CHAPTER V
HERBALS OF THE NEW WORLD
“And I doe wish all Gentlemen and Gentlewomen, whom it may concerne, to bee as careful whom they trust with the planting and replanting of these fine flowers, as they would be with so many Iewels.”—Parkinson, Paradisus, 1629.
To English folk and Americans alike the herbals—now amongst the rarest in the English language—treating of the virtues of herbs in the New World are of exceptional interest. For these contain some of the earliest records of the uses of herbs learnt from the Red Indians, lists of English weeds introduced into America by the first settlers, and, perhaps most interesting of all, what they grew in the first gardens in New England. It requires very little imagination to realise how much the discovery of the New World meant to the botanists, gardeners and herbalists of that day, for at no time in our history were there greater plant-lovers than in Elizabethan and Stuart times. In their strenuous lives the soldiers, explorers and sea-captains found time to send their friends in the Old World rare plants and other treasures, and these gifts of “rarities” were cherished as jewels. Is not the following a vivid picture of the arrival of such a package from the New World? “There came a Paket, as of Letters, inrolled in a seare clothe: so well made that thei might passe to any part beeyng never so farre, the whiche beeyng opened, I founde a small Cheste made of a little peece of Corke, of a good thickenesse sette together, whiche was worthie to be seen, and in the holownesse of it came the hearbes, and the seedes that the Letter speaketh of, everythyng written what it was, and in one side of the Corke, in a hollowe place there came three Bezaar stones, cloased with a Parchement and with Waxe in good order. The Letter was written with verie small Letters, and sumwhat harde to reade.” The letter and the precious gift of herbs, seeds and stones were from an officer on duty in “New Spain” (he describes himself as “a Souldier that have followed the warres in these countries all my life”), who was unknown to Monardes, but had read his first book on the use of the herbs in the New World, and therefore was emboldened to send him these rare plants and the “bezaar stones.” Nicolas Monardes, the author of this herbal (translated into English by John Frampton),[86] most gratefully acknowledges his unknown friend’s kindness and writes of him, “the gentleman of the Peru, which wrote to me this letter, although I know hym not, it seemeth that he is a man curious and affectioned to the like thinges and I have him in great estimation. For bicause that the office of a Souldier is to handle weapons, and to sheed bloud, and to do other exercises apertainyng to Souldiers, he is muche to bee esteemed that he will enquire and searche out herbes, and Plantes and to knowe their properties and vertue. And therefore I dooe esteeme muche of this Gentlemanne for the labour whiche he taketh in knowyng and enquiryng of these naturall thinges. And I doe owe much unto him, ... I wil provoke hym by writyng to hym againe, to sende more thinges. For it is a greate thinge to knowe the secreates and marvailes of nature, of the Hearbes which he hath sent me. I will make experience of them and I will know their vertues and operation and the Seedes wee will sowe at their time.”
The interest in the plant-life of the New World may be judged from the fact that Monardes’s work, which is the earliest “American” herbal, was translated into Latin by no less a botanist than Charles de l’Escluse, and into Italian, Flemish, French and English. Frampton’s English translation went through four editions. The original book was written nineteen years before the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and throughout it there is very evident the pride of a Spanish subject in the splendid overseas dominions of his country, then the first empire in the world and the mistress of the seas. The preface is so redolent of the atmosphere of Spanish galleons and the boundless interest in the great new continent and its wonders, that I quote it almost in full, although in modern print it loses much of the charm of the original black-letter. The writer surely had in his mind the account of the navy of Tharshish, which came once in three years, “bringing gold and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks,” and one cannot help suspecting that loyalty to his Catholic Majesty of Spain suggested the inclusion of lions from America in order that he might not be outdone by the splendour of Solomon. Moreover, Monardes proudly tells us that from the New World to Spain “there commeth every yere one hundred shippes laden ... that it is a greate thynge and an incredle riches.”
“In the yere of our Lorde God, a thousande, fower hundreth ninetie twoo: our Spaniardes were gouerned by Sir Christofer Colon [Columbus], beeyng naturally borne of the countrie Genoa, for to discouer the Occidentall Indias, that is called at this daie, the Newe Worlde, and thei did discouer the first lande thereof, the XI daie of October, of the saied yere, and from that tyme unto this, thei haue discouered many and sundrie Ilandes, and muche firme Lande, as well in that countrie, whiche thei call the Newe Spaine, as in that whiche is called the Peru, where there are many Prouinces, many Kyngdomes, and many Cities, that hath contrary and diuers customes in them, whiche there hath been founde out, thynges that neuer in these partes, nor in any other partes of the worlde hath been seen, nor unto this daie knowen: and other thynges, whiche now are brought unto us in greate aboundaunce, that is to saie, Golde, Siluer, Pearles, Emeraldes, Turkeses [turquoises], and other fine stones of greate value, yet greate is the excesse and quantitie that hath come, and every daie doeth come, and in especiallie of Golde and Siluer: That it is a thyng of admiration that the greate number of Milleons, whiche hath come besides the greate quantitie of Pearles, hath filled the whole worlde, also thei doe bryng from that partes, Popingaies, Greffons, Apes, Lions, Gerfaucons, and other kinde of Haukes, Tigers wolle, Cotton wolle, Graine to die colours with all, Hides, Sugars, Copper, Brasill, the woode Ebano, Anill: and of all these, there is so greate quantitie, that there commeth every yere, one hundred Shippes laden thereof, that it is a greate thynge and an incredle riches.
