124 THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS 



endure, whereof no small profile doeth foUowe to those of our 

 tyme, and also unto them that shall come after us, the whiche I 

 shall be the first, that the rather the followers male adde here- 

 unto, with this beginnyng, that whiche thei shall more knowe, 

 and by experience shall finde. And, as in this Citee of Seuill, 

 which is the Porte and skale of all Occidentall Indias, wee 

 doe knowe of the more, then in any other partes of all Spaine, 

 for because that all thynges come first hither, where with better 

 relation, and greater experience it is knowen. I doe it with 

 experience and use of them this fourtie yeres, that I doe cure 

 in this Citee, where I haue informed myself of them, that hath 

 brought these thynges out of those partes with muche care, 

 and I have made with all diligence and foresight possible, and 

 with much happie successe." 



Then he begins straightway to tell us of various herbs and 

 gums brought from the New World, and of what the herbalists 

 had been able to learn of their medicinal virtues. He writes 

 of " Copall " and " Anime " (varieties of rosin), and tells us that 

 the Spaniards first learnt of these from the Indian priests, who 

 " went out to receive them [the Spaniards] with little firepottes, 

 burnyng in them this Copall, and giuing to them the smoke of 

 it at their noses." ** Tacamahaca " (the Indian name for a 

 rosin) is " taken out by incision of a tree beyng as greate as a 

 Willowe Tree, and is of a verie sweete smell; he doeth bryng 

 forth a redde fruite, as the seede of Pionia." The Indians 

 used it for swellings in any part of the body and also for tooth- 

 ache. " Caranna," another gum brought from Nombre de 

 Dios, is discovered to be of sovereign virtue for gout — " it 

 taketh it awaie with muche easines." The balsam of the New 

 World, " that licour most excellent whiche for his ExceUencie 

 and meruerlous effectes is called Balsamo, an imitation of the 

 true Balsamo that was in the lande of Egipt," is " made of a 

 tree greater than a Powndgarned Tree, it carrieth leaues like to 

 Nettles : the Indians doe call it Xilo and we do call the same 



