514 



struggle against the united interests of men ; 

 and civilization will be carried insensibly into 

 those countries, the great destinies of which 

 nature itself proclaims, by the physical configu- 

 ration of the soil, the immense windings of the 

 rivers, and the proximity of two seas, that bathe 

 the coasts of Europe and of India. 



Esmeralda is the most celebrated spot on the 

 Oroonoko for the fabrication of that active poi- 

 son *, which is employed in war, in the chace, 

 and, what is singular enough, as a remedy for 

 gastric obstructions. The poison of the ticunas 

 of the Amazon, the upas-tieute of Java, and the 

 curare of Guyana, are the most deleterious 

 substances that are known. Raleigh toward 

 the end of the sixteenth century, had heard the 

 name of urari pronounced as being a vegetable 

 substance, with which arrows were envenomed ; 

 yet no fixed notions of this poison had reached 

 Europe. The missionaries Gumilla and Gili had 

 not been able to penetrate into the country, 

 where the curare is manufactured. Gumilla 

 asserts, that u this preparation was enveloped 

 in great mystery ; that it's principal ingredient 

 was furnished by a subterraneous plant, by a 

 tuberose-root, which never puts forth leaves, and 

 which is called the root, by way of eminence, 



* In Tamanac, marana, in Maypure, macuri. 

 + Cayley's Life of Raleigh, vol. ii, p. 13, Ap. p. 8. 