“And besides these greate riches, our Occidentall Indias doeth sende unto us many Trees, Plantes, Herbes, Rootes, Joices, Gummes, Fruites, Licours, Stones that are of greate medicinall vertues, in the whiche there bee founde, and hath been founde in them, verie greate effectes that doeth excede muche in value and price: All that aforesaied, by so muche as the Corporall healthe is more Excellent, and necessaire then the temporall goodes, the whiche thynges all the worlde doeth lacke, the wante whereof is not a little hurtfull, according to the greate profite which wee doe see, by the use of them doeth followe, not onely in our Spaine but in all the worlde.... The people of old tyme did lacke them, but the tyme whiche is the discouerer of all thynges, hath shewed them unto us greatly to our profite, seying the greate neede that we had of them.
“And as there is discouered newe regions, newe Kyngdomes, and newe Prouinces, by our Spanyardes, thei haue brought unto us newe Medicines, and newe Remedies, wherewith thei doe cure and make whole many infirmities, whiche if wee did lacke them, thei were incurable, and without any remedie, the whiche thynges although that some have knowledge of them, yet thei bee not common to all people, for whiche cause I did pretēde to treate and to write, of all thynges, that thei bryng from our Indias, whiche serueth for the arte and use of Medicine, and the remedy of the hurtes and deseases, that wee doe suffer and endure, whereof no small profite doeth followe to those of our tyme, and also unto them that shall come after us, the whiche I shall be the first, that the rather the followers maie adde hereunto, with this beginnyng, that whiche thei shall more knowe, and by experience shall finde. And, as in this Citee of Seuill, which is the Porte and skale of all Occidentall Indias, wee doe knowe of thē more, then in any other partes of all Spaine, for because that all thynges come first hither, where with better relation, and greater experience it is knowen. I doe it with experience and use of them this fourtie yeres, that I doe cure in this Citee, where I haue informed myself of them, that hath brought these thynges out of those partes with muche care, and I have made with all diligence and foresight possible, and with much happie successe.”
Then he begins straightway to tell us of various herbs and gums brought from the New World, and of what the herbalists had been able to learn of their medicinal virtues. He writes of “Copall” and “Anime” (varieties of rosin), and tells us that the Spaniards first learnt of these from the Indian priests, who “went out to receive them [the Spaniards] with little firepottes, burnyng in them this Copall, and giuing to them the smoke of it at their noses.” “Tacamahaca” (the Indian name for a rosin) is “taken out by incision of a tree beyng as greate as a Willowe Tree, and is of a verie sweete smell; he doeth bryng forth a redde fruite, as the seede of Pionia.” The Indians used it for swellings in any part of the body and also for toothache. “Caranna,” another gum brought from Nombre de Dios, is discovered to be of sovereign virtue for gout—“it taketh it awaie with muche easines.” The balsam of the New World, “that licour most excellent whiche for his Excellencie and meruerlous effectes is called Balsamo, an imitation of the true Balsamo that was in the lande of Egipt,” is “made of a tree greater than a Powndgarned Tree, it carrieth leaues like to Nettles: the Indians doe call it Xilo and we do call the same Balsamo.” There follows an account of the way in which the Red Indians made the balsam, either by cutting incisions in the tree and letting the “clammish licour, of colour white but most excellent and very perfite,” run out, or by cutting up boughs and branches of the tree into very small pieces, boiling them in cauldrons and then skimming off the oil. “It is not convenient, nor it ought to be kept in any other vessel then in silver (glasse or Tinne or any other thing glassed, it doth penetrate and doth passe through it), the use thereof is onely in thinges of Medecine and it hath been used of long tyme ... the Spaniards had knowledge of it because they did heale therwith the woundes that they did receive of the Indians: beyng advised of the vertue thereof by the same Indians, and they did see the saide Indians heale and cure themselves therewith.” We learn that when this precious new balsam was first brought to Spain it sold for ten ducats an ounce, and in Italy for a hundred ducats an ounce. The use of another wound herb, “for shottes of arrows,” of which unfortunately he does not give even the Indian name, was taught to a certain “Jhon Infante” by his native servant. The book gives us many pleasant glimpses of the kindly courtesy of the Red Indians to their foes, and though, according to some authorities, they would never tell the secrets of the herbs they used as medicines, we have Monardes’s detailed accounts of how they showed the Spaniards the uses of them. Guiacum, for instance, was brought to the notice of a Spaniard in San Domingo by an Indian doctor.
One of the most interesting accounts is of “Mechoacan.” “It is brought from a countrie that is beyonde the greate Citie of Mexico more than fortie leagues, that is called Mechoacan, the whiche Syr Fernando Curtes did conquer in the yere of 1524, it is a countrie of muche Riches, of Gold and chiefly of Silver ... those Mynes be so celebrated and of so muche riches that they be called the Cacatecas, every day they goe discovering in the Lande verie riche Mynes of Silver and some of Golde, it is a countrie of good and holsome ayres, and doth bring forth healthfull Hearbes for to heale many diseases, in so muche that at the tyme the Indians had the government of it, the inhabiters there rounde aboute that Province, came thether to heale their diseases and infirmities.... The Indians of that countrie be of a taller growthe and of better faces then the Borderers are and of more healthe.
“The principall place of that province the Indians doe call in their language Chincicila and the Spaniards doe call it as thei call that realme Mechoacan, and it is a great towne of Indians, situated nere to a lake which is of swete water and of verie muche Fishe, the same Lake is like the fashion of making an horse shewe, and in the middest thereof standeth the Towne, the whiche at this daye hath greate trade of buying and sellyng.”