THE ANGOSTURA IJARK. 23 



of cultivation and the encroachments of the Whites. The 

 Caribs and the Aruacas procure fire-arms at Essequibo and 

 Demerara ; and when the traffic of American slaves (poitos) 

 was most active, adventurers of Dutch origin took part 

 in these incursions on the Paragua, the Erevato, and the 

 Ventuario. Man-hunting took place on these banks, as 

 heretofore (and probably still) on those of the Senegal and 

 the Gambia. In both worlds Europeans have employed the 

 same artifices, and committed the same atrocities, to main- 

 tain a trade that dishonours humanity. The missionaries 

 of the Carony and the Orinoco attribute all the evils they 

 suffer from the independent Caribs to the hatred of their 

 neighbours, the Calvinisfc preachers of Essequibo. Their 

 works are therefore filled with complaints of the secta 

 diabolica de Cdlvino y de Lutero, and against the heretics 

 of Dutch Guiana, who also think fit sometimes to go on 

 missions, and spread the germs of social life among the 

 savages. 



Of all the vegetable productions of those countries, that 

 which the industry of the Catalonian Capuchins has 

 rendered the most celebrated is the tree that furnishes the 

 Cortex angostura3, which is erroneously designated by the 

 name of cinchona of Carony. We were fortunate enough 

 to make it first known as a new genus distinct from the 

 cinchona, and belonging to the family of meliaceae, or of 

 zanthoxylus. This salutary drug of South America was 

 formerly attributed to the Brucea ferruginea which grows 

 in Abyssinia, to the Magnolia glauca, and to the Magnolia 

 plumieri. During the dangerous disease of M. Bonpland, 

 M. Ravage sent a confidential person to the missions of 

 Carony, to procure for us, by favour of the Capuchins of 

 ITpata, branches of the tree in flower, which we wished to 

 be able to describe. We obtained very fine specimens, the 

 leaves of which, eighteen inches long, diffused an agreeable 

 aromatic smell. We soon perceived that the cuspare (the 

 indigenous name of the cascarilla or corteza del Angostura) 

 forms a new genus ; and on sending the plants of the 

 Orinoco to M. Willdenouw, I begged he would dedicate 

 this plant to M. Bonpland. The tree, known at present by 

 the name of Bonplandia trifoliata, grows at the distance of 

 five or six leagues from the eastern bank of the Carony, at 



