Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 — Volume 3Humboldt, Alexander von
History
Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 — Volume 3
Humboldt, Alexander von
Natural history -- South America; Scientific expeditions; South America -- Description and travel
The Catalonian monks prepare an extract of the Cortex angosturae which
they send to the convents of their province, and which deserves to be
better known in the north of Europe. It is to be hoped that the
febrifuge and anti-dysenteric bark of the bonplandia will continue to
be employed, notwithstanding the introduction of another, described by
the name of False Angostura bark, and often confounded with the
former. This false Angostura, or Angostura pseudo-ferruginea, comes,
it is said, from the Brucea antidysenterica; it acts powerfully on the
nerves, produces violent attacks of tetanus, and contains, according
to the experiments of Pelletier and Caventon, a peculiar alkaline
substance* analogous to morphine and strychnine. (* Brucine. M.
Pelletier has wisely avoided using the word angosturine, because it
might indicate a substance taken from the real Cortex angosturae, or
Bonplandia trifoliata. (Annales de Chimie volume 12 page 117.) We saw
at Peru the barks of two new species of weinmannia and wintera mixed
with those of cinchona; a mixture less dangerous, but still injurious,
on account of the superabundance of tannin and acrid matter contained
in the false cascarilla.) As the tree which yields the real Cortex
angosturae does not grow in great abundance, it is to be wished that
plantations of it were formed. The Catalonian monks are well fitted to
spread this kind of cultivation; they are more economical,
industrious, and active than the other missionaries. They have already
established tan-yards and cotton-spinning in a few villages; and if
they suffer the Indians henceforth to enjoy the fruit of their
labours, they will find great resources in the native population.
Concentered on a small space of land, these monks have the
consciousness of their political importance, and have from time to
time resisted the civil authority, and that of their bishop. The
governors who reside at Angostura have struggled against them with
very unequal success, according as the ministry of Madrid showed a
complaisant deference for the ecclesiastical hierarchy, or sought to
limit its power. In 1768 Don Manuel Centurion carried off twenty
thousand head of cattle from the missionaries, in order to distribute
them among the indigent inhabitants. This liberality, exerted in a
manner not very legal, produced very serious consequences. The
governor was disgraced on the complaint of the Catalonian monks though
he had considerably extended the territory of the missions toward the
south, and founded the Villa de Barceloneta, above the confluence of
the Carony with the Rio Paragua, and the Ciudad de Guirior, near the
union of the Rio Paragua and the Paraguamusi. From that period the
civil administration has carefully avoided all intervention in the
affairs of the Capuchins, whose opulence has been exaggerated like
that of the Jesuits of Paraguay.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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