90 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 102 



medicinal value ; its bark when ground up and drunk with wine or water 

 or broth is a potent remedy for bloody flux and other illnesses. 



254. In this district and that of Caracas there are also many kinds 

 of poisonous snakes, whose bite is fatal ; and although there are many 

 remedies for snake bite, the best and most efficacious is the snake- 

 grass, whose other name is bejuquillo (ipecacuanha) and which grows 

 in swamps or lakes where there is plenty of water. This is of such 

 great potency against all sorts of poisons that if one pounds up the 

 plant and anoints oneself with the juice, or rubs one's arms with the 

 plant, and one's legs from halfway down the thigh, one is protected 

 for all time ; no viper or other poisonous snake can bite or sting him. 

 It was a mestizo, native of Cumana, who discovered the virtue of this 

 plant and spread the knowledge ; and they have such experience of the 

 great virtue of this plant that they hunt up vipers and snakes and incite 

 them to bite them, and if they are anointed with this plant, no matter 

 how much they annoy and disturb them, they will not bite or do any 

 harm or damage. Glory be to God who placed such great virtues in 

 herbs as antidote and safeguard against such fatal venom. 



Chapter XXVI 



Of the District of the Provinces of the Diocese and State of 

 Venezuela. 



255. Next to the province of the Cumanagotos and the city of 

 San Juan of the Lagoon of Uchire, along the same coast to the W., lie 

 the district and Provinces of Venezuela, commonly called of Caracas, 

 after the city of Santiago de Leon de Caracas, since that is the largest 

 and richest in that Diocese and district. 



256. The city of Santiago de Leon, called Caracas, is situated in a 

 pleasant valley or plain between two mountain ranges 4 leagues inland 

 from the port of La Guaira, the principal port for the city, and with a 

 hot climate. Setting out for Caracas from the harbor one keeps climb- 

 ing all the time up a mountain range and steep slope, where it is cool, 

 and from there one drops a little to the city, which has a springlike 

 climate. It lies at 9° N. and has 300 Spanish residents, as well as many 

 Negroes and mulattoes, both free and slaves, and Indian serfs. It is a 

 great trading and commercial center, both from its nearness to the port 

 and because of the abundance of local products, such as the great 

 quantity of cacao gathered in the plantations which the residents own 

 along the coast for many leagues running ; so they are rich and free 

 from care in consequence of the value and high yield of the cacao for 

 the manufacture of chocolate. They raise quantities of corn and wheat 



