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m
 AFRICA
AND THE

DISCOVERY 0/ AMERICA

VOLUME II

By LEO WIENER
PROFESSOR OF SLAVIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES AT
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; AUTHOR OF "A COMMENTARY TO
THE GERMANIC LAWS AND MEDIAEVAL DOCUMENTS."
"CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARD A HISTORY OF ARABICO-
GOTHIC CULTURE." "HISTORY OF YIDDISH LITERATURE."
"history of the CONTEMPORARY RUSSIAN DRAMA."
"ANTHOLOGY OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE." "INTERPRETA.
TION OF THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE;" TRANSLATOR OF THE
WORKS OF TOLSTOY; CONTRIBUTOR TO GERMAN, RUSSIAN
FRENCH. ENGLISH. AND AMERICAN PHILOLOGICAL
PERIODICALS. ETC.. ETC.

INNES & SONS

129-135 N. TWELFTH ST., PHILADELPHIA, PA.
MCMXXII
Copyright, 1922, by Innes & Sons
Bancroft Libra ry

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
I. FOREWORD IX-X
II. SOURCES QUOTED XI-XXII
PART I: COTTON 1-82

III. THE PREHISTORY OF COTTON 3-22

IV. COTTON AND COLUMBUS 23-35

V. COTTON IN MEXICO 36-56

VI. COTTON IN PERU 57-82

PART II: THE SOVEREIGN REMEDY . . 83-200

VII. SMOKING IN ANTIQUITY 85-98

Vm. THE SMOKE VENDER 99-121

IX. TOBACCO OF THE MOORS ....

X. THE SOVEREIGN REMEDY OF THE INDIANS
122-134
135-150

XL THE REDISCOVERY OF TOBACCO . . 151-179

XII. TOBACCO AND THE SCIENCES . 180-200

PART III: BEAD MONEY 201-270

XIII. THE COWRIES , 203-223

XIV. THE ONYX 224-236

XV. AGGRY BEADS 237-248

XVI. WAMPUM . 249-270

XVII. WORD INDEX 272

XVIIL SUBJECT INDEX 280

 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
0pp.
Page
Three Types of American Cotton, 3 plates 32

Mexican Lord with YetecoTnatl, 2 plates 42

Christian Element in Codice Mariano Jimenez, 2 plates 46

Cotton in Mexican Tribute Lists, 2 plates 52

Stratification of Guano in Chincha Island 60

Peruvian Mummy Packs, 2 plates 70

Ancon Graves, 2 plates 72

Peanuts in Ancon Graves 74

Alchemist's Distilling Cap 90

Ancient Pipes, 2 plates 92

Mastaria on American Pipes, 2 plates 144

Stockades and Mounds in Africa and America, 3 plates 176

Indian Fumigations 176

Indian Beads, 2 plates 254

Peruvian Beads 266
 FOREWORD
In the present volume I muster the information
accessible as to the presence in America of tobacco,
cotton, and shell-money, previous to the so-called dis-
covery of America by Columbus. I have not know-
ingly omitted any statement made by an early writer,
whether in favor of my argument or against it, but the
mass of material that had to be waded through was so
great, that I may have overlooked some passages.
The accumulated evidence is overwhelmingly in favor
of an introduction of the articles under discussion from
Africa, by European and Negro traders, decades earlier
than 1492. Unfortunately certain archaeologists in-
sist upon denying all but the archaeological evidence
and shower upon an objective investigator a veritable
deluge of abuse. Upon these I shall urge the admirable
concluding words of J. Batalha-Reis in an article
entitled The Supposed Discovery of South America before
144^1 (if^d the Critical Methods of the Historians of Geo-
graphical Discovery: "" The greater probability is, there-
fore, in my opinion, in favour of the supposition that
the north-east corner of South America had been seen
on or before 1448, although this cannot be affirmed
with the same historical certainty with which we can
affirm that, in 1492, Columbus landed on some of the
Antilles.
"It appears to me (if I dare express my whole feeling
on the subject) that to answer questions like this with
an unconditional affirmative or a rigid negative, is not
to realize, in all their true conditions, historical prob-
lems —
not to realize, in fact, what real life is, and how
history ought to be studied and written.
X AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
**
Almost
the historians of geographical discov-
all
eries consider it their absolute duty to arrive at a
radical conclusion in the study of problematical ques-
tions, answering with a yes what only deserves a
perhaps, or, more frequently, dismissing with a no what
ought to be held as probable."^
Wherever I have occasion, in this volume, to censure
the archaeologists I have in mind the vociferous
Philistines who conspicuously pretend to talk for all
the archaeologists, and not the fairminded scholars of
the profession, the lineal descendants of Bandelier,
Squier, Davis, Cyrus Thomas, Holmes, and many
more, but who unfortunately have been conspicuously
silent and so cannot be quoted, reverently or otherwise.
The vast amount of new matter that has turned up
since I began this investigation compels me to relegate
the conclusive proof of Mandingo influence upon pre-
Columbian America through its fetishism to a third
volume. I take this occasion of thanking Mr. John
B. Stetson, Jr. for communicating to me from time to
time important points bearing on my subject, as they
occurred to him in his wide and judicious readings of
early authors on South America.

The Author.
^ In The Geographical Journal, London 1897, vol. IX, p. 210.
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XX AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
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xxii AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
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PART I: COTTON.
 CHAPTER I.

The Prehistory of Cotton.

The earliest datable references to cotton are found in

two inscriptions of the Assyrian Sennacherib, of the
year 694 B. C.^ "A great park, like one on Mt. Ama-
nus, wherein were included all kinds of herbs, and fruit
trees, and trees, the products of the mountains and of
Chaldea, together with trees that bear wool {ise na-a§
Hpdti), I planted beside it." "The miskannu- trees
and cypresses that grew in the plantations, and the
reed-beds that were in the swamp, I cut down and
used for work, when required, in my lordly palaces.
The trees that bear wool they sheared, and they shred-
ded it for garments."
It is a curious fact that neither here nor for centuries
later in Greek literature do we get the name of the
cotton- tree, but only the descriptive title **the tree
that bears wool or linen. " Herodotus tells of a corse-
let which Amasis, King of Egypt, had sent to the Lace-
daemonians, and which was embroidered with gold
and tree wool (eiQioiai djio \vikov)} However, minute
microscopical investigations of the mummy
bands have
failed to show the presence of cotton in any of the
ancient Egyptian graves.^ Herodotus similarly speaks
of the Indians in Xerxes' army as wearing cotton

^ L. W. King, An Early Mention

of Cotton: The Cultivation of Gossypium
arboreum, or Tree-Cotton, in Assyria in the Seventh Century B. C, in Pro-
ceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, vol. XXXI, p. 339 ff.
2 III. 47.
» K. Ritter, TJeber die geographische Verbreitung der Baumwolle und ihr
Verhdltnis zur Industrie der Volker alter und neuer Zeit, in Abhandlungen
der Kgl. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1851, p. 317.
4 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
dresses (eijiaxa djio ^vhx^v jr8jroiT]fieva)^and of the wild-
growing trees of India which bear wool finer in beauty
and goodness than that of sheep. ^ There can be little
doubt that in the V. century B. C. India was already
manufacturing cotton cloth, even as Ctesias refers to
cotton cloth (liiAiva iixdxia) in India.^ This is con-
firmed in the IV. century by Theophrastus, who says
that the island of Tylos, the modern Bahrein, in the
Persian gulf "produces the *wool-bearing* tree (td
SevSga xd egiocpoQa) in abundance. This has a leaf
like that of the vine, but small, and bears no fruit; but
the vessel in which the Vool' is contained is as large as
a spring apple, and closed, but when it is ripe, it unfolds
and puts forth the 'wool,' of which they weave their
fabrics, some of which are cheap and some very expen-
sive. This tree is also found, as was said, in India as
well as in Arabia."^ But we are also specifically in-
formed by him that the Indians cultivated these trees.
"The trees from which they make their clothes have a
leaf like the mulberry, but the whole tree resembles the
wild rose. They plant them in the plains in rows,
wherefore, when seen from a distance, they look like
vines. ''^ There is no mistaking the description: we
have here a correct characterization of the Gossypium
arhoreum.
There is no further reference to cotton in Greek liter-
ature until after the beginning of the Christian era. In
the very valuable Periplus of the Erythraean Sea,^ of
the end of the I. century, raw cotton is mentioned as
xdQjtaaog, while the cheap manufactured goods are

' VII. 65.

2 «Td 6ebivboEa xd dvoia auxo^i qpepei xaojiov zigia, xoXX-ovfi
TE Jteoq)£QovTa xcd dgexfi "^^ djio xcov otoov xai io^ti ol 'Iv8oi, djio
xovxcov xwv 8sv8o£«v xQcwvt^ow-.^ Ill- 106.
3 'Ivfiixd, XXII.
* Enquiry into Plants, IV. 7. 7., in A. Hort's translation, London 1916.
' IV. 4. 8.
« W. H. Schoflf, The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, London 1912.
 THE PREHISTORY OF COTTON 5

odovia.^ This is the more remarkable since both

terms occur in Greek only as the designation for linen
or some costly textile, while odoviov also occurs in the
sense of "ship's sail," even as the Latin carbasus refers
to linen or a sail. One cannot trust, especially in the
Belles Lettres, any denomination of fabrics, because
they are easily confused, and there is a general tend-
ency to apply the same name to some substitute or
cheaper material. The author of the Periplus was a
merchant, and his transfer of ofloviov to cotton
shows that just such a deterioration of the Eastern
textiles was in progress and that they were manufac-
tured in India from cotton, which in India was known
as kdrpdsa; hence he is the only one of the Greek writ-
ers who uses HdQjtaaog in the proper sense.
Strabo knew of the wool-growing trees of the Indians,
and quoted Nearchus to the effect that their webs of
fine cotton (aiv86veg) were made from this wool, and
that the Macedonians used it for stuffing mattresses
and the padding of saddles.^ This Nearchus was the
Admiral of Alexander's Indian fleet, but there is some
doubt about the genuineness of his work. He is also
mentioned by Arrian: "The dress worn by the Indians
is made of tree-linen (Xivov dbio tcov 88v8q8(ov). But
this cotton is either of a brighter white color than any
cotton found elsewhere, or the darkness of the Indian
complexion makes their apparel look so much whiter. "^
At a later time Philostratus called the cotton ^voooq
and described the plant as a tree They describe the :
*
'

peoples beyond the Indus as dressed in indigenous flax,

with shoes of papyrus and a hat for wet weather; dis-
tinguished persons wear cotton, which grows on a tree

^ «noXvq)6oo5 8e f| xdiQa . . . xaoJtdoov xcei xcav e| avxfic; 'Iv8tx6)v

6^ovicov xwv zv8aitov,> sec. 41; odovia is also mentioned in sees. 6, 14,
39, 49.
2 XV. 1. 20.
» 'Iv8ixd. XVI.
 ^ "

6 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

resembling a poplar in the stump, and about corres-
ponding to the willow in the leaf. Apollonius says he
was pleased with the cotton, because it looked like the
sad-colored habit of a philosopher. Cotton from India
finds its way into many a temple in Egypt. "^ How-
ever fanciful the work of Philostratus may be, we have
here the very important and unquestionably genuine
statement that cotton was imported into Egypt, which
may account for its absence in the mummy wrapping
where the native product was used. It was this im-
ported article in Egypt, which, no doubt, Philostratus
knew from an older source, that had caused Pollux be-
fore him to call the Indian cotton ^vaooq, while in
Egypt he placed tree-wool, epiov djto ^vkov, whereas
in Egypt the only substance resembling cotton was
obtained from the papyrus plant.
Cotton was unquestionably cultivated long before
Sennacherib; but in Egypt and China substitutes in
the form of linen and silk were early introduced, and
in some cases the ancient appellation was transferred
to the new products, even as the designation of ** linen,
whatever its origin, and ''wool" was transferred back
to cotton. For this reason it is not always easy to
determine whether a particular textile was made of
cotton or linen. In Egyptian, "flax" and, possibly,
''linen" are represented by pesht, while a garment made
of fine linen, ''byssus, " is called peg, and ** linen cloth,
threads of flax" is pir. There can be no doubt as to
the origin of the words, not only from a study of these
terms in Egyptian, but in all other languages in which
they occur. In Egyptian we have the roots pek, peg,
petchy pest *'to spread out," which, as the final con-

Vita Apollonii, 62.

