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RED-DYB WOODS. 195 



remains still too great a burden for one man, it is blown up 

 with gunpowder. The logwood-cutters are generally sturdy 

 strong fellows, and will carry burthens of three or four 

 hundred-weight. In some places they go a-hunting wild cattle 

 every Saturday to provide themselves with beef for the week 

 following. When they have killed a beef they cut it into 

 quarters, and taking out the bones, each man makes a hole in 

 the middle of his quarter, just big enough for his head to go 

 through, then puts it on like a frock and trudgeth home ; and, 

 if he chanceth to tire, he cuts off some of it and throws it 

 away.' 



The entire freedom from all restraint wliich accompanied this 

 wild and adventurous life had such charms for Dampier's bold 

 and roving spirit, that he sojourned for about a year among the 

 rude wood-cutters of Campeachy, and left them with the 

 intention of again returning for a longer stay. 



Most of the red dye-woods are furnished by the Csesalpinias, 

 a genus of plants belonging to the widespread family of the 

 Leguminosse, and indigenous in both hemispheres. The C. crista, 

 which furnishes the best quality, commonly known under the 

 name of Brazil wood, grows profusely in the forests of that 

 vast empire, preferring dry places and a rocky ground. Its 

 trunk is large, crooked, and full of knots ; at a short distance 

 from the ground innumerable branches spring forth and 

 extend in every direction in a straggling manner. The 

 branches are armed with short strong upright thorns, the 

 leaves are small, and never appear in luxuriant foliage. The 

 flowers are of a beautiful red colour, and emit a fragrant smell. 

 Both the thick bark and the white pithy part of the trunk are 

 useless, the hard close-grained heart being the only portion 

 impregnated with colouring matter. The wood is sometimes 

 used in turning, and is susceptible of a good polish, but its 

 chief use is as a red dye. By the addition of acids it produces 

 a permanent orange or yellow colour, while the crimson tints 

 which it imparts are very fleeting. 



The first Europeans that settled on the banks of the Amazons 

 found that several of the Indian tribes that roamed about in 

 their vicinity painted their bodies with a showy orange-red 

 colour. Their attention was by this means attracted to the 

 Arnatto (Bixa orellana\ which attains about the size of our 



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