144 FHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1737. 



tains. Having discovered a spot where the trees most abound, they first build 

 huts for the workmen, and then a large hut to receive the bark, to preserve it 

 from the wet : but they let it lie there as short a time as possible, having before- 

 hand cut a road from the place where the trees grow, through the woods, some- 

 times 3 or 4 leagues, to the nearest plantation or farm-house in the low country, 

 whither, if the rain permits, they presently carry the bark to dry. These pre- 

 parations made, they provide each Indian, these being the cutters, with a large 

 knife, and a bag that can hold about 50 lb. of green bark ; every two Indians 

 take one tree, whence they cut or slice down the bark, as far as they can reach 

 from the ground; they then take sticks about half a yard long each, which 

 they tie to the tree with tough withs, at proper distances, like the steps of a 

 ladder; always slicing off the bark, as far as they can reach, before they fix a 

 new step; and thus they mount to the top, the Indian below gathering what 

 the other cuts; this they do by turns, and go from tree to tree, till their bag is 

 full ; which, when they have plenty of trees, is generally a day's work for one 

 Indian. As much care as possible must be taken that the bark is not cut wet; 

 should it so happen, it is to be carried directly down to the low country to dry, 

 otherwise it loses its colour, turns black, and rots; and if it lie any time in the 

 hut without being spread, it runs the same risk : so that while the Indians are 

 cutting, the mules, if the weather permits, ought to be carrying it down to 

 the place appointed for drying it, which is done by spreading it in the open air, 

 and frequently turning it. 



Mr. Arrot had the curiosity to send above 50 seroons from the woods to the 

 city of Loxa, where he put it into a large open house, and dried it under cover, 

 never exposing it either to the sun or night air, imagining that the sun exhaled 

 a great many of its fine parts, and that the night air, or serene, was very 

 noxious to it; but he found the colour of the bark thus cured, not near so 

 bright and lively as that dried in the open air. He is of opinion, that a very 

 short time will put an end to this best sort, or at least it will be extremely hard 

 to be got, by reason of its distance from any inhabited place, the impenetra- 

 bility of the woods where it grows, and the scarcity of the Indians to cut it, 

 who, by the Spaniards' hard usage and cruelty, are daily diminishing so fast, 

 that in a very few years their race in that country will be quite extinct. 



Mr. Arrot says, that the small bark which curls up like sticks of cinnamon, 

 and which in England is much esteemed, as being cut off the branches, and 

 therefore reckoned better and more effectual in curing fevers, is only the bark 

 of the younger trees, which, as it is very thin, curls in that manner; and that 

 the bark of the branches would not compensate the trouble and expences of 

 cutting. He also says, that after the bark is cut off any tree, it requires at 