1

VII. 75. For a fuller account of cotton in Greek literature, see H.

*

Brandes, Ueher die antiken Namen und die geographische Verbreitung der
Baumwolle im Alterthum, in 6. Jahresbericht des Vereins von Freunden der
Erdkunde zu Leipzig, 1866, p. 91 ff.
 THE PREHISTORY OF COTTON 7

sonant and a comparison with a vast number of langua-

ges show, go back to a root with a final cerebral r,
namely par, per *'to spread, cover.'*
The Egyptian terms for "linen," etc. are found in
other languages which, no doubt, borrowed them from
Egyptian, although even here the relation to the older
"spread out" remains unimpaired. We have Hebrew
n^B pHet, riritf^B piUah, Talmudic I^^S D''ri^B piUan,
piUlm, Punic qpoiat "linen," while for "to spread out"
we have Hebrew ^*!)f pdra§, f"!f para^, n\rB pa^ah,
etc. Just Egyptian pesht has produced Greek
as
pvGGoq, so it led to Hebrew p;a 6tl§, which was some
kind of fine linen, but may also have referred to cotton,
even as Syriac ]\q^ hu^d not only refers to linen but also
to silk, since the term apparently indicated a fine tex-
tile of whatever origin. We have also Hebrew ^^ had
"linen." In Arabic the forms of the word and the
meanings run riot. Here we find '>. hazz "cloths or
stuffs of linen or cotton," u^y. birs,^ Jyy. baguz^
"cotton," u^j>. hir§ "linen."' This even developed
the meaning "white," at least in u^y. hara§ "white
specks in the skin," u^j» bar^ "leprosy, a certain dis-
ease which is a whiteness. " Here, too, (J' J fara§a "he
spread out" bears witness to the original meaning,
while in Assyrian we have pi^Uj paqu "white," and
par^ "to fly," that is, "to spread the wings." In
Sumerian we get the simple bar a, par "to spread out,"
which is represented in Assyrian in the compound su-
paruru "to spread out."
1 Thesaurus syriacus, cols. 2923, 1857.
»
Ibid., col. 3134.
»
Ibid., col. 1857.
8 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
In the Dravidian languages the original root-forms of
the Asiatic languages are best preserved. Here we
have Kannada pare, pari, hare, hari "to spread, scat-
ter, run, flow," pdru "to leap up, run, fly about," pi.r,
peru "to scatter, spread in different directions, " Tamil,
Malayalam para "to fly, run very swiftly, " and similarly
in all the other Dravidian languages. It is not neces-
sary here to give the enormous mass of such deriva-
tives, but Kannada pare "a scale or coat of an onion,
the skin or slough of a snake, the web of a spider" at
once shows how the idea of cloth was deduced from
this root. In Kannada parti, patti, palti, hanji, hatti,
Tamil pari, panji, panju, parutti, paraiie, Malayalam
panni, parutti, Telugu pauttie, paratti, paritt "cotton
in the pod, cotton in general" we have, just as is the
case in Egyptian, derivatives from the root which
means "to spread out," but here the original meaning
of "cotton" has not changed and bears witness to
the antiquity of the term, which is older than the cor-
responding Egyptian, Semitic or Greek terms. In
Persian and Turki pakhta "cotton" we have a survival
of the Dravidian word, possibly through the Dravidian
Brahui colony which preserved the memory of the
ancient word. But this is not necessarily so, for various
forms of this are scattered, as we have seen, from
Egypt to India.
The Dravidian paratie, pauttie found their way into
China. In the first or second century of our era the
Hou-Han-shu says that the Ai-lau aborigines in Yun-
nan manufactured ^ ^^ po-tie or ^ ^ pai-tie,

but a later history (Wei-shu) tells that it was a textile

fabric of hemp.^ In the VI. century the Liang-shu

^ F. Hirth and W. W. Rockhill, Chau Ju-Kua: His Work on the Chinese

and Arab Trade in the twelfth and thirteenth Centuries, entitled Chu-fan-chi,
St. Petersburg 1911, p. 218.
 THE PREHISTORY OF COTTON 9

says that '*in K'au-chang (Turf an) there grew in great

abundance a plant the fruit of which resembled a silk
cocoon. In the cocoon is a silky substance like fine
hemp which is called po-tie-tzi. The natives weave it
into a cloth which is soft and white, and which they send
to the markets (of China). "^ A little later we read for
the same region, *' there is here a plant called pe-tie;
they pluck its flower, from which cloth can be woven. '*^
In the V. century Fa-hi^n, who traveled in India,
called the cotton fabrics there po-tie.^ There can be
thus no doubt that originally cotton was introduced
into China from India or from Turfan, and that it was
at home in southern India. In Ceylon, cotton is called
pichu, which is obviously a corruption of the Dravidian
word, and the plant is called pichawya. It is interesting
to observe that here pichu also means "a cutaneous
eruption, leprosy,'* as in the corresponding word in
Arabic.

II.

Josephus, in describing the vestments of the priest,

says that over his nether clothes **he wore a linen coat
of fine flax (aiv86vog Pvaaivrji;) doubled: it is called
Chethomene (xe^ofxefW]), which denotes linen, for we
call linen by the name of Chethon (xe&ov)."* Here
''linen" and ''linen flax" are as general as in previous
cases, but the name chethomene leaves no doubt behind
that we are dealing here with an Egyptian name for a
garment. Chethomene is the Egyptian ketn meni or
het en meni "linen tunic."
Meni has not entered into any other languages, though
it seems to be identical with Chinese mien "soft, downy
1 Ibid.
E. Chavannes, Documents sur les Tou-Kiue (Turcs) occidentaux, St.
2

P^tersbourg 1903, p. 102.

3 Hirth and Rockhill, op. ciL, p. 218.

* Antiquitates Judaicae, III. 7. 2.

10 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
cotton;** but other forms of it, mdhj m'hi "flax," mehi
"flax, linen" have had interesting developments. The
usual Coptic form of this is mahi "linen, " make "linen,
girdle," and this also is recorded in a Coptic Bible
translation as mhai "spindle," and as mpai, empai,
empay with the article as pempai "linen," and the
Lord's cloth is translated as "sudarion mpempa,'' that
is, mpempa means
'
linens, linen.
' *
This leads at once to
'

Persian pamhah "cotton, " whence it made its way into

India. The Persians got this word from their mercan-
tile colonies along the east coast of Africa, wherefore it
is also found in Zanzibar as pamha "cotton," mpamba
"the cotton shrub," hence pomba "to adorn with fine
dress, gold rings, to put a piece of cotton into the nose,
etc., of a deceased, " pombo "finery, attire. " This word
is found in many Bantu languages: Sotho fapa "to
wrap around," P6di fap'a, Swahili pambaja, Ganda
wambatira "to embrace," Bondei hamba "to adorn,"
Herero pamba "to weave," Tabwa ipamba "to roll
around one. "^ The European developments of Coptic
pempai need not detain us long. It is first recorded in
Greek in the beginning of the IX. century, in Ahmad's
Oneirocritica,^ after which it is very common.
So far I have touched only on such par words as
lead to "cotton, " leaving the enormous mass of deriva-
tives for a separate work. It is now necessary to direct
the attention to another "enclosure, cover" word,
which leads to important results. By the side of par
there is a pre-Sumerian kar word, which is widely repre-
sented. Here again I quote only such forms as will
ultimately bear upon the determination of cotton in
Asia, Africa, and Europe.
^ L. Homburger, ]^tude sur la phonetique historique du Bantou, in Biblio-
thdque de I'^cole des hautes Hudes, Paris 1913, p. 379.
2 <j:T6 (puTov E^ ovf| PopiSalj^ cap. 200; ^l^dxiov e/ov dvxl
pd^paxo? |AExd|TiY,» cap. 222, Artemidori Daldiani &
Achmetis Sereimi
F. Oneirocritica, Lutetiae 1603.
 "

THE PREHISTORY OF COTTON 11

The Dravidian languages have only a few reminis-

cences of these "cover" words, namely Kannada kid
**
to make close, shut, cover as darkness does, envelop,
which an umlaut form of Kannada kar, kdr, kar^y
is
kar^y etc.,which has preserved here and throughout a
vast number of other languages the meaning "to cover
as darkness does, black," and departs too far from our
' *
immediate connotation. In the Sumerian, enclosure '
'

is expressed by gid, gil, kil, kir, kur, kuru, but the original
meaning is not well preserved in them; but ku "cloth-
ing," gad, kid "some kind of cloth" are, in all proba-
bility, reduced forms from this group. The kar forms
are merely reductions of an older qwar or qbar root, from
which par is itself a reduction. This can be shown by a
large number of cases in the languages under discussion.
In Hebrew we have a vast number of "cover, wrap"
words of the type g&ar. Some of these are: kdhar ''to
bind, " kdhal "to wind around, wrap, " kaban "to bind,
kdpar "to cover," kdpal "to bind," kdpas "to bind to-
gether," kdpat "to wrap around," qdhal "to cover,"
gdbal "to bind," hdhar "to unite, tie together," hdhal
"to unite, wind around, " haha^'' to cover, wind around,"
hdpa§ "to surround, cover," hdpe§ "coverlet," hdpd,
'
hdpdhy hdpap to cover. ' The list is not by any means
'
'

exhausted, since a study of the corresponding Dravidian

words shows that "strong" through "to extend the
arm" is generally derived from the "cover" words, as
in the case of Kannada kar a "great, extensive" by the
side of kar a "black." This brings Hebrew gdhar "to
be strong" into our group. The relationship of all of
these words in Hebrew was long ago recognized by
J. Ftirst,^ who tried to explain them as arising from a
root bar, baS, etc., by means of an epenthetic /c, g, q, h.
The other Semitic languages have the same profusion of
derivatives, obviously from an original qbar.
^ Hebrdisches und chalddisches Handworterhtich, Leipzig 1876.
 "

12 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

In the Dravidian languages we have a pu derivative
from kar, but which originally must have been kar-par
or kpar, as a study of the Semitic forms shows. We have
Kannada karpu, kappu "to cover, extend, black,"
which has further been reduced to universal Dravidian
kavi "to cover, spread, rush upon, attack." This is
unquestionably at the foundation of Sanskrit kurpdsa
"bodice, coat of mail, " which is represented in Assyrian
luhdra, luhaiu, Hebrew lebu§, Arabic libds "garment,"
Arabic libs "cuirass," Egyptian rebasha "to be clothed
in armor, " rebeshaiu "cuirass, trapping. " The univer-
sality of this root may be illustrated by Chinese kiah,
old pronunciation kap, "covering, cuirass," to which
are related the meanings "to clasp under the arm, a
lined dress, breast plate, undershirt." The Dravidian
languages have similarly derivatives from kavi, namely
Kannada kavadi, kavidi "quilted cover," and the rela-
tion of Sanskrit kurpdsa to this is seen from the fact that
Sanskrit also has kavada "cuirass, coat of mail, bodice,
which is still nearer to the Dravidian.
The Sanskrit kurpdsa and Assyrian luba§u indicate
a compound kur-pa^a, and this is shown to be the case
from the Sumerian denomination ku, which precedes
the name of any particular garment, that is, an old kur-
par was divided up into ku-rpar, from the usual asso-
ciation of ku with "garment," and thus arose the
anomalous Assyrian lubdru, lubasu, etc. The second
part, it appears from the former discussion, referred to
cotton, from which such protective armor would be
formed; hence Sanskrit kdrpdsa "cotton" is only an
extension of the term for "bodice" to the material it-
self, a process met with constantly. The Greek
xaQjtaaog, Latin carbasus referred to some fine eastern
wares, not nedessarily of cotton, though the original
meaning was quite surely "cotton," as in Sanskrit.
 THE PREHISTORY OF COTTON 13

