long, and the teeth
strangely sharp; the mouth very wide, the eyes red, and very flaming;
on the head there is a sort of crown; they have four very short legs,
the body of the size of a barrel. There are also smaller ones. From
beneath the hind thighs excellent musk is procured. They live in the
lakes and marshes, and in the fresh-water rivers. The Indians eat them.
[79] In another room there were great earthen vessels, some
filled with water, others with earth, in which were snakes as big
as a man's thigh; and crocodiles, which they call caymans, as
thick as a man's thigh.--Gage, _Description of the Palace of
Montezuma._
I have also seen tortoises of marvellous size, such that two horses
would have difficulty in dragging one of them; and there are some so
large that, in the shell which covers them, three men could place
themselves and float as in a boat. They are fished in the sea. The
flesh of them is very good and resembles beef. They are in great
quantity in all the Indies, and they are often seen going to feed in
the woods.
There are also numbers of tigers,[80] of the skin of which great care is
taken. They do not attack unless pursued.
[80] Tigris Americana (Linn.)--Jaguar.
There are also to be seen in the said country, some civettes,[81] which
come from Peru, where there are quantities.
[81] Viverra civetta (Linn.)--the Gato de Algalia of the
Spaniards.
There comes from Peru to New Spain a certain kind of sheep which, like
horses, carry burthens of more than four hundred pounds for days
together. They are of the size of an ass; the neck very long, the head
middling; the wool very long, and which more resembles hair like that
of a goat than wool. They have not horns like our sheep, and are very
good to eat, but their flesh is not so delicate as that of our
sheep.[82]
[82] The Llama, or Vicuna.
The country is much peopled with stags and hinds, roe-bucks, wild
boars, foxes, hares, rabbits, and other animals which we have in our
parts, and from which they are not at all different.
There is a kind of little animal of the size of prawns, which fly by
night, and make such light in the air that one would say that they were
so many little candles. If a man had three or four of these little
creatures, which are not larger than a filbert, he could read as well
at night as with a wax light.[83]
[83] The Lantern fly--Fulgora suternaria (Linn.)
In the woods and in the plains are to be found numbers of crabs,[84]
like to those which are found in the sea, and are also as common on
land as in the sea elsewhere.
[84] "Gecarcinus," Cancer ruricolor (Linn.)--land crab.
There is another small kind of animal like a crawfish, excepting that
they have the hinder parts devoid of shell; but they have this
property--of seeking the empty shells of snails and lodging therein the
part which is uncovered, dragging the shell always after them, and are
only to be dislodged by force.[85] The fishermen collect these little
beasts in the woods, and make use of them for fishing; and when they
wish to catch fish, having taken the little animals from the shell,
they attach them by the middle of the body to their lines instead of
hooks, then throw them into the sea, and when the fish think to swallow
them, they seize the fish with their two powerful claws and will not
let them go; and by these means, the fishermen catch fish of the weight
even of five or six pounds.
[85] The hermit-lobster, "pagurus streblany," (Leach); "pagurus
Bernardus" (Fabricius); "cancellus marinus et terrestris." Bernard
l'hermite of the French; caracol soldada of the Spaniards.
[Illustration: AN INDIAN FEAST.]
I have seen a bird which is named "pacho del ciello,"[86] that is to
say, bird of the heavens, which name is given to it because it is
continually in the air without ever coming to the earth till it falls
dead. It is of the size of a sparrow. Its head is very small, the beak
short; part of the body greenish-brown, the rest somewhat red. It has a
tail of more than two feet in length, almost like an aigrette, and
singularly large. With respect to the body, it has no feet. It is said
that the female lays one egg only on the back of the male, by whose
heat the said egg is hatched, and when the bird has left the shell, it
remains in the air, in which it lives like the rest of its kind. I have
only seen one, which our general bought for one hundred and fifty
crowns. They are to be caught towards the coast of Chile, which is a
great extent of Terra-Firma, extending from Peru as far as the Straits
of Magellan, which the Spaniards are examining, and are at war with the
savages of the country, where, it is said, mines of gold and silver are
found.
[86] Pacho del ciello.--"Paradisia."--Bird of Paradise. The
belief was long prevalent that these birds lived constantly in
the air, having no feet. The specimens, sent to Europe had seldom
the legs and feet attached, the body and tail being only used as
an aigrette or plume; hence the idea of their not having any
feet.
