8 TRAVELS through 



However, Providence pitied thefe wretched 

 iflanders : an Indian woman, the wife of a Spa- 

 niard, difcovered, fome time afier, that a kind 

 of wood called guayacaUy v/as a fufficient cure 

 for their diftemper *. ^ 



It is but too true, Sir, that evil produces evil. 

 The Spaniards have facrificed millions of men in 

 the new world -, they have laid wade countries 

 of vaft extent, in order to uiurp the gold of the 

 Indians. 



Gold and filver give as much trouble and fa- 

 tigue to thofe who work them out of the mines, 

 as they afford contentment and eafe to their pof- 

 fefTors. A Spanifh engineer told me, that twen- 

 ty-nine years were fpent in fearching, in the 

 mountains oi Fotofi^ for the famous vein oiCru- 

 fero^ which is two hundred and fifty yards deep. 

 Such is the hard and fupernatural labour which 

 power ^nd defire of riches exads, and which is 



executed 



* Notwithflanding what our author fays concerning the 

 origin of this difeafe, it is well known, that the inhabitants 

 of South and North America had the difeafe when the Eu- 

 ropeans came to them ; but they well knew how to cure it, 

 though they carefully kept this knowledge from their Euro- 

 pean enemies ; and it has but lately been difcovered, that 

 in the fouth the Guayacum, and in the north the Stillingia 

 fylvatica^ together with other plants, are the Indian fpe- 

 cifics. F. 