The usual designation for ** cotton" in the Syrio-

Arabic vocabularies is, for
u->y. J^^Arabic,
al-qutn
bars, in which we have already found bars as the desig-
nation for "cotton." The first part, like Sanskrit
kurpdsa, originally referred to "garment," as in the
case of Egyptian ketn, Greek xixdiv. In Arabic,
cM qutn frequently varies with kattdn "linen," o^
as the material in qutn and kattdn was not suffi-
ciently clear without the addition of harSy which is
the true word for "cotton;" hence we have in the
Arabic not only a parallel with a pre-Sumerian kur-par,
but apparently a development of the same word, for
Assyrian kittu "garment," from which the Arabic qutn
is derived, through its Sumerian equivalent gad, gid, goes
back to the same kar origin.
The philological discussion leads to the same results
as the historical data: Assyria and India were the
homes of cotton in dim antiquity, and there is no evi-
dence of any early introduction of the plant into
Egypt and Europe. Even in the VI. century Coptic
pempai seems to refer exclusively to linen, and not to
cotton, and all the new designations for the plant and
the product, as we shall soon see, proceed from Egypt
after the Arabic conquest. There seems to be an excep-
tion to the historical evidence in the direct reference to
cotton in Pliny, but it will be easy to show that we
are dealing there with interpolations.^

"Tylos insula in eodem «'Ev TvXcj^ 8e tfj vnacp,

sinu est, repleta silvis qua mxai 8' avxit] ev T(p 'Aga-
spectat orientem quaque et 6icp xoAjtcp, td |Aev jtqoc; sco
ipsa aestu maris perfundi- xogovxo 7ikf\^o<^ elvai qpaai
tur. magnitudo singulis ar- 88v8qcov ot' 8x6aiV8i f^ 7tky\\i-

boribus fici, flos suavitate [ivQiq dSax' djicoxvQcoo&ai.

1 For interpolations in Pliny see my
Contributions toward a History of
Arabico-Gothic Culture, Philadelphia 1921, vol. IV.
14 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
inenarrabili, pomum lupi- jtdvta 8s taxjta pisyeOT] uev
ne simile, propter asperita- exeiv f|A,i>ca 0X)xf], to 8e
tem intactum omnibus ani- av&og vmQ^ak'kov xf] ev-
malibus. eiusdem insulae co8ia, xapjiov 88 a6QC0-
excelsiore suggestu lani- Tov o|AOiov xfi oilrei xco
gerae arbores, alio modo OsQJiCp. (p8Q8lV 88 Tf|V vfjCTOV
quam Serum : his folia in- xal td 88v8Qa td 8Qioq)6Qa
feeunda, quae ni minora noXkd, tawa 88 qpiiXXov piev

essent, vitium poterant ex8iv jiaQOfxoiov -q] dpwreXcp

videri. ferunt mali cotonei
amplitudine cucurbitas, 88Va (p8Q8lV 8V § 88 TO
quae maturitate ruptae os- eQiov fj^ixov pifjA.ov eagivov
tendunt lanuginis pilas, ex ov\i\ie\iVK6q' otav 88 &Qai-
quibus vestes pretioso ov fj, exjrcxdvwo^ai xai
linteo faciunt. arborem e^siQSiv TO 8Q10V, 8^ ov xaq
vocant gossypinum, fertil- Givbovaq vqpaivovai, Tdg [X8V
iore etiam Tylo minore,
WTEXEiq Tdg 88 jioXvxeKe-
quae distat p. X axdxaq.
*'Iuba circa fruticem la-
nugines esse tradit lintea-
que ea Indicis praestan-
tiora, Arabiae autem arbo-
rem, ex qua vestes faciant,
cynas vocari, folio palmae «riV8Tai 88 Toirco xai ev
simili. sic Indos suae arbo- 'Iv8oig, &GmQ
eXi^^i ^^^
res vestiunt.in Tylis autem ev 'AQa6i(?. slvai 88 akXa
et alia arbor floret albae 88v8Qa TO dvOog exovra
violae specie, sed magni- opioiov Tcp Xsuxoicp, nk'r\v

tudine quadriplici, sine ao8fi-ov xai Tcp |X8Y8&8i Te-

odore, quod miremur in eo TQCutA^daiov Tcov icov.>

tractu. ''
Pliny, XII. 38, 39. Theophrastus, IV. 7. 7, 8.
 THE PREHISTORY OF COTTON 15

The relation of Pliny to Theophrastus may equally

be observed from the English translation of the two
passages:
In the same gulf, there
**
**In the island of Tylos,
isthe island of Tylos, cov- which is situated in the
ered with a forest on the Arabian gulf, they say that
side which looks towards on the east side there is
the East, where it is such a number of trees
washed also by the sea at when the tide goes out that
high tides. Each of the they make a regular fence.
trees is in size as large as All these are in size as
the the blossoms are
fig; large as a fig-tree, the flow-
of an indescribable sweet- er is exceedingly fragrant,
ness, and the fruit is simi- and the fruit, which is not
lar in shape to a lupine, but edible, is like in appear-
so rough and prickly, that ance to the lupin. They
it isnever touched by any say that the island also
animal. On a more ele- produces the 'wool-bear-
vated plateau of the same ing' tree (cotton-plant) in
island, we find trees that abundance. This has a
bear wool, but of a differ- leaf like that of the vine,
ent nature from those of but small, and bears no
the Seres as in these trees
; fruit; but the vessel in
the leaves produce nothing which the 'wool' is con-
at all, and, indeed, might tained is as large as a
very readily be taken for spring apple, and closed,
those of the vine, were it but when it is ripe, it un-
not that they are of smal- folds and puts forth the
ler size. They bear a kind 'wool,' of which they
of gourd, about the size of weave their fabrics, some
a quince; which, when ar- of which are cheap and
rived at maturity, bursts some very expensive.
asunder and discloses a
ball of down, from which a
costly kind of linen cloth is
made.
16 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
**This tree is known by
the name of gossypinus:
the smaller island of Tylos,
which is ten miles distant
from the larger one, pro-
duces it in even greater
abundance.
*'Juba states, that about
a certain shrub there grows
a woolly down, from which
a fabric is manufactured,
preferable even to those of
India. He
adds, too, that
certain treesof Arabia,
from which vestments are
made, are called cynae,and
that they have a leaf simi-
lar to that of the palm.
Thus do their very trees
afford clothing for the peo-
ple of India. In the isl-
ands of Tylos, there is also
another tree, with a blos-
som like the white violet in ''This tree is also found,
appearance, though four as was said, in India as
times as large, but it is well as in Arabia. They
destitute of smell, a very say that there are other
remarkable fact in these trees with a flower like the
'
climates. J. Bostock and
' gilliflower, but scentless
H. T. Riley, The Natural and in size four times as
History of Pliny, London large as that flower." A.
1855, vol. Ill, p. 117 f. Hort, op, cit., p. 343 f.

The part which is in Pliny, and not in Theophrastus,

isan interpolation and partly a forgery. What is pur-
ported to be taken from Juba is really taken from
Theophrastus, IV. 4. 8: «"E^ div §8 xd Ifidxia Jtoiovai
 THE PREHISTORY OF COTTON 17

TO |18V (fvXXoV OpiOlOV E%El xfj GDXafilVCp, TO bk O^OV qpVTOV

Tolg Tivvo Qoboiq ofioiov. c^vxevovgi bk ev Toig
jieSioig OQ^ovq, bC o xai ji6qqco&8v dcpoQcoai
atJTO xaT'
aiiJieXoi qpaivovxai. s/ei bk xal qpoivixag evia h^qt] noh
Xovq. xal Tama [xev ev 6£v8qov qplja8i.» *'The trees
from which they make their clothes have a leaf like
the mulberry, but the whole tree resembles the
wild rose. They plant them in the plains in rows,
wherefore, when seen from a distance, they look like
vines. Some parts also have many date-palms. So
much for what comes under the heading of trees.'" *

**Some parts also have many date-palms'* was con-

fused with the cotton-plant; xirvoQoSoig ofxoiov pro-
duced ''cynas vocari" and "so much for the nature of
trees," which in Theophrastus refers to India, pro-
duced *'sic Indos suae arbores vestiunt. " The sen-
tence "arborem vocant gossypinum'' is merely an
Arabic gloss for **wood," namely v^^ hahhun, pi.
huihurij in the oblique case hu§bin, which produced
gossypinus. The interpolator went even further and
changed Theophrastus' fxfi^ov eoQivov '* spring apple"
to ** malum cotoneum, " as though it were "a
quince apple;" but in reality this is a reminiscence of
the Arabic qutn '* cotton. " In another place we find
in Pliny: ** Superior pars Aegypti in Arabiam vergens
gignit fruticem, quem aliqui gossypion vocant, plures
xylon et ideo lina inde facta xylina. parvus est similem-
que barbatae nucis fructum defert, cuius ex interiore
hombyce lanugo netur. nee ulla sunt cum candore mol-
liora pexiorave. vestes inde sacerdotibus Aegypti gra-
tissimae."^ "The upper part of Egypt, in the vicinity
of Arabia, produces a shrub, known by some as gossy- '

pium,' but by most persons as xylon;' hence the name of

*

'xylina,' given to the tissues that are manufactured

1 XIX. 14.
18 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
from it. The shrub is small, and bears a fruit, similar in

appearance to a nut with a beard, and containing in the

inside a silky substance, the down of which is spun into
threads. There is no tissue known, that is superior to
those made from this thread, either for whiteness, soft-
ness, or dressing: the most esteemed vestments worn by
the priests of Egypt are made of it. "^ Here we have a
reminiscence of Greek PopiPa^, Coptic pempai, which
now assumes the name of "cotton,'* and once more
we get the Arabic word for 'E.vXov. The interpolator
goes on to say that cotton garments were most accept-
able to the Egyptian priests, whereas we have the
specific statements in Herodotus^ and in Plutarch^
that the priests were allowed to wear linen garments
only. Thus we are once more confronted with the fact
that no cotton is recorded in Egypt before the arrival
of the Arabs.

III.

In Africa we can trace the overwhelming Arabic

influence upon the cotton industry through the geo-
graphical distribution of the Arabic terms for cotton.
The ancient Egyptian conception of purification was
connected with the use of water; hence uah "to be
innocent, clean, purified, wash clean, pure, holy" has
for its denominative water flowing from a vessel. The
enormous significance of this term upon the religious
conceptions of the Egyptians is found in the deriva-
tives from this term. We not only have uah "holy
man, priest, libationer, " but also udhu "those who are
ceremonially clean," uahtiu "the holy ones, that is,
the dead," uah "holy raiment or vestment, apparel
which is ceremonially pure," uaht "the chamber in a
1 Bostock and Riley, op. ciL^ p. 134 f.
2 II. 37.
3 De Iside et Osiride, 3, 4.
 THE PREHISTORY OF COTTON 19

temple in which the ceremonies symbolic of the mum-

mification of Osiris were performed," ta-uab-t **to
purify." This latter factitive lies at the foundation of
a large number of '* purification" words in Coptic: thhe
**to purify, be clean," tbheu "pure, sanctified, holy,"
**
teba purity, " etouah, etthheu **pure."
The Arabs took over this term as referring to death;
hence we have Arab. s_iac 'ataha "he died, perished,
became spoiled," <iac 'aibah "perdition, gangrene,
pest," and, since the Mohammedan purification of the
dead consisted in cleaning the body with cotton, we get
Arab. J^ 'uib "cotton, " though this and <ia«^ 'utbah may
also mean a portion of wool.
*
' The ordinary ablution
'
'
*
'

preparatory to prayer having been performed upon the

corpse, with the exception of the washing of the mouth
and nose, the whole body is well washed, from head to
foot, with warm water and soap, and with *leef (or '

fibres of the palm-tree) or, more properly, with water

;

in which some leaves of the lote-tree ('nabk' or *sidr')

have been boiled. The nostrils, ears, etc., are stuffed
with cotton; and the corpse is sprinkled with a mixture
of water, pounded camphor, and dried and pounded
leaves of the nabk, and with rose-water. Sometimes,
other dried and pounded leaves are added to those of the
nabk. The ankles are bound together, and the hands
placed upon the breast.
"The'kef en,' or grave-clothing, of a poor man con-
sists ofa piece, or two pieces, of cotton; or is merely a
kind of bag. The corpse of a man of wealth is generally
wrapped first in muslin; then in cotton cloth of thicker
texture; next in a piece of striped stuff of silk and cotton
intermixed, or in a kuf tan of similar stuff, merely stitched
together and over these is wrapped a Kashmeer shawl. ^
'
; '