I think it not out of place here to say that ebony wood comes from a
very high tree, like to the oak: the outside of the bark is whitish and
the heart very black.
The Bresil is a tree, very large compared with the ebony tree, of the
same height, but it is not so hard; the said Bresil bears a kind of
nut, which grows to about the size of gall-nuts which come on elm
trees.
After having spoken of the trees, plants, and animals, I must give a
short account of the Indians, their nature, manners, and belief. The
greater number of the said Indians, who are not under the domination of
the Spaniards, adore the moon as their Deity, and when they desire to
perform their ceremonies, they assemble, great and small, in the middle
of their villages, and place themselves in a circle; those who have
anything to eat, bring it, and they put all the provisions together in
the midst of them and make the best cheer possible. After they are well
satisfied, they all take each other by the hand, and begin dancing with
loud and strange cries, their song having no order or connexion. After
they have well sung and danced, they place themselves with their faces
to the earth, and all at once, they altogether begin to cry out and
weep, saying, "Oh! powerful and bright moon, grant that we may conquer
our enemies, and may eat them, that we may not fall into their hands;
and that, dying, we may go and rejoice with our relatives." After
having made this prayer, they rise and set about dancing in a round;
and their feasts last thus, dancing, singing, and praying, about six
hours. This is what I have learned about the ceremonies and belief of
these poor people, deprived of reason, whom I have here figured.
As for the other Indians who are under the dominion of the king of
Spain, if he did not take some order about them, they would be as
barbarous in their belief as the others. At the commencement of his
conquests, he had established the Inquisition among them, and made
slaves of or caused them to die cruelly in such great numbers, that the
sole recital would cause pity. This evil treatment was the reason that
the poor Indians, for very apprehension, fled to the mountains in
desperation, and as many Spaniards as they caught they ate them; and on
that account the said Spaniards were constrained to take away the
Inquisition, and allow them personal liberty, granting them a more mild
and tolerable rule of life, to bring them to the knowledge of God and
the belief of the holy church; for if they had continued still to
chastise them according to the rigor of the said Inquisition, they
would have caused them all to die by fire. The system that is now used
is, that in every estance (estancia), which are like our villages,
there is a priest who regularly instructs them, the said priest having
a list of the names and surnames of all the Indians who inhabit the
village under his charge.
[Illustration: BURNING INDIANS.]
There is also an Indian, who is as the fiscal of the village,[87] and he
has another and similar list; and on the Sunday, when the priest wishes
to say mass, all the said Indians are obliged to present themselves to
hear it; and before the priest begins the mass, he takes his list, and
calls them all by their names and surnames; and should any of them be
absent, he is marked upon the list, and the mass being said, the priest
charges the Indian who serves as fiscal, to inquire privately where the
defaulters are, and to bring them to the church; in which, being
brought before the priest, he asks them the reason why they did not
come to the divine service, for which they allege some excuse, if they
can find any; and if the excuses are not found to be true or
reasonable, the said priest orders the fiscal to give the said
defaulters thirty or forty blows with a stick, outside the church, and
before all the people.
[87] Indian Fiscal. "According to the size of the village, the
church will have a certain number of singers, of trumpeters and
players of the hautbois, over whom the priest appoints a certain
officer, whom they call the fiscal, who walks before them with a
white staff in his hand, having a cross of silver at the top, to
show that he is an officer of the church. On the Sundays and
feast days he is obliged to assemble the young men and girls at
the church, before and after the service."--Gage's _Voyage_.
This is the system which is maintained to keep them in religion, in
which they remain, partly from fear of being beaten. It is nevertheless
true, that if they have some just reason which prevents them coming to
the mass, they are excused.
All these Indians are of a very melancholy humour, but have
nevertheless very quick intelligence, and understand in a short time,
whatever may be shewn to them, and do not become irritated, whatever
action or abuse may be done or said to them. I have figured in this
page and the next, what may well represent that which I have discoursed
above.
The greater part of these Indians have strange habitations, and are
without any fixed residence; for they have a kind of caravan or cart,
which is covered with the bark of trees, and drawn by horses, mules or
oxen; they have their wives and children in the said caravans, and
remain a month or two in one spot, and then remove to another, and are
thus continually wandering about the country.
