229 



it is a wool unique in its softness and without any ill effects to the 

 head, and for the couches of princes the most delicate and estimable 

 of all the wools ; it is a silk and even more delicate than the subtile 

 threads of silk. So, no feathers or wool or cotton can equal it ; but, 

 if it is wet, it all becomes balled and loses itself. I have experi- 

 enced all this, and so long as this wool does not become wet there is 

 none like it for cushions and pillows. The Indians in Nicaragua are 

 accustomed to have appointed places for the tiangUez, that is to say, 

 the market, where they come together for their gatherings, their fairs, 

 and their barterings, and there they have two, three, and four trees of 

 these geybas to give shade ; and in many plazas or tiangilez, two or 

 three or four geybas suffice to give shade to a thousand and two thou- 

 sand persons, and they arrange the geybas according as the concourse 

 of the plaza or tiangilez is large or small. This great tree, which in 

 this island [Espanola], they call geyba, as I have said, is called /^x^"/ 

 in the province of Nicaragua and in other parts bears other names. ' ' 



Bartolome de las Casas, Bishop of Chiapa, the famous pioneer 

 missionary to the New World and defender of the Indians against 

 their Spanish conquerors, came to Espafiola in 1502, and spent 

 the greater part of his long life in the West Indies, Venezuela, Peru, 

 Central America, and Mexico. His " Historia de las Indias " was 

 known only from manuscript copies up to 1 875—76 and seems not 

 to be alluded to by any of the authors who have dealt with the 

 silk-cotton tree, the present writer being indebted to Dr. Manuel 

 Gomez de la Maza, of the University of Havana, for a reference 

 to it. The description of the " ceyba " given by Las Casas is 

 not so detailed as that by Oviedo, yet it is at least of confirmatory 

 interest. A free translation of a part of his description * runs 

 about as follows : 



"There is in this island [Espanola], and commonly in all these 

 Indies, where the land is not cold but rather warm, trees that the 

 Indians of this island call ceybas, the letter y long, which are com- 

 . monly so great and of such copiousness of branches and dense leaves 

 that they will give shade for 500 horses, and some will cover much 

 more ; it is a very magnificent, showy, and graceful tree ; its principal 

 trunk has a thickness of more than three and four oxen, and some are 

 found, and I believe there is one on the island of Guadeloupe, that 10 

 or 12 men with opened arms and even with two pairs of breeches out- 

 stretched could not encompass, and I so affirm. * * * The mast or 

 principal trunk before the branches commence is two to three lances 



* Las Casas. Historia de las Indias. Coleccion de Documentos Ineditos para la 

 Historia de Espana, 66 : 322. 323. 1876. [Apendice, capitulo XIII]. 