^ E. W. Lane, An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern

Egyptians, London 1871, vol. II, p. 253 f.
20 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
It may be that the Arabs took the word over from
the Egyptians before reaching Egypt, but this is not
likely, because we have no record of the Egyptian use
of cotton for purification. It is far more likely that the
Arabs got the custom from the Christian Copts who
employed cotton in their burial ceremony and in mon-
astic vestments. In any case the distribution of the
Arabic word among neighboring races shows that the
** cotton" words of this type are posterior to the Arabic

invasion. We have Saho 'othe, Afar 'othi, Bedauye teb,

Somali udhi, Galla jirhi ''cotton," and here there are
no derivatives from the meaning "purify." Swahili
has the Egyptian uah as eupe ''clean, clear, white, " but,
as we have seen, "cotton" is derived from a Coptic
"linen" word. Like the Arabs, the Swahili do not
bury without having adorned the apertures of the body
of the deceased, by stuffing cotton into the nose, mouth,
eyes, ears, vagina, buttocks, and under the nails of the
deceased person. " The Suahili take out the excrements
from the bowels of a dead man by putting the hand
skilfully through the fundament. When the head can be
brought to touch the great toe they consider all dirt to
be gone, and the fumigations begin, in order to clear the
room from the bad smell which the operation has pro-
duced. It must be remarked that the corpse is put
upon a bedstead under which a pit has been dug in the
ground, to receive all the filth. The reason why the
Muhammedans take so much trouble is because the
Angel Gabriel will come to the dead man in the grave,
to examine him. "^ Some of the African languages
seem to have derivatives of the Egyptian udht, namely
Tuareg abduya, Hausa ahduga, audiga, Bagirmi oudega,
Kandin abdiga, but these, which are much further
away from Egypt than the first, are more likely trans-

' J. L. Krapf, A Dictionary of the Suahili Language, London 1882, p. 205.

 THE PREHISTORY OF COTTON 21

positions of adhuya, etc., especially since none of them

has preserved the meaning "purity."
There is another Arabic word used for the ceremon-
ial purification, namely wudu' **the act of ablu-
*j^j
tion," also referring to the washing of the dead body.
This has gone into a large number of African languages.
We have Somali 'adai "brighten, whiten," maid "to
wash clean," Swahili uthu, Bedauye wada, Kabyl udu
"religious ablution before prayer," but in the west
strange changes have taken place. In Kanuri we get
wolongin "ceremonial washing," while in one of the
Kabyl dialects in Tamazirt the word has united with
the Arabic article, producing ludhu, and this has gone
into Hausa as lullo, allowa "purification," leading to
Peul loti "to wash." But in the Niger valley and
beyond, this has produced the "cotton" words, just as
the Coptic "ablution" word produced the "cotton"
words in the west. Here we find Nupe, Basa, Gbari
luluy Pika lolo, Sobo, Egbele, Bini, Ihewe, Oloma olulu,
Goali luloy Esitoko lolu, Puka lllu, Kupa eoru, Okuloma
ouro, Isoama, Aro oro, Aku owu, Yoruba owuh, Ekantu-
lufu newu, Udom lewu, which are all, no doubt, due to
Hausa influence.
In the oases and the Mandingo countries and about
Timbuktu, Arabic qutn words prevail for "cotton."
In the oases we have gotun, kutan, and, as Kabyl qten,
it has spread over a large territory. In the Peul langua-
ges it produced hotollo, given also as potollo, Wolof
wuten, witen. This is found as kotole in Soninke, while
in Bornu we get the compound kal-gudan, Kanuri kal-
gutan. But to us the most important forms are those
which appear in the Mande languages. Bambara has
the successive deteriorations kotondo, korandi, kori,
kuori "cotton." We have similarly Malinke kotodln,
Mandingo kotondo, korande, Kalumga kutando, Tor-
onka koyondyl "cotton," Dyula korho "cotton,"
 "

22 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

korho-nde **cottoii-tree. '* We have also Akra odonti,
and the scattered Bulonda fkotun, Landoma akiltan,
Buduma kundera, Gurma kunkuntu, Padsadse pakonde^
Gabun, Fan okondo, Koama kunkun, Bagbalan gungun.
In the Mandingo region there is also another
cotton'' word, namely Soso gese-fute, Toma geze, Kra,
**

Gbe gese, Gio, Dewoi gie, Mano lye, but Soso, Bambara,
Malinke gese ** thread in the loom" show that the origin
is Arabic J> gazl *' cotton thread." It is significant
that so many of the
**spin, weave" words in the African
languages are of Arabic origin. Thus, for example, we
have Hausa zarre, ^ari *' thread, " mazari 'spindle," *

zaria "to dance" from Arabic J^ darra *'he ran

vehemently," midarrah
«->-^ spindle with which
**

a woman spins cotton or wool." In the other African

languages, where the Mohammedan influence is less
apparent, there is a large variety of names for "cotton,
where the connection with "ablution" is not notice-
able. It is, therefore, obvious that the Arabs popular-
ized cotton in Africa, even if the plant existed there be-
fore, in connection with the ceremonial purification of
the dead, and that cotton steadily advanced in culti-
vation from Central and Southern Asia westwards, to
the Western Sudan.
 CHAPTER II.

Cotton and Columbus.

In the Middle Ages the western cotton could not

compete in quality with that which came from the
east,^ hence Columbus included cotton among the
things he hoped to find in his discovery of India by
a western route, and in his Letter he promised the King
to furnish from America all the cotton demanded of
him.^ But the Journal of the First Voyage does not
bear out his statement that he had found any cotton
in the islands visited by him.
We hear of cotton in America the very first day
Columbus landed in Guanahani. Under the date of
October 11, 1492, we read: "That they might be very
friendly to us and because I saw that they were people
who would more easily be freed and converted to our
Holy Faith by love than by force, I gave some of
them red caps and some glass beads, which they
placed around their necks, and many other things of
little value, which pleased them greatly, and they
became wonderfully friendly with us. They later
came swimming to the ships' boats, where we were,
and brought us parrots and cotton thread in halls, and
spears and many other things, and traded them with us
for other things which we gave them, such as small
^ W. Heyd, Geschiehte des Levantehandels im Mittelalter, Stuttgart 1879,
vol. II, p. 572 fif.

' "En
conclusion, 4 fablar d'esto solamente que se a fecho este viage, que
f ue de corrida, pueden ver Sus Altezas que yo les dar^ oro quanto ovieren
asf
menester, con muy poquita ayuda que Sus Altezas me daran; agora, espe-
cierla y algodon quanto Sus Altezas mandardn." Raccolta di cbcumenti e
studi pubhlicati dalla R. Commissione Colombiana, Roma 1892, part I,
vol. I, p. 132.
24 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
glass beads and hawk's
bells. Indeed, they took every-
thing and
gladly gave whatever they had, but it
seemed to me that they were very poor people in every-
thing. They all go naked, just as their mothers bore
them, even the women, but I saw only one who was
very young. "^
If Columbus told the truth, then it is exceedingly
curious that the Indians should have known the value
of parrots and cotton to the Spaniards, instead of offer-
ing them their native maguey, maize or dozens of other
things which are more common in the West Indies. Let
us assume that "many other things'' included just
these native products which Columbus did not mention.
It is still remarkable that Columbus should have singled
out those articles which Alviso Cada Mosto nearly half
a century earlier referred to as coming from Africa,
whence he brought more than 150 parrots.^ He, too,
speaks of the swimming properties of the Negroes^ and of
the mass of cotton which they raised.'* Even the canoes,
so characteristic of the American Indians, are fully
described by Cada Mosto. Columbus is made to say:
"They came to the ship with almadias, which are made
of the trunk of a tree, as long as a barque, and all of one
piece, and marvellously wrought, according to the
country, and large, in some of which came forty and
1 "Yo, porque nos tuviesen mucha amistad, porque cognosci que era gente

que mejor se libraria y convertirfa 4 nuestra santa fe con amor que no por
fuerga, les dl d algunos d'ellos unos bonetes colorados y unas cuentas de
vidro, que se ponian al pescue^o, y otras cosas muchas de poco valor, con
que ovieron mucho plazer; y quedaron tanto nuestros que era maravilla.
los quales, despues, venian a las barcas de los navlos, adonde nos estdvamos,
nadando, y nos tra^an papagayos y hylo de algodon en ovillos, y azagayas,
y otras cosas muchas, y nos las trocavan por otras cosas que nos les davamos,
como cuentezillas de vidro y cascaveles. en fin, todo tomavan y davan, de
aquello que tenlan, de buena voluntad; mas me paregio que era gente muy
pobre de todo. ellos andan todos desnudos, como su madre los pario; y
tambien las mugeres, aunque no vide mds de una farto moca," ihid.j vol. I,
p. 16.
2 G. B. Ramusio, Belle navigationi et viaggi, Venetia 1588, vol. I, fol. 104b.
3 Ibid., fol. 102a.
* Ibid., fol. 104b.
 COTTON AND COLUMBUS 25

fifty men, and others smaller, down to the size holding

but one man. They rowed with something resembling
a baker's shovel, and the boat went wonderfully, and
if it turned over they all started swimming, until it
was righted and bailed out with the calabashes, which
they carried. They brought skeins of spun cotton and
azagays and other little things too tedious to enumerate.
And these they gave for anything given to them. "^
This is only a modification of Cada Mosto's account of
the Negroes' canoes and of their manner of barter. Of
the first he says: "They have certain boats, that is,
almadias, all of one piece of wood, with three or four
men at most in the larger ones, and with these they
fish, cross the river, and go from place to place. These
Negroes are the best swimmers in the world. "^ Of the
Negro market Cada Mosto says: "In these market
places I saw plainly that those people were very poor,
considering the things which they brought to the market
for sale, namely cottons, but not in quantity, and spun
cotton, and cotton cloth, vegetables, oil, millet, wooden
dishes They everything by barter, and
sell
not for money, for they have none, and they are not
accustomed to money purchases but only to barter,
that is, one thing for another, two for one, three for
two. "3
Columbus gave the Indians, in return for the objects
obtained from them, glass beads and hawk's bells. As
we shall later find the hawk's bells in a presumably pre-
Columbian village, it is necessary to point out the im-
portance of these hawk's bells in the trading with the
Indians. The Spanish cascavel "sleigh bell, small
round brass bell, with a little clapper inside" is original-
ly a Coptic word, kaiabel, hence was introduced into

1 Ibid., fol. 17 f.
2 Ibid., fol. 102.
3 Ibid., fol. 104b.
26 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
Spain by the Arabs. ^ Columbus carried such bells
purpose of trading with the Indians,
specifically for the
no doubt, because voyagers to Africa had found them
acceptable to the Negroes, who used rattles and bells
in their fetish ceremonies. Columbus showed the
Indians that such bells could be worn in the ear,^ hence
they were comparatively small. They were generally
attached to the legs of a sparrow hawk.^ Another time
he calls them "brass timbrels, worth a maravedi
apiece."^ At every meeting he distributed these to the
Indians,^ who were crazy for them and ready to give
much gold for the hawk's bells.*
On October 13, the Indians again brought spun cot-
ton, parrots, and spears, and the Spaniards exchanged
three ceotis of Portugal for sixteen balls of cotton,
which would be more than an arroba of spun cotton.^
Columbus sent the cotton, which grew on this island,
to the King of Spain. ^ On October 16, Columbus for
the first time saw veils woven from cotton and clouts
1 See my Contributions, vol. IV, p. 114.
» "Dos cascaveles, que le puse d las orejas," Raccolta, vol. I, p. 20.
' "Algunos d'ellos tra^an algunos pedagos de oro colgado al nariz, el qual
de buena gana davan por un cascavel d'estos de pie de gavilano," ibid., p. 28.
* "Algunas sonagas de laton, d'estas que valen en Castilla un maravedi

cada una," ibid., p. 22.

