667 



excellent narcotic ; and they use it not only in 

 order to procure their afternoon nap, but also to 

 put themselves into that state of quietism, which 

 they call with great simplicity dreaming with the 

 eyes open, or a day dream. The use of tobacco 

 appeared to me to be now very rare in the mis- 

 sions; and in New Spain, to the great regret of 

 the revenue officers, the natives, who almost all 

 descend from the lowest class of the Azteck 

 people*, do not smoke at all. Father Gili-f- 

 affirms, that the practice of chewing tobacco is 

 unknown to the Indians of the Lower Oroonoko. 

 I doubt a little the truth of this assertion, having 

 been told, that the Sercucumas of the Erevato 

 and the Caura, neighbours of the whitish Tapa- 

 ritoes, swallow tobacco chopped small, and im- 

 pregnated with some other very stimulant juices, 

 to prepare themselves for battle. Of the four 

 species of nicotiana cultivated in Europe (n. ta- 

 bacum, n. rustica, n. paniculata, and n. gluti- 

 nosa,) we found only the two latter growing wild ; 

 but the nicotiana loxensis, and the n. andicola, 

 which I found on the bank of the Andes, at 1850 

 toises of elevation, almost the height of the Peak 

 of Teneriffe, are very similar to the n. tabacum 

 and n. rustica %. The whole genus however is 



* See my Essai pul., vol. ii, p. 455. 

 t Vol. iii, p. 407. 

 | See our Nov. Gen. et Spee., vol. iii, p. 4 ; Schloezer, 

 Briefw., vol. iii, p. 153. 



* 



