226 ' condamine's travels 



nada, flying hither to avoid the dominion of the Spaniards, at the period of their con- 

 quering the country they abandoned. 



This opinion is founded on the fadl of the exiftence of a nation near the fource of 

 one of thefe rivers,, and known by the name of Omagua ; on the ufe of clothes, a cir- 

 cumftance noticed among the Omaguas alone of all the tribes found on the Amazons ; 

 fome veftiges of the ceremony of baptifm ; and finally, certain disfigured traditions. 

 Father Samuel Fritz converted the whole of this people to chriftianity at the clofe of , 

 the laft century (the feventeenth), and as many as thirty of their villages are laid down 

 by name, in the map of that Father, of which however we could only trace the ruins 

 or the fite ; the whole of their population, intimidated by certain ruffians from Para,, 

 who afcended the river thus far, and made Haves of many of them, having fled ta 

 the woods, or difperfed among the miflions of Spain and Portugal. 



The Peruvian word Omagua, and the Brazilian term Cambevas, applied by the 

 Portuguefe of Para to thefe people, alike fignify flat-head ; and in faft this nation has 

 adopted the whimfical practice of prefling between two boards, the forehead of their 

 new-born infants, in order to give it the fmgular form which originated their denomi- 

 nation, and, as they fay, to make them more perfedlly refemble the full moon. The 

 language of the Omaguas is as fweet and eafy of enunciation, as that of the Yameos 

 is harlh and difficult : it has no affinity to that of Peru or that of Brazil, the one 

 common above, the other below the country of the Omaguas, along the banks of 

 the river. 



The Omaguas make great ufe of two plants, both purgative ; the flower of the one, 

 called by the Spaniards Floripondio, refembles an inverted bell ; this plant has been 

 defcribed by F. Feuillee j of the other plant called Curupa, I brought away the feed. 

 This people, by means of thefe, eff"e6l an intoxication which lafts twenty-four hours, 

 during which they are fubjed to extraordinary vifions. They moreover take the Cu- 

 rupa dried and reduced to powder, as we do fnuff", but after a fmgular fafliion. They 

 ufe for the purpofe a reed terminating in two prongs like the letter Y, each extremity 

 of which is inferted into either noftril ; from thefe, by a flirong infpiration which occa- 

 fions their making a grimace that to Europeans, accufliomed to refer eyery thing to 

 their own cufloms, appears truly laughable, they inhale the powder. 



In a country where heat and moifture combine to excite the greatefl: fertility, it 

 will naturally be concluded, that the abundance and variety of plants mufl: be great. 

 Thofe of the province of Quito will not have efcaped the refearches of our aflbciate 

 M. Jof. de Juffieu, but I may fafely affirm, that the multiplicity and diverfity of the 

 trees and plants found on the banks of the Amazons river, in its courfe from the Cor-^ 

 dilleras de los Andes to the fea, and on the banks of the different rivers its tributaries, 

 would require years of toil from the moft indefatigable botanift, and employ for the 

 fame fpace more than one draughtfman to defcribe. I fpeak here merely of the labour 

 which a minute delineation of all thefe plants, and the reduftion of them into claflTes,, 

 genera, and fpecies, would neceffarily require, but if to this were fuperadded an 

 examination into the virtues afcribed to them by the natives of the country, certainly 

 the mofl: interefl:ing part of a ftudy of this nature, how tedioufly long were the taflv ! 

 No doubt thefe virtues have been much mis-ftated and greatly exaggerated by prejudice- 

 and ignorance, biit are we to imagine that Bark, Ippecacuhana, Siraaroba, Salfaparillaj. 

 Guiacum, Cacos, and Vanilla, are the only ufeful plants which the fruitful bofom of 

 America prefents ? And does not the well-attefted and widely-acknowledged ufefulnefs 

 of thefe hold forth encouragement to new refearches ? For my part, all I was enabled 

 to effed;, was, to colled feed at every ftep of my journey, where this was pradticable., 



1 The 