^Ibid., pp. 27, 53, 54, 61, 158.
' "Vino otra canoa de otro lugar, que tra^a giertos pedagos de oro, los

quales querla dar por un cascavel, porque otra cosa tanto no deseavan como
cascaveles, que aun no llega la canoa d bordo, quando llamavan y mostrava[n]
los pedagos de oro, diziendo "chuque chuque" por cascaveles, que estdn
en puntos de se tornar locos por ellos. despues de aver visto esto, y partien-
dose estas canoas, que eran de los otros lugares, Uamaron al almirante, y le
rogaron que les mandase guardar un cascavel hasta otro dia, porqu' el[los]
traerfa[n] quatro pedagos de oro tan grandes como la mano," ibid., p. 80 f.
7 "Tra;^an ovillos de algodon filado,
y papagayos, y azagayas, y otras
cositas que serfa tedio de escrevir, y todo davan por qualquiera cosa que se
los diese. . .mas todo lo que tienen lo dan por qualquiera cosa que les
.

den que fasta los pedagos de las escudillas y de las tagas de vidro rotas res-
catavan, fasta que vi dar .16. ovillos de algodon por tres geotis de Portugal,
que es una blanca de Castilla, y en ellos avria mas de un' arrova de algodon
filado," ibid., p. 18.
8 "Esto defendiera y no dexara tomar d nadie, salvo que yo lo mandara

tomar todo para Vuestras Altezas, si oviera en cantidad. aqul nage en esta
isla; mas por el poco tiempo no pude dar asl del todo fe," ibid., p. 18.
 COTTON AND COLUMBUS 27

worn by women. ^ Similar breech-cloths and ham-

mocks made of cotton were seen on October 17.^ A
vast amount of spun cotton was brought by Indian
canoes on November 1,^ and five days later the Span-
iards saw more than five hundred arrobas of picked,
spun, and woven cotton in one house, and more than
four thousand quintals could be obtained there in one
year. Columbus expressed the opinion that it was not
sowed and that it bore fruit the whole year.^ Colum-
bus was convinced that the very large quantity of cotton
which was raised in the islands would not have to be
taken to Spain, but could be sold in the large cities of
the Great Khan.^ But under November fourth, we
have Columbus' own statement that the cotton, which
1 "Esta gente es semejante ^ aquella de las dichas islas,
y una fabla y unas
costumbres, salvo qu'estos ya me parecen algtin tanto mas domestica gente,
y de tracto, y mas sotiles, porque veo que an tra^do algodon aqul a la nao,
y otras cositas, que saben mejor refe[r]tar el pagamento que no hazfan los
otros. y aun en esta isla vide paiios de algodon fechos como mantillos, y la
gente mas dispuesta, y las mugeres traen por delante su cuerpo una cosita
de algodon, que escassamente le cobija su natura," ibid., pp. 22, 38.
2 "Aqui vide que unos moQOs de los navios les trocaron azagayas, unos

pedaguelos de escudillas rotas y de vidro. y los otros que fueron por el agua
me dixeron como avian estado en sus casas, y que eran de dentro muy
barridas y limpias, y sus camas y paramentos de cosas que son como redes
de algodon. ellas, scilicet las casas, son todas d manera de alfaneques, y muy
altas y buenas chimeneas, mas no vide entre muchas poblagiones, que yo
vide, ninguna que passasse de doze hasta quinze casas. aqul fallaron que las
mugeres casadas tra^an bragas de algodon," ibid., p. 24.
3 "Vinieron luego 4 los navios mas de diez y seis almadias 6 canoas, con

algodon hylado, y otras cosillas suyas, de las quales mando el almirante que
no se tomase nada," ibid., p. 33.
* "La tierra muy fertil
y muy labrada de aquellas mames y fexoes y haba»
muy diversas de las nuestras, eso mismo panizo, y mucha cantidad de
algodon cogido, y filado, y obrado, y que en una sola casa avian visto mds
de quinientas arrobas, y que se pudiera aver alii cada ario quatro mill
quintales. dize el almirante que le parecia que no lo senbravan, y que da
fruto todo el ario; es muy fino, tiene el capillo grande. todo lo que aquella
gente tenia diz que dava por muy vil precio, y que una gran espuerta de
algodon dava por cabo de agujeta 6 otra cosa que se le de," ibid., p. 37 f.
6 "Tanbien aqui se avrfa grande suma de algodon, y creo que se venderia

muy bien acd, sin le llevar a Espana, salvo a las grandes ciudades del gran
can, que se descubriran sin duda, y otras muchas de otros seiiores que avr^n
en dicha servir a Vuestras Altezas, y adonde se les daran de otras cosas de
Espaiia y de las tierras de oriente, pues estas son 4 nos en poniente," ibid.,
p. 39.
28 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
the Indians did not sow, grew in the mountains, on
high trees, which he saw in flower and with ripe bolls
at the same time.^
If Columbus did not make up his account of cotton
he found in the West Indies, he did not see any cotton
at all, but only silk-cotton, the product of the Bomhax
ceiba, which grows in all tropical America. He specifi-
cally tells us that the cotton was not sowed, but grew on
high trees. As the Gossypium arhoreum, mentioned
in Arabia in the twelfth century^ by Ibn-al-Awam
and known to exist from India to the Senegal, is totally
unknown to America, Columbus' reference to high cot-
ton trees puts it beyond any possible doubt that he saw
only ceibas, but the silk-cotton of these trees does not
twist and cannot be used by itself as a textile. It is
known in trade under the Javanese name of kapok, and
is used as a stuffing for mattresses and life belts.
The Franciscan monks who were in Hispaniola in
1500 apparently refer to ceiba cotton from which cloth
was made: ''The Indians have a great abundance of
wool which grows on trees, and yet they go naked.
From this wool a certain Brother from necessity spun
threads and made garments for himself and his com-
panion."^ "Lana arboribus procreata" may be a
translation of the German "Baumwolle" and so may
refer to real cotton, but the fact that the monk out of
necessity had to spin his own threads and weave his
1 "Estas tierras son muy fertiles, ellos las tienen llenas de mames, que
son como canahorias, que tienen sabor de castaiias, y tienen faxones y favas
muy diversas de las nuestras, y mucho algodon, el qual no siembran, y nace
por los montes, arboles grandes; y creo que en todo tiempo lo aya para
coger, porque vi los cogujos abiertos, y otros que se abrlan, y flores, todo
en un arbol, y otras mill maneras de frutas, que me no es possible escrevir;
y todo deve ser cosa provechosa," ibid., p. 35 f.
2 Ibn-al-Awam, Le livre de Vagriculture d' Ibn-al-Awam, trans, and ed.
by J.-J. C16ment-Mullet, Paris 1866, vol. II.
3 "Lanam arboribus procreatam in copia habent et tamen ab antea nudi

incedebant; ex qua lana quidam Frater compulsus, filando ipsam, sibi et

confratri suo habitum fecit," The Catholic Historical Review, April 1920,
vol. VI, p. 64.
 COTTON AND COLUMBUS 29

own cloth, while the Indians went naked, shows con-

clusively that the Franciscans found no cotton cloth
in use in Hispaniola.
Cotton is frequently mentioned afterwards, but that
is of no consequence since we have the definite statement
that in 1493 Columbus loaded his ships in the Canaries
with animals and seeds, ^ which may have included
cotton seed as well. Three years later the Indians who
did not work in the gold mines were compelled to pay
their tribute in cotton, twenty-five pounds per person,
that is, the Indians were compelled to raise cotton for
the white man.^ Authors from Oviedo until the
present time unanimously assert that under the Span-
iards the cultivation of cotton declined very rapidly,
but this is contradicted by Columbus' law of 1496,
which made every effort to introduce cotton on a large
scale, but completely failed because the Indians had
not been used to it.
In 1498 Columbus, according to the Journal of the
Third Voyage, wrote to the King of Spain that he sent
him *'agul, lacar, ambar, algodon, pimienta, canela,
brasil infinito, estoraque, sandalos blancos y cetrinos,
lino, aloes, gengibre, incensio, mirabolanos de toda
especie."^ As most of these products do not grow in
America, Columbus simply applied the names of
spices to similar plants, hence it is not certain that

1 Op. ciL, p. 140.

2 "Impuso el almirante d todos los vezinos de la provincia de ^ybao y d
los de la Vega Real y d todos los cercanos A las minas, todos los de catorze
anos arriba, de tres en tres meses, un cascabel de los de Flandes . .lleno
.

de oro . .toda la otra gente, no vezina de las minas, contribuyese con

. ;

una arroba de algodon cada persona . . .ordenose despues de hazer una

Cierta moneda de cobre 6 de laton, en la qual se hiziese una serial, y esta
se mudase a cada tributo, para que cada Yndio de los tributarios la trayese
al cuello, porque se cognosgiese quien la abfa pagado, y quien no; por manera
qu'el que no la truxese abia de ser castigado, aunque, diz que, moderada-
mente, por no aber pagado el tributo. pero esta invention ... no paso
adelante por las novedades y turba^iones que luego sucgedieron. ,". .

ibid., p. 207 f.
3 Ibid., vol. II, p. 24.
30 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
algodon refers to "cotton." It may have been ceiba or
any other textile fiber, such as maguey. This is made the
more certain by the letter itself, which is lost, but which
Herrera apparently quotes more fully, when he says:
"se hallaua azul,ambar, a^grorfon, pimienta, canela,brasil,
estoraque,sandalosblancos,ycetrinos,linaloes,gengibre,
encienso, mirabolanos de toda especie, y la Cahuya, que
es una yerua que haze pencas como cardo, de que
es puede hazer muy buena tela, por el buen hilo que
deella se saca."^ The addition cabuya, that is, "a
variety of maguey, an herb producing spiny leaves like
a thistle, from which a very fine cloth can be made, on
account of the fine thread which is gotten from it,"
shows that by that time Columbus knew that the
Indians made their cloth from the maguey, and not
from cotton. But, having committed himself to cot-
ton, he or his editor cut out the damaging sentence in
his letter when the Journal of the Third Voyage was
made up.
In 1526 Oviedo wrote: ''(The Indians of the main-
land) fish with nets, for they have very good ones, of
cotton, with which nature has provided them abundant-
ly, and many woods are full of them; but the whitest
and best is that which they plant in their settlement
close to their houses or places, where they live."^ In
1535 we have a different story: ** There is much wild
cotton in Hispaniola, and there are also cultivated
fields, and here it is better than in the open, and whiter
and taller, and some of these plants grow one cubit and
a half or two and send out new shoots from the ground.
And thus it continues to produce cotton without being
taken care of. But since people do not cultivate it in
this island, it does not grow as in Indian times. The
^ A. de Herrera, Descripcion de las Indias occidentales, decada I, libro
III, cap. 12.
2 G. F. de Oviedo, Sumario dela natural istoria delas Indias^
y general
Toledo 1526, fol. Xlla.
 COTTON AND COLUMBUS 31

