517 



of poison (amo del curare) ; he had that self-suf- 

 ficient air and tone of pedantry, of which the 

 pharmacopolists of Europe were formerly ac- 

 cused. " I know/' said he, " that the whites 

 have the secret of fabricating soap, and that 

 bJack powder, which has the defect of making a 

 noise, and killing animals, when they are want- 

 ed. The curare, which we prepare from father 

 to son, is superior to any thing you can make 

 down yonder (beyond sea). It is the juice of an 

 herb, which hills silently (without any one 

 knowing whence the stroke comes)." 



This chemical operation, to which the master 

 of the curare attached so much importance, ap- 

 peared to us extremely simple. The liana (be- 

 jucoj, which is used at Esmeralda for the prepa- 

 ration of the poison, bears the same name as in 

 the forests of Javita. It is the bejuco de mava- 

 cure, which is gathered in abundance east of the 

 mission, on the left bank of the Oroonoko, be- 

 yond the Rio Amaguaca, in the mountainous 

 and granitic lands of Guanaya and Yumariquin. 

 Although the bundles of bejuco, which we found 

 in the hut of the Indian, were entirely destitute 

 of leaves, we had no doubt of their being pro- 

 duced by the same plant of the strychnos family 

 (nearly allied to the rouhamon of Aublet), which 

 we Jhad examined in the forest of Pimichin*. 



* See above p. 280. I shall here insert the description of 



