248 
blifhed at Batavia, for promoting the arts 
and the fciences, fays, in a letter addrefied 
_to his brother: ‘** The whole relation 
which you read, in a German journal, of 
the bobax upas, or large poifon tree, faid 
to be in the ifland of Java, the poifonous 
‘evaporation of which produces fo dreadful! 
effects, that no animal or plant can exift 
within a great diftance of it, you may 
with certainty confider as one of thote 
fables with which ignorant or lying tra- 
-wellers have inundated the world. ‘The 
relater of this wonderful hiftory, accord- 
img to your: account, fays, ‘ that this 
tree grows on the territories of one of the 
princes here, and that to obtain its poifon - 
for the purpofe of poifoning weapons, a 
mumbers of malefaétors are every year 
employed; that thefe wretches, mounted 
en horfeback, and having their mouths 
covered, proceed towards the tree, but 
enly at times when the wind is in their - 
backs, fo as to convey the evaporation 
from the tree to the quarter oppoiite to 
that in which they are advancing; that 
even then, they haften towards it with 
the utmoft fpeed, and having pricked it 
with their javelins, and réceived the poi-~ 
fon, retire from it with the like precipi- 
tation. ‘That it frequently happens, by 
the wind fpeedily changing, that thefe 
men, being overtaken by the vapour of 
the tree, are fuffocated; and that as their 
- bodies remain on the f{pot, the ground 
around the tree ts covered with fkeletons. 
He pretends alfo to have witnefled the 
fudden and violent effets of the poifon, 
at the court of the prince, on a woman 
eondemned to death, and whofe fentence 
was executed by means of a flight wound 
made with an arrow that had been dipped 
init.’ . That the Indians, in general, are 
well acquainted with the dreadful art of 
poifoning their weapons, isa faét fully. 
eftablithed ; but for this purpofe there is 
no need of fuch a wonderful tree, as in 
all hot countries, there are abundance of 
herbs, plants, and.fhrubs, the poifon of 
which, when conveyed into.a wound, be- 
comes mortal. If the reilater was really 
prefent at {uch an execution, the javanele 
muft, undoubtedly, have fabricated the 
whole fiory of the poifon tree, in order 
to impoie on his credulity... The Indians 
are not only highly credulous and .fuper- 
fiitious themfelves, but they find a mali-. 
> y 
cious pleafure in telling the Europeans 
the moft. fingular and -romantic. tales ; 
partly in order that they may affume the 
more coniequence; and partly, perhaps, 
to retaliate for the many wondrous things 
which the Europeans wifh to make them 
Correction of Errors in Natural Hiftory. 
believe refpeéting their part of the world,” 
and which they endeavour to imprefs on 
them as abfolute truths. One, therefore, 
has every reafon to be very cautious and 
diffident in regard to fuch tales as are re- 
lated by the natives of little known coun- 
tries. The old books of travels abound 
with wonderful hiftories of this fort, 
which are even yet credited by the com- 
mon foldiers and failors. Among thefe 
may be clafled the accounts which you 
read, of the monftrous ferpents produced 
in this ifland. The largeft here, are fel- 
dom above nine feet in length, and nine 
inches in circumference, at the thickeft — 
part of the body. In the remote forefts 
and mountains, however, fome-are found, 
but very feldom, about twenty feet in 
length; and thefe indeed’ may be deftruc- 
trve and dangerous to large animals. In 
the low lands, where they for the mof ‘ 
part frequent the rice fields, they never 
attain to fuch a fize. . They live there on 
fmall birds, mice and rats; but the bite 
of thelfe fnakes’is not confidered as poi-. 
yonous.”* ¢ 
Another point in-natural hiftory, per- 
haps equally fabulous as the relation of - 
the bohax upas, is that refpeCting the ex- 
iftence of the unicorn. Sechan animal, 
indeed, is mentioned in Scripture ; “and it 
has been defcribed by Strabo*, Pliny 5" 
fEliant, Phile ||, and other ancient’au-_ 
thors. Some have afferted, that the ani- 
mal alluded to. bythe ancients, was the 
one horned rhineceros ; while others have 
controverted this opinion, and maintained 
that the rhinoceros is an animal totally 
different. Amongst the latter, may be 
reckoned Julius Czefar Scaliger, who, in- 
his ‘¢ Exerciatzons againf? Cardan,°»-cites 
the teftimony of one of his friends, whe 
{aw an unicorn. hata belief of the ex- 
iftence of this animal itill prevails, is well 
known; and, as it may afford fatisfae- 
tion to thofe curious in natural hiftory, 
to be informed upon what grounds it «is 
founded, I thall fubjoin the following ex- 
tracts. The Baron de Vollzogen, an-of- 
ficer in a German regiment, lent by the 
Duke of Wirtemberg to the Dutch Eaft . 
India company, in one_of his letters from 
the Cape of Good Hope, f{peaking.of the 
royal antelope, antilope. pygmea, says: - 

* «© Monoceros. Strabo Geograph.” Lib. x¥.— 
p- 1037. Edit. Almetov. 
+ °° Phun. Hift. Nat.” Lib. vili. cap. 21. 
t S* Alian. Hi. Anim.” Lib, xvi. cap: 20, 
p. $88. Edit. Gronov. 
|| <* Phile de Animal. proprict.’. Ed. Paw. 
Traject, ad Rhen. 1730. p. 161. 
; i &¢ I was 
a 