Christians do not busy themselves on their farms, al-

though it is very good and would increase as well as on
the mainland, where it produces ordinary shoots every
year, and where it is sowed and reaped hence it is small
;

in comparison with the cotton there, although I have

seen there some high plants." It is the old story:
Where we are not, things do well; where we are, we
cannot verify what has become a conviction, namely
that cotton was grown by the Indians. From Oviedo's
statement only this can be concluded, that the plant
deteriorated when it was not cultivated, and that the
so-called wild species were plants escaped from cultiva-
tion. If the commercially valuable cotton plant were
really wild, no such rapid deterioration could have been
observed as implied by Oviedo.
This is amply borne out by everything we know of
the wild species of cotton in America. De CandoUe
regretted that next to nothing was known of it, and
Watt confirms this absence of any definite knowledge as
to wild cotton in America: **De Vica is reported to have,
in 1536, discovered a wild cotton in Texas and Louis-
iana. Similar reports have subsequently been spasmod-
ically made, but no qualified botanist has critically
studied the wild species of Gossypium that exist in the
American Continent and Islands, and thus the stories
of travellers have not been confirmed. When first
made known to Europe, the American Continent as
also the West Indies, possessed not only a cotton indus-
try but both wild and cultivated cottons, independent
of those of the Old World. It is most unfortunate that
no botanical specimens, no drawings, no descriptions
exist of the plant or plants seen by Columbus and his
associates. And, moreover, there is no record of these
plants having been conveyed to Europe, so that we
know nothing for certain of the species of American
cottons until approximately two centuries after their
32 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
original discovery. In fact we know more of the foreign
stocks supplied to America than of the influences of its
indigenous plants on the modern staple/'^ But the case
is much worse yet, for when we turn to the specific locali-
ties from which cotton is recorded in literature since the
discovery of America, we do not get a single case of
wild-growing cotton which is not also recorded as grow-
ing wild in Asia and Africa, so that the best that can be
said of these varieties is that they have escaped from
cultivation. Of Gossypium vitifolium, which is sup-
posed to be the American cotton par excellence. Watt
says: "Possibly originally a native of Central and
South America to the Amazon basin, as also of the Les-
ser Antilles; recently distributed under cultivation to
the Southern States of North America, the West Indies,
and Africa; occasionally met with in Egypt, India,
the Celebes, Madagascar, Mauritius, &c. Frequently
mentioned as seen in a wild condition, but it is possible
that with better and more extensive material there may
be found to be two or more perfectly distinct species
included under the present form. ^ But it is not certain
'
'

that this kind of cotton has been found in a wild state,

and it may have been confused with Gossypium harha-
dense: "If G. vitifolium has any claim to having been
seen in a truly wild condition, and I am disposed to
think it has, then it is highly likely that G. harhadense
is but one of its many cultivated states."^ Of the latter
he says: "Hemsley says of this species, 'Cultivated and
wild, probably indigenous in America;' and Schumann
(Martins, 'Fl. Bras.') remarks, 'specially cultivated in
the islands of the Antilles and in Central America, more
rarely in N.America and the tropics of the Old World.' "^

1 G. Watt, The Wild and Cultivated Cotton Plants of the World, London
1907, p. 17 f.
»
Ibid., p. 257.
' Ibid., p. 261.
* Ibid., p. 267.
From Watt's The Wild and CuUivated Cotton Plants of the JVorld.
GOSSYPIUM BRASILIENSE, from Watt's The Wild and Cultivated Cotton
Plants of the World.
From Watt's The Wild and Cultivated Cotton Plants of the World.
 COTTON AND COLUMBUS 33

It would seem that at least in Mexico there were

genuinely native varieties of cotton growing wild.
Watt records Gossypium Palmerii in Mexico as having
**all the appearance of being a wild species."^ So too,
Gossypium lanceolatum grows in Mexico by roadsides,^
*
and Gossypium microcarpum 'probably originated in
Mexico;"^ but the fatal admission that "the existence
of an extensive assortment of specimens collected in
Africa shows that its cultivation must be fairly ancient,
seeing that it had got distributed so widely, long anterior
to its recognition botanically,"^ at once invalidates the
last assumption, while the previous species and a few
others, by Watt's own admission, have been variously
associated with other forms, and no conclusion can be
drawn as to the original home of the wild or ferine
species.
Nor are we better off in regard to the Peruvian cotton.
Marie^ recognizes only one wild species there, the Gos-
sypium religiosum of Linne; but, according to Watt,^
this is the Gossypium hirsutum of modern botany, and
this is "reported from Europe, Persia, China, Java,
India, Africa, throughout America etc."^ Similarly
the South American cotton, Gossypium
distinctly
hrasiliense, even by Watt's discussion, of uncertain
is,

origin: "Indigenous to South America, more especially

Brazil and Guiana. Marcgraf speaks of it as growing
in damp and warm places, but especially on cultivated
ground. Spruce (see under G. peruvianum, p. 215)
says he had never seen it wild, and that it is nowhere the
common cotton of the Indians. Cultivated in China,

1 Ibid., p. 205.
»
Ihid., p. 210.
»/6zd., p. 211.
* Ihid., p. 213.

* La produccion de algoddn en el Peru, in Boletin del Ministerio de Fomento,

primer trimestre de 1916, Lima 1916, p. 32.

6 Op. cit., p. 204.

7 Ibid., p. 184.
34 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
Japan, India (twice mentioned as wild), Malaya, Poly-
nesia, Africa (often spoken of as wild), Mascarene
Islands, Central andSouth America and the West Indies.
Koster ('Travels in Brazil,' 1816, p. 368) says 'I have
seen some species of wild cotton, of which, however,
as I have neither note nor specimen I cannot pretend to
give a description.' "^ Hiern^ says that Gossypium
harhadense and vitifolium "are met with wild in the
neighborhood of villages" in Angola in Africa, and, simi-
larly, ''Gossypium peruvianumis abundant and wild in
depressions and on the drier slopes" in Golungo Alto.
This excludes the presence of cotton in a wild form in
America as a proof that it is native in America. In a
pamphlet of the U. S. Department of Agriculture,
which is A Study of Diversity in Egyptian Cotton,^ we
read: *'The cultivated varieties of cotton appear to fall
into two series. Varieties native in America find their
nearest relatives in other New World varieties, and all
appear to he widely distinct from the indigenous species of
Asia and Africa. Though very different from the Up-
land varieties of the United States, the Egyptian cotton
and the Sea Island cottons are also native of tropical
America and are not so fundamentally different from
the Upland cottons as is often supposed.
**No varieties have as yet been discovered which are
exactly intermediate between the Egyptian and the
Upland types, but many of the Central American and
West Indian varieties which are obviously related to
our Upland cottons show some of the characteristics of
the Egyptian and the Sea Island series. At the same
time it has been found that the West Indian and Central
American relatives of the Sea Island and Egyptian cot-
»
Ibid., p. 298.
' W. P. Hiern, Catalogue of the African Plants Collected by Dr. Friedrich
Welwitsch in 1853-61, London 1896, vol. I, p. 77 ff.
' By Cook, McLachlan, and Meade, Washington 1909, Bureau of Plant
Industry, Bulletin No. 156, p. 8.
 COTTON AND COLUMBUS 35

tons show many Upland characters. Only a little addi-

tional evidence is needed to prove that the native Ameri-
can types of cotton form a continuous series, without
any larger breaks than those which serve to separate
the very numerous local varieties still kept in cultiva-
tion among the agricultural Indians of tropical America.
The results of the present study of diversity in Egyptian
cotton tend to emphasize the relationships of the Ameri-
can varieties and make it evident that the Egyptian
cottons have the same wide range of variation that other
American cottons have been known to display." The
words italicized by me show how uncertain the
knowledge of the so-called indigenous American varie-
ties is, and even if the Egyptian cotton is subordinated
to the American varieties, we have still the great obsta-
cle to overcome, observed by Kearney,^ that varieties
are instantaneously produced by mutation: *'Two of
the best types (the Yuma and Somerton varieties) are
so distinct from the Mit Afifi variety from which they
have been derived as to warrant the belief that they are
mutations and have originated in the same manner as
Abbasi, Jannovitch, and other superior types which
have been developed in Egypt from the Mit Afifi
variety." Even if it should turn out that cotton ex-
isted in the West Indies previous to Columbus, it still
could have been introduced by earlier colonists, and all
the varieties recorded in Peru, Mexico and Brazil are
merely mutations of an original plant, which need not
be of American origin.
1 Ibid., Bulletin No. 200, p. 33.
 CHAPTER III.

Cotton in Mexico.

We can study the introduction of cotton into Mexico

from an analysis, in chronological order, of the XVI.
century references to it. In 1518 Grijalva saw the
Yucatan Indians wearing cotton cloth about the middle
of the body.^ As the usual cloth of the Indians from
all reliable accounts was made from the maguey plant,
"cotton" is merely a generic name for cloth not made
from wool, linen or hemp. This is corroborated by the
fact that Grijalva, according to Oviedo's account, re-
ferred the word "cotton" both to a delicate and a
coarse material.^ We
have, however, an older account
of Grijalva' s expedition, which was published in Italian
in 1522.^ Here we find the costly mantles referred to
as of silk.^ Just as this anonymous author uses "silk"
for hare's wool, so his term hambagia "cotton" must,

'Tor medio de los cuerpos trayan muchas vueltas de vendas 6 listones

'

de algodon tan anchos, como una mano," G. F. de Oviedo, Historia general

y natural de las Indias, Madrid 1851, vol. I, p. 512.
"Truxeron algunas mantillas de algodon teiiido," ibid., p. 523; "y di6
2

elcacique junto con esto al capitan Grijalva una india moga con una vesti-
dura delgada de algodon," ibid., p. 528; "giertas mantas gruesas de algodon
de poco valor," ibid., p. 530.

Garcia Icazbalceta, Coleccidn de documerUos para

3 J. la historia de Mexico,
Mexico 1858, vol. I, p. 281 fif.
* "La
seta con che lavorano, h che pigliano i peli della pancia del lepre &
conigli, &
gli tengono in lana di quel colore che vogliono, & glielo danno in
tanta perfettione che non si puo dimandare meglio, dopo lo filano & con esso
lavorano, &
fanno si gentili lavori quasi come con la nostra seta, & ancora che
si lavi, mai perde il suo colore, et il lavoro che si fa con essi dura gran tempo,"
ibid., p. 377 f.
 COTTON IN MEXICO 37

to say the least, include the maguey and henequen,

from which most Indian cloth was made.^
The same looseness of expression is found in Cortes'
letters: ''The clothing which they wear is like long
veils, very curiously worked. The men wear breech-
cloths about their bodies, and large mantles, very thin,
and painted in the style of Moorish draperies. The
women of the ordinary people wear, from their waists
to their feet, clothes also very much painted, some
covering their breasts and leaving the rest of the body
uncovered. The superior women, however, wear very
thin shirts of cotton, worked and made in the style of
rochets. "^ Not a word is said here of the maguey cloth,
which was the common material from which the Indian
cloths were made. Similarly, though cotton cloth is
specifically named, there is no mention of maguey or
hare's wool cloth in the collection sent by Cortes in
1519 to the King of Spain, ^ nor in the market place of
the City of Mexico, where "they also sell skeins of dif-
ferent kinds of spun cotton, in all colours, so that it
seems quite like one of the silk markets of Granada, al-
though it is on a greater scale. "^ Yet Sahagun, writ-
ing in the second half of the XVI. century, knows only
of maguey, nequen and palm cloth, some of which

^ "I vestimenti loro son certi manti di bambagia come lenzuola, non ma
cosi grandi, lavorati di gentili lavori di diverse maniere, &
con le lor franze
& orletti, &
di questi ciascun n'ha duoi o tre &
se gli liga per davanti al
petto. . Le donne portano certe lor camicie di bambagia senza maniche,
.

