Immense whales were a very terrible, and by no means uncommon sight to us on the ocean, though they never approached the ship. On the desert shores of Brazil we thought we perceived a pirate ship. Fearing some mischance we called for the captain, who from the top of the mast by the help of a telescope discovered it to be an enormous whale. This immense animal, as it tossed itself about on the waves, presented the appearance of a ship. A projecting fin, which is said to be sometimes fifty feet high, had been taken for a mast. From the horrid pipe, or fistula of his head, as from a great fire-engine, he spouted up a vast quantity of water, which, when dispersed by the wind, and shone upon by the rays of the sun, looked white like the sails of a ship. In returning to Europe we observed the water leaping up and breaking itself in an unusual manner, not far from the ship. Imagining that rocks or shoals must be at hand, the captain ordered the prow of the ship to be turned in another direction. But an intolerable stench relieved our minds by discovering the putrid carcass of a very large whale, against which the waters had been dashed. Whales perish in the same way as ships, and die by degrees from being knocked against quicksands and shoals. We sometimes, however, see the carcasses of whales cast on to the shore by the tide. I have spoken elsewhere of melotas, enormous fish, innumerable shoals of which we met during some weeks in the month of November. From the water let us now proceed to the woods and plains of Paraguay, which abound in so many curious plants and trees.
PLANTS.
The Jesuit priest Thomas Falconer, an Englishman well versed in medicine and botany, frequently and openly declared that Paraguay had been enriched by the bounty of nature with so many wholesome plants, roots, gums, woods and fruits, that whoever was skilled in the knowledge of those things would have no occasion for European druggists to cure any disease. Out of many which Paraguay affords either for medicinal or other purposes, I will describe a few in the order in which they enter my mind. I doubt not that botanists have written on this subject more clearly and methodically; whether more faithfully also, I dare not determine with regard to all.
CHINA CHINÆ, or PERUVIAN BARK.
This tree is peculiarly worthy of note on account of its bark, which is called china chinæ, Peruvian bark, or the remedy for fever. It is of middling height, and not very large, and bears an almost orbicular fruit, somewhat raised in the middle, and by no means fit to be eaten, but which contains two yellowish nuts indented all over like the rind of an almond. It is filled with a balsamic odour of a dusky colour, and a very sweet scent, but extremely bitter. With this balsam the Indians allay pains in the eyes, head and stomach, if they arise from cold. The bark is naturally white, but when torn from the tree gradually assumes a dark yellow on the surface, a little varied with pale spots: but within, it is of a red colour, not like blood, but like cinnamon, being tinged with a yellowish cast. The taste is bitter, but the smell aromatic and pleasant, though somewhat rancid. Some call the Peruvian bark Jesuits' powder, because the Jesuit missionaries in Peru were the first who made known its singular efficacy in expelling fevers. The celebrated physician Woytz tells us that this medicine was first brought to Europe, in the year 1650, by Cardinal de Lugo, a Spanish Jesuit.
ZARZA PARRILLA.
Zarza parrilla is the root of a green, creeping plant, armed at intervals with very small thorns. It has leaves almost a span long, from the beginning of which proceed two tendrils, with which it entwines itself with other plants. The flowers grow in clusters, and give place to berries, which are first green, then red, and when quite ripe, black, and wrinkled like dry cherries, which they resemble in size and form. This plant is called by the Spaniards zarza parrilla, on account of its thorns, for zarza in Spanish means a thorny plant; parrilla, in the same language, signifies a gridiron; as therefore the leaves of this plant bear some sort of resemblance to a gridiron, three pretty large veins running lengthways, crossed by a number of smaller ones, it has received the name parrilla or gridiron; but botanists call it smilax aspera Peruviana, or sarmentum Indicum. The zarza parrilla is very common on the banks of the Uruguay, and the Rio Negro, the waters of which are celebrated for their salubrity; it is also found near the Rio Tercero, in the territories of Sta. Fè, and other parts of America. The most famous is that which comes from the bay of Honduras. The roots of the zarza parrilla, which possess a medicinal virtue, are scarce thicker than a goose's quill, wrinkled on the surface, and of a dusky colour, but white within; all of them grow from the same joint or knot of the plant. They have no particular taste or smell. They consist of rosin, and gum which is the softer part of them. The various uses of these roots are too well known to physicians to need an explanation from me.
RHUBARB.
Rhubarb is the root of a plant of the dock kind. From out the sheath of the leaves rises a little bunch of flowers divided into many branches, on which hang four blossoms, surrounded with leaves, and bearing a triangular seed. The roots are long, and rather spungy, tolerably heavy, yellowish on the outside, but within of the colour of a nutmeg, variegated like marble, and of a sharp bitter taste. When eaten they create nausea, and have an aromatic flavour. In divers parts of Paraguay, especially in the mountains called La Cordillera, near the city of Asumpcion, as well as at the banks of the rivers Ỹpane miri, and Tapiraguaỹ, there grows a kind of rhubarb, similar to that of Alexandria in colour, taste, smell, and virtue, but with this difference, that the leaves of the Alexandrine rhubarb are pointed at the bottom, and broader at the end; whereas the leaves of the Paraguayrian are wide at the beginning, and terminate in a point, like the leaves of lilies. I understand that the East Indian rhubarb, as well as that of Persia, Muscovy, and Tartary, is preferred by physicians to that of America.