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cold climate, in shaded valleys, and on the slope of mountains. I was so much the more surprized, therefore, on learning after my return to Europe, that an intelligent traveller who has displayed the greatest zeal for the good of his country, Thiery de Menonville*, had asserted that he found the jalap in great abundance in the arid and sandy tracts in the neighbourhood of the port of Vera Cruz, and consequently under a climate excessively warm, and at the level of the ocean.

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Raynal asserts t, that Europe consumes annually 7500 quintals of jalap. This estimate appears too much by one half; for from the most accurate information which I was able to procure at Vera Cruz, there was only exported from that port in 1802, 2921, and in 1803, 2281 quintals of jalap. The price at Xalapa, is from 120 to 150 francs the quintal.

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We did not see, during our stay in New Spain, the plant which, it is pretended, yields the root of Mechoacan, (the Tacuache of the Tarasck Indians, and the Tlalantlacuitlapilli of the Aztecs.) We never, even during the course

* Thiery, p. 59. This jalap of Vera Cruz, appears to be

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the same with that found by Mr. Michaux, in Florida. See the

Jalapa,emoir of Mr. Desfontaines, on the Convolvulus

t. ii. p. 120.

the Annales du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle.

+ Hist. Philos. t. ii. p. 68.

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of our travels in the antient kingdom of Michoacan, which is part of the intendancy of Valladolid, heard any mention made of it, The abbe Clavigero* relates, that a physician of the late king of Tzintzontzan, communicated the knowledge of this remedy to the religious missionaries of the expedition of Cortez. Does there really exist a root, which under the name of Mechoacan, is exported from Vera Cruz, or does this remedy, which is the same as the jeticucu of Marcgrave t, come from the coast of Brazil? It appears even, that antiently, the true jalap was called Mechoacan, and that by one of those mistakes so frequent in the history of medicines, the denomination has been afterwards transferred to the root of another plant.

The cultivation of Mexican tobacco, might become a branch of agriculture of the very highest importance, if the trade in it were free; but since the introduction of the monopoly, or since the establishment of the royal farm, (el estanco real de Tabaco) by the Visitador Don Joseph de Galvez, in 1764, not only a special permission is necessary to plant tobacco, and the cultivator obliged to sell it to the farm, at a price arbitrarily fixed according to the worth

* Storia antica di Messico, t. ii. p. 212. + Linn. Mat. Medica, 1749, p. 28. medicaminum, t. i. p. 62.

ᎠᏎ

Murray Apparatus

of the produce; but the cultivation is even limited solely to the environs of the towns of Orizaba and Cordoba, and the partidos of Huatusco and Songolica, situated in the intendancy of Vera Cruz. Officers with the title of guardas de tabaco, travel the country for the purpose of pulling up whatever tobacco they find planted beyond those districts which we have named, and fining those farmers who think proper to cultivate what is necessary for their own consumption. It was believed the contraband trade would be diminished, by limiting the cultivation to an extent of four or five square leagues. Before the establishment of the farm, the intendancy of Guadalaxara, and especially the partidos of Autlan, Ezatlan, and Ahuzcatlan, Tepic, Santixpac, and Acaponeta, were celebrated for the abundance and excellent quality of the tobacco which they produced. These formerly happy and flourishing countries, have been decreasing in population since the plantations were transferred to the eastern slope of the Cordillera.

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The Spaniards first obtained their knowledge of tobacco in the West India Islands. The word, adopted by all the nations of Europe, belongs to the language of Hayti or St. Domingo: for the Mexicans called the plant yetl, and the Peruvians sayri.* The Indians,

• Hernandez, lib. v. c. 51. p. 173. Clavigero, t. ii. p. 227.

in Mexico and Peru, smoked tobacco, and used it ground into snuff. The great lords at the court of Montezuma used to smoke tobacco as a narcotic, not only for the afternoon siesto, but to procure sleep in the morning immediately after breakfast, as is still the practice in many parts of equinoctial America. The dried leaves of the yell were rolled up into cigares, and put into tubes of silver, wood, or reed; and frequently they mixed with it the resin of the liquidambar styraciflua, and other aromatic matters. The tube was held in one hand, and with the other the nose was stopt up, so that the smoke of the tobacco might be the more easily swallowed. Several persons were even contented with drawing in the smoke by the nose. Although the picietl (nicotiana rustica) was much cultivated in the antient Anahuac, it appears, however, that per

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Garcilasso, lib. ii. c. 25. The ancient Mexicans used to recommend tobacco as an excellent remedy for the tooth-ache, colds, and colics. The Caraibs used mashed tobacco-leaves, as a counter-poison. In our journey on the Orinoco, we saw mashed tobacco successfully applied to the bite of venemous serpents. After the famous / Bejuco del Guaco, the knowledge of which we owe to M. Mutis, tobacco is, undoubtedly, the most active counterpoison of America. The cultivation of tobacco has been propagated with so great rapidity, that in 1559, it began to be sown in Portugal, and in the beginning of the 17th century it was planted in the East Indies. Beckmann's Geschicte der Erfindungen, b. iii. p. 366.

sons in easy circumstances used tobacco alone; for we see at this day, that the use is entirely unknown to the Indians of pure extraction, because they almost all descend from the lowest class of the Aztec nation.*

At Vera Cruz, the quantity of tobacco produced in the districts of Orizaba and Cordova, is estimated at eight or ten thousand tereios, (at 8 arrobas) equal to 1,600,000, or 2,000,000 of pounds; but this estimate appears to be a great deal too low. The king pays for the pound of tobacco to the cultivator 2 reals, that is to say, 21 sous for the kilogramme. We shall see in the sequel of this work, and from data which I extracted from official papers, that the farm of Mexico of tobacco and snuff, is annually sold in the country even for more than 38 millions of francs t, and that it yields to the king a net profit of more than 20 millions of livres tournois. This consumption of tobacco in New Spain, must appear enormous, especially when we consider, that from a population of 5,800,000 souls, we must deduct two millions and a half of Indians who never smoke. In Mexico, the farm is an object of much greater importance to the public revenue than in

* See vol. i. ch. vi. p. 155. -
† 1,583,4601. sterling. Trans.
833,400. sterling. Trans.

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