che assomigliano a quelle che in Spagna chiamano sopra pelize, sono lunghe
& larghe, lavorate di bellissimi, &
molto gentili lavori sparsi per esse, con
le loro frangie, 6 orletti ben lavorati che compariscono benissimo: et di
queste portano due, tre &
quattro di diverse maniere, &
una e piu lungha
dell'altre, vedano come sottane: portano poi dalla cintura a basso
perche si
una bambagia pura, che gli arriba al coUo del piede,
altra sorte di vestire di
similmente galante & molto ben lavorate," ibid., p. 376 f.
2F. A. MacNutt, Letters of Cortes, New York, London 1908, vol. I,
p. 162.
' P. de Gayangos, Cartas
y relaciones de Hernan Cortes al Emperador
Carlos V, Paris 1866, p. 33.
* F. A. MacNutt, op. cit., p. 258.
38 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
was of a delicate texture.^ Sahagun refers to those
who sell raw
cotton, which in his day was apparently-
raised in a few isolated places,^ but there is no reference
whatsoever to cotton cloth, although we have several
references to European articles.
The same confusion is observed in the references to
paper. In a grant of Cortes to the caciques of Axa-
pusco, written probably in 1526, we read: "On the
[twenty] second of April of this year (1519), at eleven
o'clock P. M. there came said Tlamapanatzin and
Atonaletzin with many of their Indians, loaded with
presents and provisions, and paintings on cloths such
as they use, which are called nequene, and books of

^ "El que vende mantas delgadas de maguey suele tener lo siguiente:

conviene d saber tostar las ojas y rasparlas muy bien, echar maza de malz
en ellas, y lavar bien la pita, e limpiar y sacudirla en el agua, y las mantas
que vende son blancas, adobadas con maza, brunidas, bien labradas, y de
piernas anchas, angostas, largas 6 luengas, gordas 6 gruesas, tiesas 6
fornidas, al fin todas las mantas de maguey que tienen labores; algunas vende
que son muy ralas que no parecen sino toca, como son las mantas muy
delgadas, tejidas en hebras de nequen, y las hechas en hebra torcida; y por
el contrario algunas que son gordas, tupidas, y otras labradas, 6 bastas y
gruesas, ya sean de pita, ya de hilo de maguey," B. de Sahagun, Hisioria
general de las cosas de Nueva Espana, in Bihlioteca Mexicana, Mexico 1896,
lib. X, cap. 20. "El que hace y vende las mantas que se hacen de palmas
que se Uaman 'iczotP de la tierra, llevalas fuera & vender y v6ndelas d mas
de lo que valen. Las mantas que vende son de dos brazas, y las que son sin
costura y bien proporcionadas al cuerpo, y las que tienen las bandas como
arcos de pipas, y las que son como arpilleras para envolver cosas estas
mantas son muchas maneras como en la letra parece," ibid.
2 "El que vende algodon suele tener sementeras de el y slembralo; es
regaton el que lo marca de otros para tornarlos d vender: los capullos de
algodon que vende son buenos, gordos, redondos, y Uenos de algodon. El
mejor algodon y muy estimado, es el que se dk en las tierras de riego, y en
segundo lugar el algodon que se hace hdcia oriente: tambien es de segundo
lugar el que se da hdcia el poniente. Tiene tercer lugar el que viene del
pueblo que se llama 'Veytlalpan', y el que se dd hdcia el septentrion; y el
de postrer lugar el que se dice 'quauhichcatl', y cada uno de estos g^neros
de algodon, se vende por si segun su valor sin enganar k nadie: tambien
por si se vende el algodon amarillo, y por si los capullos quebrados. El mal
tratante de esto, de cada esquina quita un poco de algodon, y los capullos
6 cascos, vaclalos e hinche tupiendolos de otro algodon, 6 espeluzdndolos
con agujas sutilmente, para que parezcan Uenos," ibid.
 COTTON IN MEXICO 39

maguey paper, such as are in use among them. "^ This

isin keeping with what Toribio de Motolinia has to say
of the Mexican paper. "Of the maguey good paper is
made in Tlaxcallan, which is in use over a great part of
New Spain. There are other trees in the hot lands,
from which a great quantity of paper was made and sold.
The tree and paper are called amatl, and by this name,
amatl, the Spaniards call the letters and paper and
books. "^ It is not possible to ascertain the tree which
he here calls amatl, as no other source mentions it, but
since Hernandez has a tree amacoztic or texcalamatl,
literally "stone paper, "^ there must have been a tree
amatly as given in Motolinia, from which paper was made.
Zorita,* who quotes Motolinia, adds that the paper made
from maguey was not as good as the one from amatl.
Orozco y Berra^ quotes from an article on anacahuite,
to show that Hernandez described the "paper tree,"
amacuahuitl, from which paper was made at Tepoxtlan.
I am unable to find the passage in Hernandez, while the
dictionaries give only amacapulquauitl, literally "paper
plum tree," that is, "mulberry tree." No doubt,
1 "En dos dias del mes de Abril 21 de dicho ano, & las once de la noche

llegaron los dichos Tlamapanatzin y Atonaletzin con muchos indios de los

suyos cargados de presentes y bastimentos, y las pinturas en unos lienzos
que acostumbraban, que se llama nequene, y libros del papel de maguey que
se usa entre ellos; todo se manda por pinturas, estatuas (sic) y figuras imper-
fectas, y todo genero de la tierra, drboles, cerros e rios, calles y todo, sin
faltar cosa, en ellas, pintadas y figuradas, y con ellos un buen escribano de
los que entienden y estudian para sus efectos; y traien unas varitas delgadas
y sutiles con que iban senalando y Uamando por sus tenores y ordenes,"
J. Garcia Icazbalceta, op. cit., vol. II, p. 8 f.
2 "Hdcese del metl buen papel: el pliego es tan grande como dos pliegos
del nuestro, y desto se hace mucho en Tlaxcallan, que corre por gran parte
de la Nueva Espaiia. Otros drboles hay de que se hace en tierra caliente,
y desto se solia hacer y gastar gran cantidad; el arbol y el papel se llama
amatl, y este nombre llaman a las cartas y al papel y a los libros los espanoles
amatl: el libro su nombre se tiene," J. Garcia Icazbalceta, Memx)riales de^
Fray Toribio de Motolinia, Mejico 1903, p. 318 f.
3 N. Leon, Cuatro libros de la naturaleza, Extracto de las obras del Dr.

Francisco Hernandez, Morelia 1888, p. 52.

* A. de Zorita, Historia de la Nueva Espana, Madrid 1909, vol. I, p. 130.

' M. Orozco y Berra, Histmia antigua

y dela conquista de Mexico, Mexico
1880, vol. I, p. 337.
40 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
paper could be made from various barks, even as it is
manufactured today from pulp, but there is no evidence
that it was manufactured of anything but maguey.
At least Orozco y Berra shows that in 1580, at which
time Hernandez wrote, there was a maguey paper mill
at Culhuacan.
The large Goupil collection of Mexican manuscripts^
records only paper from the agave americana, that is,
maguey, or European paper. ^ The same is true of the
Humboldt collection,^ with one exception. Number
XVI, according to Seler, ''looks as though it were
European ragpaper, but the microscopic investigation
showed a fiber, which in appearance, strength, and
luminosity, etc., seemed to be identical with the fiber
of which the coarse agave paper of pages III and IV is
made. Only there are among it slender, spirally twisted
fibers, which seemed to stretch themselves a little
and to untwist in the water under the cover glass."*
The stretching and unrolling of the fiber points at once to
ceiha cotton. This material was also used in the Lienzo
de Tucutacato: **the fiber of the cloth is brilliant and
very smooth, much resembling that of Gotton {Go ssypium
herbaceum), and identical with that of Eriodendron
anfractuosum. As it is not possible to subject the
latter to permanent spinning, we must suppose either
that it is not of the material, or that the 'Tarascos*
understood some peculiar method, now lost, of prepar-
ing it so as to use it to advantage. "^ The preparation
is described by MotoHnia. "The amanteca, who work in
IE. Boban, Documents pour servir d Vhistoire du Mexique, Catalogue
raisonne de la collection E. Eugene Goupil, Paris 1891.
2 "In Sahagun's time Spanish paper was sold in the Mexican market,"

op. cit., lib. X, cap. 21.

3 E. Seler, Die mexikanischen Bilderhandschriften Alexander von Humboldt's

in der Koniglichen Bibliothek zu Berlin, in Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur

amerikanischen Sprach- und Alterthumskunde, Beriin 1902, vol. I, p. 162 flf.
4 Ibid., p. 289.
"N. Le6n, Studies on the Archaeology of Michoacan (Mexico), in Smith-
sonian Report, 1886, Washington 1889, p. 307.
 COTTON IN MEXICO 41

feathers and gold, make much use of the shredded

maguey leaves: over these leaves they make a paper
of pasty cotton, which is as fine as a thin veil, and on
this paper and over the leaves they paint their pictures,
and the paper is the principal instrument of their
office."^ There can be little doubt that the "cotton"
here mentioned was ceiba cotton, which needed a paste
in order to make the fiber stay twisted. Of real cotton
paper not a trace has been found in ancient Mexico.
In 1532 the Indians were compelled to plant those
things which they had to render as a tribute, and
mayordomos or calpixques were placed over them, to
see that the work was done.^ These calpixques were
chiefly Negroes, who immediately after the conquest
treated the Indians with great severity.^ In 1533 some

1 "De estas pencas hechas pedazos se sirven mucho los maestros, que
llaman amanteca, que labran de pluma y oro: encima de estas pencas hacen
un papel de algodon engrudado, tan delgado como una delgada toca, y sobre
aquel papel y encima de la penca labran todos sus debujos, y es de los
principales instrumentos de su oficio," op. cit., p. 317.
2 "Al presente para les sacar el tribute es menester que un mayordomo 6

calpixque est6 en cada pueblo para les hacer sembrar lo que son obligados,
y para que den el tributo que le esta seiialado, y con todo esto no se les saca
ni lo dan enteramente," J. Garcia Icazbalceta, Parecer del Sr. Fuenleal, in
Coleccion de documentos para la historia de Mexico, Mexico 1866, vol. II,
p. 177.
3 "La cuarta plaga fue los calpixques 6 estancieros y negros; que luego
que la tierra se repartio, los conquistadores pusieron en sus repartimientos
y pueblos ^ ellos encomendados criados 6 negros para cobrar los tributos
y para entender en granjerias, y estos residian y residen en los pueblos, y
aunque por la mayor parte son labradores de Espaiia, acd en esta Nueva
Espafia se enseiiorean y mandan a los senores y principales naturales; y
porque no querria escribir sus defectos, digo que me parece d los opresores
egipcianos que afligian al pueblo de Israel, porque en todo les semeja en las
obras y en el hacer de los ladrillos. Tambien son como las moscas gravisimas
de la cuarta plaga de Egipto que agraviaba la casa de Faraon y de sus siervos:
y de esta plaga fue corrompida la tierra: bien asi estos calpixques que digo
agravian a los senores naturales y a todo el pueblo, y ansi se hacen servir y
temer mds que si fuesen senores naturales, y nunca otra cosa hacen sino
demandar, y nunca estan contentos a do estan y allegan: todo lo enconan
y corrompen, hediondos como came daiiada de moscas por sus malos
ejemplos; moscas en ser perezosos y no saber hacer nada sino mandar;
zdnganos que comen la miel que labran las abejas, esto es, que no les basta
cuanto los pobres indios pueden dar, sino que siempre son importunos,
como moscas gravlsimos. En los aiios primeros eran (tan) absolutos estos
42 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
Indians of the province of Guanavaquez came before
Pedro Garcia, interpreter of the Real Audiencia, with
eight paintings of the tribute they were paying to
Cortes, and complained that the latter treated them
not as vassals of the King of Spain, but as slaves, who
were maltreated by his servants and were obliged to
pay excessive tributes and do excessive services. The
province of Guanavaquez paid to Cortes every eighty
days 4800 four-ply sheets of two ells broad and two ells
long, besides twenty richly worked petticoats and
shirts, ten damask bed sheets, ten other Indian damask
sheets, and four cotton quilts, and had to furnish the
food, the planting, and the house service. They had to
plant each year twenty units of cotton and eight of
maize, and to reap and house it all. Among the long list
of other contributions they made, are mentioned
Spanish chickens, which shows that we are not dealing
with lists of Aztec tributes in the paintings, but with
those of Spanish origin. Indeed, Pedro Garcia testifies
that the paintings contained lists of tribute, food, and
services, and of extortions, that is, that they were deal-
ing with contemporary, not pre-Spanish conditions.^
We have a contemporary reference to the extraord-
inary rapidity with which the Indians accommodated
themselves to the new conditions, and raised and manu-
factured European articles or, to be more correct,
Indian articles with European improvements. In 1541
the Christian Indians of Tlaxcalla offered on Easter
day a large number of mantles, "woven of cotton and
hare's wool, and those are of many kinds: most of them
have a cross in the middle, and these crosses differ much
among themselves; other cloths have in the middle a
ccUpixques en maltratar los indios y en enviarlos cargados lejos tierra, y
poniendolos en otros trabajos, de los cuales hartos murieron," J. Garcia
Icazbalceta, Memoriales de Fray Toribio, p. 22 f.
^ Coleccion de documentos ineditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y
organizacion de las antiguas posesiones espaflolas de America y Oceania,
Madrid 1870, vol. XIV, p. 142 fif.
TOCULPOTZIN, from Boban's Documents pour servir a Vhistoire du Mexique.
 ,
*

