18 Dr. Hancock on the Angustura Bark Tree. 



medicinal properties I have noticed in the Bark, together with 

 the manner in which I have administered it. 



I was never enabled to learn from what source the illustrious 

 travellers above mentioned derived the name Cuspare for the 

 Carony Bark Tree. I resided for three years and a half at St. 

 Thomas de Angustura in Spanish Guiana, whence I made several 

 excursions amongst the missions of Carony, and the tracts inha- 

 bited by Indian tribes between them and the mountains of Parime, 

 but never once heard the term used ; the vernacular name among 

 the Aborigines of this part of Guiana (the tribe called Guyanos, 

 who had long been subject to the dominion of the Catalonian 

 Capuchin Friars) being Orayuri ; and among the Spaniards and 

 Creoles, it was known by the name of Cascarilla or Quina de 

 Carony. The Cuspa, however, which is known as a tree of 

 Cumana, has a bark that is bitter, and of a yellow tint ; 

 and although it is much lighter, nauseous to the taste, and 

 altogether different from the Orayuri, it is fancied by the inha- 

 bitants of Cumana to be allied to the Carony Bark Tree ; at the 

 same time they acknowledge its virtues to be much inferior. 

 They usually judge of plants only from some similitude in the 

 bark, leaves, fruit, &c. without regarding the flowers. So, 

 also, in Demerara, some have identified the Carony Bark Tree, 

 with the Yaroury or Paddle Wood, than which, scarcely any 

 two trees differ more, with the exception of a likeness in their 

 barks, both having a yellowish colour and bitterish taste. 



It is not in Carony or Guiana then, but doubtless in Cumana, 

 that we are to seek the derivation of the term Cuspare, an easy 

 transition from the Cuspa of the natives, which is probably of 

 Tamanac origin. I know their great fertility of invention when 

 in want of a name for anything met with in the forest ; though 

 I have observed that, among some of the Indian tribes, we 

 find, notwithstanding the numerous confusions they make in 

 many instances, a remarkable degree of intelligence and aptitude 

 in naming trees and plants according to their natural affinities, 

 especially amongst the Arowak tribes : Wayure is equivalent 



