_^ 



ALOE 



G81 



At this period and for long afterwards the drug was imported into 

 Europe by way of the Red Sea and Alexandria. A/'tcr the discovery of 

 a route to India by the Cape of Good Hope the ohi line of coramcrco 

 probably began to change. 



Pires, an apothecary at Cochin, in a letter on Eastciu drugs ^ ad- 

 dressed to Manuel, king of Portugal, in lolG, reports that aloes grows 



other parts, 



g 



Q 



that of Spain; while the drug of Aden and Cambaya is so bad as to be 

 worthless. 



In the early part of the 17th century there was a direct trade in 

 aloes between England and Socotra; and in the records of the East 

 India Company there are many notices of the drug being bought of the 

 " King of Socotra." Frequently tlie king's whole stock of aloes is 

 mentioned as having been purchased.^ 



Wellstead, who travelled in Socotra in 1833/ says that in old times 

 the aloe was far more largely grown there than at present, and that the 

 walls which enclosed the plantations may still be seen. He adds that 

 the produce was a monopoly of the Sultan of the island. At the 

 present day the few productions of Socotia that are exported are carried 

 by the Arab coasting vessels, coming annually from the Persian Gulf to 

 Zanzibar, at which place they are transhipped for Indian and other 

 ports. Dr. Kirk, who has resided at Zanzibar from 1800 to 1873, 

 informs ug that aloes from Socotra arrives in a very soft state packcil 

 in goatskins. From these it is transferred to wooden boxes, in which 

 it concretes, and is shipped to Europe and America. To avoid loss the 

 skins have to be washed; and the aloetic liquor evaporated. 



Ligon,* who visited the island of Barbados in 1647-50, that is about 

 twenty years after the arrival of the first settlers, speaks of the aloe as 

 if it were indigenous, mentioning also the useful plants which had been 

 introduced. At that period the settlers knew how to prepare the juice 



for medicinal use, but had not begun to export it. 

 11^ the drug warehouses of London in 1693.' 



as 



The manufacture of aloes in the Cape Colony of South Africa was 



observed by Thunberg in 1773 on the farm of a boer named Peter de 

 Wett, who was the first to prepare the drug in that coun^try.<'_ Cape 

 Aloes is enumerated in the stock of a London druggist m 1780, its cost 

 oemg set down as £10 per cwt. (Is. 9|d per lb.). 



^ A new and distinct sort of aloes, manufactured m the colony oj 

 Natal, appeared in English commerce in 1870. It will be described 

 further on. 



Lignum Aloes— It is important to bear in mind that fjic word 

 ^loes or Lign Aloes, in Latin Lignmn Aloes, is nsed m the Bible and 

 in many ancient writings to designate a substance totally distinct trom 

 t^ie modern Aloes, namely the resinous wood of Aqmlarui Agallocka 

 Roxburgh, a large tree' oi the order ThymeleaceiB. growing in the 



^ See Appendix * History of Barhadots, Loud. 1073. 98. 



'Palendur of ' State Paper., Colomal » Dale's 1"^;^''^^ A^XLe and 



^eno3, East Indies, Cliini .^nd Japan, « Thunberg, Irards m Asia, Eu> ope and 



1313^1616, Lond ISG" Africa, ii. 4'J. 50. ,,,,., 



^ Journ Jfi!:. p n 7 c . ,- ' Vw in Eoyle, llludr. of the Ihmalayan 



(1835) S-S ^- ^'°^'""^" '^" Bot cTcAimt^h. 36. See also mcCion. 



na'ire de Botaiu<jite, 



