“He was of use to me,” he says, “as a good and eager sportsman, and by liberally supplying him with such fine gunpowder as he could not obtain by purchase, I soon gained his perfect confidence and goodwill. His disposition was generally kind, but any remonstrance against his vice would throw him into an ungovernable rage. He has frequently assured me in confidential moments that he would rather, as he has done for months together, live alone in the midst of some Coca shrubs in the most solitary spot in the wilderness, depending for support on his fishing-line and gun than return home to his family at Huanuco. His description of the lovely visions that appeared to him in the forest at night, and of his delicious sensation at such moments, had in it something truly awful. When it rained he used to cover his half-naked body with the soddened leaves that had fallen from the trees, and he assured me that when this wretched substitute for raiment was brought to steam by the warmth of his person, that he could lie thus enveloped for hours without experiencing inconvenience or cold.” Such isolated cases, in some respects at least parallel, in inveterate drunkards, are occasionally met with in this country. _Coqueros_ become afflicted with a peculiar disease. Pöppig says:— “The natives of the cold and dry districts of the Andes are more addicted to the consumption of Coca than those of the close forests, where, undoubtedly, other stimulants do but take its place. Weakness in the digestive organs, ... increasing continually in a greater or less degree, first attacks the unfortunate _coquero_. This complaint, which is called _opilacion_, may be trifling in the beginning, but soon attains an alarming height. Then come bilious obstructions, attended with all those thousand painful symptoms which are so much aggravated by tropical climate. Jaundice and derangement of the nervous system follow, along with pains in the head, and such prostration of strength that the patient speedily loses all appetite; the hue of the whites assumes a leaden colour, and a total inability to sleep ensues, which aggravates the mental depression of the unhappy individual, who, in spite of all his ills, cannot relinquish the use of the herb to which he owes his sufferings, but craves brandy in addition. The appetite becomes quite irregular, sometimes failing altogether, and sometimes assuming a wolfish voracity, especially for animal food. Thus do years of misery drag on, succeeded at length by a painful death.” Later, Dr. Weddell, however, who travelled where Coca was most in use, saw no results from its use at all bearing comparison with these just narrated. He gives the following interesting detailed account of the growth, cultivation, and use of Coca from personal observation. CHAPTER V. DR. WEDDELL’S ACCOUNT.[13]