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"There are but few among the Macassars and Bugis who possess the real knowledge needful for selecting the poison, so as to distinguish between what is worthless and what is highest quality.... From the princes (or Rajas) I have understood that the soil in which the trees affording the poison grow, for a great space round about produces no grass nor any other vegetable growth, and that the poison is properly a water or liquid, flowing from a bruise or cut made in the bark of those trees, oozing out as sap does from plants that afford milky juices.... When the liquid is being drawn from the wounded tree, no one should carelessly approach it so as to let the liquid touch his hands, for by such contact all the joints become stiffened and contracted. For this reason the collectors make use of long bamboos, armed with sharp iron points. With these they stab the tree with great force, and so get the sap to flow into the canes, in which it speedily hardens."—Dn. Corn. Spielman ... de Telis deleterio Veneno infectis in Macassar, et aliis Regnis Insulae Celebes; ex ejus Diario extracta. Huic praemittitur brevis narratio de hac materia Dn. Andreae Cleyeri. In Miscellanea Curiosa, sive Ephemeridum.... Academiae Naturae Curiosorum, Dec. II. Annus Tertius. Anni MDCLXXXIV., Norimbergae (1685), pp. 127 seqq.
1704.—"Ipo seu Hypo arbor est mediocris, folio parvo, et obscure virenti, quae tam malignae et nocivae qualitatis, ut omne vivens umbrâ suâ interimat, unde narrant in circuitu, et umbrae distinctu, plurima ossium mortuorum hominum animaliumque videri. Circumvicinas etiam plantas enecat, et aves insidentes interficere ferunt, si Nucis Vomicae Igasur, plantam non invenerint, qua reperta vita quidem donantur et servantur, sed defluvium patiuntur plumarum.... Hypo lac Indi Camucones et Sambales, Hispanis infensissimi, longis, excipiunt arundineis perticis, sagittis intoxicandis deserviturum irremediabile venenum, omnibus aliis alexipharmacis superius, praeterquam stercore humano propinato. An Argensolae arbor comosa, quam Insulae Celebes ferunt, cujus umbra occidentalis mortifera, orientalis antidotum?..."—De Quibusdam Arboribus Venenatis, in Herbarum aliarumque Stirpium in Insula Luzone ... a Revdo Patre Georgio Camello, S.J. Syllabus ad Joannem Raium transmissus. In Appendix, p. 87, of Joan. Raii Hist. Plantarum. Vol. III. (London 1704).
1712.—"Maxima autem celebritas radiculae enata est, ab eximia illa virtute, quam adversus toxicum Macassariense praestat, exitiale illud, et vix alio remedio vincibile. Est venenum hoc succus lacteus et pinguis, qui collegitur ex recens sauciata arbore quadam, indigenes Ipu, Malajis Javanisque Upà dictâ, in abditis locis sylvarum Insulae Celebes ... crescente ... cujus genuinum et in solâ Macassariâ germinantis succum, qui colligere suscipiunt, praesentissimis vitae periculis se exponant necesse est. Nam ad quaerendam arborem loca dumis beluisque infesta penetranda sunt, inventa vero, nisi eminus vulneretur, et ab eâ parte, a qua ventus adspirat, vel aura incumbit, aggressores erumpento halitu subito suffocabit. Quam sortem etiam experiri dicuntur volucres, arborem recens vulneratam transvolantes. Collectio exitiosi liquoris, morti ob patrata maleficia damnatis committitur, eo pacto, ut poena remittatur, si liquorem reportaverint ... Sylvam ingrediuntur longâ instructi arundine ... quam altera extremitate ... ex asse acuunt, ut ad pertundendam arboris corticem valeat.... Quam longe possunt, ab arbore constituti, arundinis aciem arbori valide intrudunt, et liquoris, ex vulnere effluentis, tantum excipiunt, quantum arundinis cavo ad proximum usque internodium capi potest.... Reduces, supplicio et omni discrimine defuncti, hoc vitae suae λυτρον Regi offerunt. Ita narrarunt mihi populares Celebani, hodie Macassari dicti. Quis autem veri quicquam ex Asiaticorum ore referat, quod figmentis non implicatur...?"—Kaempfer, Amoen. Exot., 575-576.
1726.—"But among all sorts of trees, that occur here, or hereabouts, I know of none more pernicious than the sap of the Macassar Poison tree * * * They say that there are only a few trees of this kind, occuring in the district of Turatte on Celebes, and that none are employed except, at a certain time of the year when it is procurable, those who are condemned to death, to approach the trees and bring away the poison.... The poison must be taken with the greatest care in Bamboos, into which it drips slowly from the bark of the trees, and the persons collected for this purpose must first have their hands, heads, and all exposed parts, well wound round with cloths...."—Valentijn, iii. 218.
1783.—"The following description of the Bohon Upas, or Poison Tree, which grows in the Island of Java, and renders it unwholesome by its noxious vapours, has been procured for the London Magazine, from Mr. Heydinger, who was employed to translate it from the original Dutch, by the author, Mr. Foersch, who, we are informed, is at present abroad, in the capacity of surgeon on board an English vessel....
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"'In the year 1774, I was stationed at Batavia, as a surgeon, in the service of the Dutch East India Company. During my residence there I received several different accounts of the Bohon-Upas, and the violent effects of its poison. They all then seemed incredible to me, but raised my curiosity in so high a degree, that I resolved to investigate this subject thoroughly.... I had procured a recommendation from an old Malayan priest to another priest, who lives on the nearest habitable spot to the tree, which is about fifteen or sixteen miles distant. The letter proved of great service to me on my undertaking, as that priest is employed by the Emperor to reside there, in order to prepare for eternity the souls of those who, for different crimes, are sentenced to approach the tree, and to procure the poison.... Malefactors, who, for their crimes, are sentenced to die, are the only persons to fetch the poison; and this is the only chance they have of saving their lives.... They are then provided with a silver or tortoise-shell box, in which they are to put the poisonous gum, and are properly instructed how to proceed, while they are upon their dangerous expedition. Among other particulars, they are always told to attend to the direction of the winds; as they are to go towards the tree before the wind, so that the effluvia from the tree are always blown from them.... They are afterwards sent to the house of the old priest, to which place they are commonly attended by their friends and relations. Here they generally remain some days, in expectation of a favourable breeze. During that time the ecclesiastic prepares them for their future fate by prayers and admonitions. When the hour of their departure arrives the priest puts them on a long leather cap with two glasses before their eyes, which comes down as far as their breast, and also provides them with a pair of leather gloves....
"The worthy old ecclesiastic has assured me, that during his residence there, for upwards of thirty years, he had dismissed above seven hundred criminals in the manner which I have described; and that scarcely two out of twenty returned," ... &c. &c.—London Magazine, Dec. 1783, pp. 512-517.
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