ON THE CASCARILLA BARK, ETC. 271 



Any attempt to trace the aboriginal uses of the Cascarilla barks, can 

 only terminate in disappointment, owing to the rapid extinction of the 

 Carib races, that from an early epoch populated these and other islands 

 of the West Indian archipelago. These primitive inhabitants, according 

 to report, were fully cognisant of their remedial and other economic 

 properties, which they rendered subservient to the treatment of diseases, 

 and other necessary purposes. If we may credit local traditions, the 

 native priests or doctors, resorted to the dried plants for fumigations and 

 in religious ceremonies ; and while the fresh leaves were infused in their 

 medicinal baths, the cortical portions were more exclusively reserved 

 for internal administration. The dried bark also was reduced to a pow- 

 der, and mixed with their tobacco previous to smoking. The inhalation 

 of this mixture was reputed to act as a powerful stimulant, and to induce 

 effects analogous to those of intoxication* 



The European colonists who first settled in the Bahamas apparently 

 obtained a partial knowledge of these appliances, in the course of time 

 from the natives, and hence their practical value has been derived, and 

 handed down to the present period. The famous Buccaneers who 

 infested the secret Cayes, or islets of the Bahamas, and inspired such 

 terror by their piratical excursions in former centuries, appear to have 

 held these products in high esteem. Selecting the fresh cortex, they 

 infused it either in wine, or ardent spirits, and this constituted not only 

 an agreeable bitter, but a prophylactic agent, for the preservation of 

 health. Dried in the sun, and subsequently pounded into small frag- 

 ments, it was smoked mixed with tobacco : and this method of employ- 

 ment, independently of the agreeable flavour inhaled, was equally consi- 

 dered to be an antidote against the attacks of febrile, and other local maladies. 

 The system of conjoining these barks with tobacco, partly introduced into 

 England and other countries of Europe towards the close of the seven- 

 teenth century, may be traced to these seafaring usages, which, again, 

 were adopted from those of the Carib tribes. For the information which 

 led to their appropriation, as one of the chief ingredients in the composi- 

 tion of incense, and other fumigating compounds, we are indebted to 

 the labours of the early Spanish missionaries, who during their sojourn 

 among the West India islands, gained a practical illustration of this 

 aboriginal mode of employment. 



I. Sweeiwood Bark, or Bahama Cascarilla. 

 (Croton Eluteria, Benn.) 

 Elutheria Providentise, folio cordato subtus argenteo. Sweet Bark, 

 s. cortex bene olens, Petiver Collect, 4 u. 276*. 



* The conjunction of other substances in the smoking of tobacco, with the view 

 of modifying or improving its flavour, appears also to prevail among several of 

 the Indian tribes of North America. During the late overland transit of the 

 troops through Canada, powdered Willow- bark, an article much used for this 

 object, by the Indians, was freely offered for sale, and it is stated that on trial, a 

 peculiar taste and odour was imparted to the smoke. 