There is another class of Indians who build their dwellings and live in
certain villages which belong to nobles or merchants, and cultivate the
soil.
[Illustration: PUNISHMENT OF THE INDIANS FOR NOT ATTENDING CHURCH.]
Now to return to the discourse of my voyage.
After having remained an entire month at Mechique, I returned to St.
Jean de Luz, at which place I embarked in a patache, for Porto-bello,
from which it is four or five hundred leagues. We were three weeks at
sea before arriving at the said Porto-bello, when I found a great
change of country; for, instead of the very good and fertile land,
which I had seen in New Spain, as I have related above, I found a very
bad country; this place of Porto-bello being the most evil and pitiful
residence in the world. It rains there almost always, and if the rain
ceases for an hour, the heat is so great, that the water becomes quite
infected, and renders the air contagious, so that the greater part of
the newly arrived soldiers and mariners die. The country is very
mountainous, covered with forests of fir, in which there are such
quantities of monkeys, that it is wonderful to behold. Nevertheless,
the said harbour of Porto-bello is very good; there are two castles at
the entrance, which are tolerably strong, where there are three hundred
soldiers in garrison. Adjoining the said port, where the fortresses
are, there is another, which is not at all commanded by them, and where
an army might land safely. The king of Spain esteems this port a place
of consequence, being near to Peru, there being only seventeen leagues
to Panama, which is on the south coast.
This port of Panama, which is on the sea of the (south), is very good;
there is good anchorage, and the town is very mercantile.
In this place of Panama is collected all the gold and silver which
comes from Peru, and where it is embarked, with other riches, upon a
little river, which rises in the mountains, and descends to
Porto-bello; which river is four leagues from Panama, from whence all
the gold, silver, and merchandise must be conveyed on mules: and being
embarked on the said river, there are but eighteen leagues to
Porto-bello.
One may judge that, if the four leagues of land which there are from
Panama to this river were cut through, one might pass from the south
sea to the ocean on the other side, and thus shorten the route by more
than fifteen hundred leagues;[88] and from Panama to the Straits of
Magellan, would be an island, and from Panama to the New-foundlands
would be another island, so that the whole of America would be in two
islands.
[88] Isthmus of Panama. The junction of the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans, through the Isthmus of Panama, is not therefore by any
means a modern idea. Champlain has, perhaps, the merit of being
the first to promulgate it.
If an enemy of the king of Spain should hold the said Porto-bello, he
could prevent any thing leaving Peru, except with great difficulty and
risk, and at more expense than profit. Drac[89] went to the said
Porto-bello, in order to surprise it, but he failed in his enterprise,
having been discovered; in consequence of which, he died from
disappointment, and ordered, in dying, that they should put him in a
coffin of lead, and throw him into the sea, between an island and the
said Porto-bello.
[89] Sir Francis Drake, after his unsuccessful attempt on
Porto-rico, pursued his voyage to Nombre-de-Dios, where, having
landed his men, he attempted to pass forward to Panama with a
view of plundering that place, or if he found such a scheme
practicable, of keeping and fortifying it, but he met not with
the same facility which had attended his first enterprises in
those parts. The Spaniards had fortified the passes, and
stationed troops in the woods, who so infested the English with
continual alarms and skirmishes, that they were obliged to return
without effecting anything. Drake himself, from the intemperance
of the climate, the fatigues of his journey and the vexation of
his disappointment, was seized with a distemper of which he soon
after died. (See Hume's "Hist. of England," ann. 1597. Drake died
on the 30th of December, 1596, old style, 9th of January, 1597,
MS.,) and his body was disposed of in the manner mentioned by
Champlain.
Having remained a month at the said Porto-bello, I returned to St. Jean
de Luz, where we sojourned fifteen days, waiting while our ships were
careened, to go to the Havanna, to the rendezvous of the armies and
fleets; and for that purpose, having left the said St. Jean de Luz,
when we were twenty leagues at sea, a hurricane took us with such fury,
with a north wind, that we thought all was lost, and were so separated
one from the other, that we could only rally at the Havanna. On the
other hand, our ship made so much water, that we thought we could not
avoid the peril; for if we took half an hour's repose, without pumping
out the water, we were obliged to work for two hours without ceasing;
and had we not met with a patache, which set us in our route again, we
should have been lost on the coast of Campesche.
