Travels in North America. 21^ 

 Thefe Savages who have at all Times applied themfelves more 

 0//>&^Gin-feng than the others to Phyfic, fet a high Value 

 /•Canada Gt7i-Jeng^ and are perluaded that this 



' Plant has the Virtue to render Women fruit- 



ful. But I do not think that it was for this Reafon they called it 

 Abefoutchenzay which means a Child : It owes this Name to the 

 Shape of its Root, at leaft among the Iroquois, You have feen 

 without Doubt, Madam, what Father Laffitauy who brought it 

 firfl to France, has wrote of it under the Name of Aurelia Cana- 

 denjis : It is at leaft for Shape abfolutely the fame as that which 

 comes to us from China, and which the Chinefe get from Corea 

 and Tartary. The Name they give it, which iignifies the 

 Likenefs of a Man ; the Virtues they attribute to it, and which 

 have been experienced in Canada by thofe who have ufed it, and 

 the Conformity of the Climate (a)^ are great Reafons to think, 

 that if we took it as coming from China, it would be as much 

 efteemed as that the Chinefe fell us ; perhaps it is fo little ef- 

 teemed by us, becaufe it grows in a Country that belongs to 

 us, and th^t it has not the Recommendation of being entirely 

 Foreign. 



In going up the River St, Jofeph, I obferved feveral Trees, 



Of 'he Bean ^^^^^ ^ ^^^^ other Place. 



cr '^j 1 ^o '^'r The moft remarkable, and which I took at 



^Iree, and the oah r n r a .a, u t 



y.^/ hrit for an Aih by its Leaves, grows very 



*^ ' large, and bears Beans vvhich appear very 



good to the Eye ; but the more they are boiled the harder they 

 grow, fo that they could never be ufed. The Fields which fur- 

 round the Fort are fo full of Saffafras, that it perfumes the Air ; 

 but it is not a great Tree as in Carolina : They are little Shrubs 

 which grow near the Ground ; perhaps alfo they are but Shoots 

 of the Trees that were cut down to clear the Environs of the 

 Fort, and of the Savage Villages. 



There are here many Simples, which they fay the Savages 

 Zecr c of the ^'^^ ^ little at a Venture, withou-t 



ecrecy 0/ ,e 2J[iy oûi^x YxmzivAo, x}[i2Si a flip-ht Experiment 

 ba'V acres concern- "^j i_ ^1 ^ 1 i • i r 2- j ' 

 / their Si t>le ^^^^ ^7 Chance, and whicn lometimes de- 

 ^and the Mifes ^^of ^^^^^^ them ; *fbr the fame Remedies do not 

 thnr Co t^^ ^^^^^^y Sorts of Subjeds, attacked 



^ with the fame Diftempers ; but thefe People 



know not how to make all thefe Diftinftions. One Thing which 

 mtjch furprifes me, is the impenetrable Secrecy they keep con^ 



(a) The Black R't'ver (la Ri-vure Noire) is in 4-1 De^. 50 Min. it i$ in 

 the fame Latitude they get the Gin-feng of Corea for the Emperor of China, 

 Some of our's has been carried to China, and being prepared by the Chinefe, 

 they have fold it as coming from Corea or Tartary, for the rpft, this Prepa- 

 ration adds nothing to it. 



G g cerning 