On this coast of Campesche, there are quantities of salt, which is made
and procured without artificial means, by reservoirs of water, which
remain after the high tides, where it crystallizes in the sun.
Our pilot had lost all knowledge of the navigation, but the grace of
God sent us this meeting with the patache.
Arrived at the Havanna, we found our general, but our admiral had not
yet arrived, which made us think that he was lost; however, he came in
soon after, with the remainder of the ships. Eighteen days after our
arrival, I embarked in a vessel which was going to Cartagena, and we
were fifteen days making the voyage. This place is a good port, where
there is a fine entrance, sheltered from all winds, save from the
north-north-west, which blows into the harbour, in which there are
three islands. The king of Spain keeps two galleys here. The said place
is in the country called terra-firma, which is very good, very fertile,
as well in corn and fruits as in other things necessary to life; but
not in such abundance as in New Spain; but in recompense, there is a
greater quantity of silver drawn from the said country of terra-firma.
I remained a month and a half at the town of Cartagena, and took a
portrait of the town and of the harbour.
Leaving the said port of Cartagena, I returned to the Havanna, to meet
our general, who gave me a very good reception, having visited by his
command the places where I had been.
The said port of Havanna is one of the finest that I have seen in all
the Indies. The entrance is very narrow, very good, and well furnished
with all that is necessary to defend it; and from one fort to the other
there is an iron chain, which traverses the entry of the port. The
garrison of the said fortresses consists of six hundred soldiers; that
is to say, in one, named the Moro, on the eastern side, four hundred;
and in the other fort, which is called the new fort, and is in the
town, two hundred. Inside the said harbour there is a bay, which is
more than six leagues round, being more than one league wide, where in
every part ships can anchor in three, four, six, eight, ten, fifteen,
and sixteen fathoms water, and a great number of vessels can remain
there; the town is very good and mercantile.
The island, in which are the fort and city of Havanna, is called Cuba,
and is very mountainous; there are no mines of gold or silver, but many
mines of metal, of which pieces of artillery are made for the town of
Havanna.
Neither corn nor wine grows on the said island; that which is consumed
comes from New Spain, so that sometimes they are very dear.
In this island there are quantities of very good fruits; among others
one which is called pines,[90] which perfectly resembles in shape the
pine (cones) with us. The skin is removed, then it is cut in half like
apples; it has a very good taste, and is very sweet, like sugar.
[90] Pine-apple. Pina de Indias (Span.) anana.
There is abundance of cattle, such as oxen, cows, and pigs, which are
better meat than any other in this country, or in all the Indies. They
keep a great number of oxen, more to have the hides than the flesh. To
take them, negroes go on horseback after these oxen, and with astes,[91]
at the end of which is a very sharp crescent, cut the hamstrings of the
oxen, which are immediately skinned, and the flesh so soon consumed,
that, twenty-four hours after, none can be perceived, being devoured by
great numbers of wild dogs and other animals which inhabit this
country.
[91] Hasta (Lat.), lance or pole.
We were four months at the Havanna, and leaving it with the whole fleet
of the Indies, which had assembled there from all parts, we proceeded
to pass the channel of Bahan (Bahama), which is a passage of
consequence, and which must necessarily be passed in returning from the
Indies. On one side of the said passage, to the north, lies the land of
Florida, and on the other the Havanna. The sea flows into the said
channel with great impetuosity. This channel is eighty leagues in
length, and in width eight leagues, as it is figured hereafter,
together with the land of Florida, at least such part of the coast as
can be seen.
On quitting the said channel we came near to Bermuda, a mountainous
island which it is difficult to approach on account of the dangers that
surround it. It almost always rains there, and thunders so often, that
it seems as if heaven and earth were about to come together. The sea is
very tempestuous around the said island, and the waves high as
mountains.[92]
[92] Bermuda. "The still vexed Bermoothes." Gage was nearly
wrecked on the rocks of Bermuda. He says, "The Spaniards, instead
of thanking God for having saved them from that peril, began to
curse the English who inhabited the island, saying that they had
enchanted it, and all the others in the neighbourhood, and that,
by means of the devil, they caused storms to arise whenever a
Spanish fleet passed."