QUAUHTLAZACUILOTZIN, from Boban's Documents pour servir a Vhistoire du

Mexique.
 COTTON IN MEXICO 43

striped colored shield; others have the name of Jesus

or Mary, with their tassels and embroidery all around
them; others have flowers and roses beautifully woven
into them, and this year a woman offered on one such
cloth the crucifix woven on both sides, although one
seemed to be the face of it, and this was so well done
that all those who saw it, both churchmen and lay
Spaniards, admired it greatly, and said that she could
do even better and should produce tapestry."^ The
Indians of Tlaxcalla built two chapels in Spanish fashion
soon after 1525, and produced all kinds of cloth on
Spanish looms, and in a little more than twenty days
learned to construct a loom and work in wool, estab-
lishing a factory for wool cloth at Quauhquechulla.^
^ **Lo que ofrecen es algunas mantas de las con que andan cubiertos:
otros pobres traen mantillas de cuatro 6 cinco palmos en largo, 6 poco menos
de ancho, que valeran un maravedl: otros pauperrimos ofrecen otras aun
menores: otras mujeres ofrecen unos panos como de portapaz, e de eso
sirven despues, que son de obra de tres 6 cuatro palmos, tejidos de labores
de algodon e de pelo de conejo, y estos son muchos e de muchas maneras:
los mas tienen una cruz en el medio, y estas cruces muy diferentes unas de
otras: otros de aquellos panos traen en medio un escudo de plagas tejido
de colores: otros el nombre de Jesus 6 de Maria, con sus caireles 6 labores
alrededor: otros son de flores y rosas tejidas y bien asentadas, y aun en
este alio ofrecio una mujer en un pafio de estos un Crucifijo tejido d dos
haces, aunque la una parte se parecia ser mas la haz que la otra, harto bien
hecho, que todos los que lo vieron, ansl frailes como seglares espaiioles, lo
tovieron en mucho, diciendo que quien aquel hizo, mejor haria y tejeria
tapiceria. Estas mantas y paiios traenlas cogidas, y allegados cerca las
gradas del altar, hincan las rodillas, y hecho su acatamiento, sacan y descogen
su manta 6 pafio, y tomanlas por los cabos con ambas las manos, tendida, y
levantanla hacia la frente una 6 dos 6 tres veces e luego asientanla en las
gradas, y retrdense un poco, tornando a hincar las rodillas, oran un poco,
y muchos de ellos traen consigo nifios, por quien tambien traen ofrenda, y
ddnselas en las manos, y avezanlos alll 4 ofrecer y hincar las rodillas, que
ver con el recogimiento y devocion que lo hacen, es para poner espiritu d los
muertos," J. Garcia Icazbalceta, Memoriales de Fray Toribio, p. 96 f.
2 "Tejen estos naturales con telares de Castilla sayal y mantas frazadas,

paiios y reposteros: en solo Tezcuco hay tantas y muchos telares de paiios,

que es una hacienda gruesa. Tejense muchas maneras de paiios hasta
resimos, y de esto los maestros son espanoles, pero en todo entienden e ayudan
los indios, y luego ponen la mano en cualquier oficio, y en pocos dias salen
maestros; ya este oficio de paiios esta en otras partes.
"Un senor de un pueblo llamado Aquauhquechula, en los aiios primeros que
comenzaron los telares, como el toviese ovejas y lana, deseaba tejeria en
telares de Castilla y hacer sayal para vestir a los frailes que en su pueblo
tiene, 6 mando d dos indios suyos que fuesen d Mexico, 4 una casa que habia
44 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
The complaint of the Indians that they had to plant
cotton, as something out of the ordinary, is justified by
a letter of the same year from the vicar. Fray Francisco
de Mayorga, who pitied the Indians and tried to have
their lot alleviated. He wrote: "He now oppresses
these poor souls still more and sends them to plant some
of Montezuma's fallow lands in cotton and other things,
in order to pay for a certain part of the house they
are making for him in Mexico, as if they were not doing
their part, and more than any other vassals."^ We
have only one reference to cotton being raised in the
time of Montezuma, but this is from a loose sheet writ-
ten by an unknown man after 1539: " The King placed
mayordomos and taxcollectors over those whom he
took captive in war, and, although they were governed
by their masters, they were under control of the King of
Mexico, and these ordered them to plant every kind of
seed and tree for the people of the cities, and cotton,
over and above the tribute. "^ But this is mere hearsay
telares, para que buscasen si pudiesen hallar algun indio de los ya enseiiados,
para que asentase en su pueblo un telar y ensenase d otros, y si no, que
mirasen si ellos podian deprenderlo por alguna via; y como no hallaron
quien con ellos quisiese venir, ni tampoco como se enseiiar poniendo la mano
en la obra, ca de otra manera muy mal se deprenden los oficios, sino metiendo
las manos en ellos: estos indios estuvieron mirando en aquella casa todo
cuanto es menester, desde que la lana se lava hasta que sale labrada y tejida
en el telar, y cuando los otros indios maestros iban i comer y en las fiestas,
los dos tomaban las medidas de todos los instrumentos y herramientas, ansi
de peynes, tornos, urdidero, como del telar, peines y todo lo demds, que
hasta sacar el paiio son muchos oficios, y en veinte y tantos dias, que no
Uegaron a treinta dias, llevaron los oficios en el entendimiento, y sacadas las
medidas y vueltos & su senor, asentaron en Quauhquechulla y pusieron los
oficios, hicieron y asentaron los telaron (telares), y tejieron su sayal. Lo que
m4s dificultoso se les hizo fue el urdir," ibid., p. 184 f.
^ "Lo que les anaden agora nuevamente a estos pobres es que los manda
sembrar unas tierras baldlas que eran de Muntecuma, de algodon y otras
cosas, para pagar cierta parte de la casa que le hacen en Mexico, como si
estos no hiciesen su parte, y mds que los otros sus vasallos," P. M. Cuevas,
Documentos ineditos del siglo XVI, para la historia de Mexico, Mexico 1914,
p. 47.
2 "Los que tomaba de guerra decian tequitin tlacotl e, que quiere decir,

tributan como esclavos. En estos ponia mayordomos y recogedores y

recaudadores; y aunque los senores mandaban su gente, eran debajo de la
mano destos de Mexico; y estos mandaban sembrar toda semilla y todo
 COTTON IN MEXICO 45

to justify precisely the same procedure by the Spaniards

who tried to make their clauses legal, by referring to
Aztec customs. The very phrase ''cotton, over and above
the tribute^^ shows that that was not the usual custom.
This same authority tells of the origin of wheat cul-
ture in Mexico, which was similarly imposed upon the
natives, and here we know positively that wheat was
only introduced by the Spaniards. "When the mar-
quis had conquered Mexico and while he was at Cuyoa-
can they brought him from the port a little rice. In it
three grains of wheat were found. He asked a free
Negro to plant them. Only one came up, and upon
investigation it was found that the other two had rot-
ted. The one which came up produced forty-seven
ears of wheat. From this there was such an abundance
that in 1539 I sold good wheat, indeed, especially good
wheat, at less than a real per hanega. Although the
marquis later received some wheat, it all spoiled and
did not grow. From this one grain comes all the wheat
with all its varieties in the lands where it has been sowed
and it seems to be different in every province, although
coming all from one seed."^
This account may be apocryphal, since G6mara tells a
variant of it: "A Negro of Cortes, whose name, I
believe, was Juan Garrido, planted in a garden three
grains of wheat which he had found in a bag of rice.
Two of them sprouted, and one of these produced one
hundred and eighty grains. They planted these, and
soon a mass of wheat came from it one grain produces
:

one hundred and even three hundred, and even more if

properly attended to and irrigated. While some is
being planted, other wheat is garnered, and other
drbol para granjeria d los vecinos, y algodon, demas de los tributes; y tenian
casas grandes do hacian llegar la gente mujeres de cada pueblo 6 barrio t
hilar, tejer, labrar; y demas de todo, en sabiendo que alguno tenia algo de
cudicia tomabanselo," J. Garcia Icazbalceta, Coleccion de documentos,
vol. II, p. 592.
' Ibid.,
p. 592 f.
46 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
green, and all at one time, and thus there are
is still
several crops a year. All this is due to a Negro and
"1
slave.
A number of Mexican picture writings, dealing with
the tribute, may now be examined. We begin with a
dated one, of Otlazpan and Tepexic,^ of the year 1549.
In this Codice Mariano Jimenez little trace is left of pre-
Spanish taxes, as we have not only payments in Spanish
gold, but contributions on Christian holidays and plant-
ing of wheat, as well as maize. Here we also find a pro-
vision that two thousand women were to weave each a
piece of a mantle of cotton, altogether 325 mantles.
The Indians were also to provide tochimitl mantles for
the chiefs and tequitlatos of the place. We have no
means of ascertaining the period at which cotton was
actually employed, since before Spanish times the com-
mon Indians wore mantles of maguey and henequen,
if not exclusively, certainly more often than any other

material, and those are not mentioned here.

Far more interesting is the very elaborate Codex
Kingsborough,^ of the British Museum, which deals with
the history of the pueblo of Tepetlauztuc from Aztec
times up to about 1549. Here we can study, not only
the changes brought about by the Spanish conquest,
but also the extraordinary rapidity with which Spanish
ideas and words became incorporated in Aztec thought
and language.
The first civilized cacique of Tepetlauztuc was Coco-
pin, who possessed several villages. From Magagua-
can, with one hundred households, he received every
eighty days four feather mantles and one load of rich
^ F. Lopez de G6mara, Conquista de Mejico, Barcelona 1888, vol. II,
p. 268.
' N. Le6n, Codice Mariano Jiminez, Ndmina de tributos de los pueblos
Otlazpan y Tepexic en geroglifico Azteca y lenguas Castellana y Nahuatl, 1649,
Mexico [1904].
3 The Peabody Museum at Harvard University has both a fine colored
copy and a photographic reproduction of this Codex.
 I
loiiDiVDitoini

IBMOIIQIIOIIyl

prr-r-T-n

1^

rt^ Vna )>iCtVi^ -9emmif« .-ScfaS^iUfe 5^*?. 3c£ilx|o2oti • 55tl)l*v•

^!f

CHRISTIAN ELEMENT in Codice Mariano Jimenez.

 ^^' w

9w 8<"«nHca« &m<ifti\ ^Vna Seot^io ^n^vtne fiwxme (fft^vao \u^unHr iy<t\k-(x'i

EARLIEST REPRESENTATION OF WHEAT IN AMERICA, from Codice

Mariano Jimenez.
 COTTON IN MEXICO 47

petticoats, one of shirts, and two of maguey shirts, one

load of fine mantles, four of mats, eighty burdens of
ocote, and had one sowing of maize of 400 bracas.
From Caltecoya, with forty households, he received as
tribute every eighty days twenty fine large mantles and
twenty shirts, and sowed 400 square tragas of maize.
Hiecazinco, with forty households, gave the same; from
Tlapechuacan he got two sowings of maize; Hazahuac,
with twenty households, gave only building material,
and so forth. After him came his wife, and then his
nephew Tlilpotonqui, who, as a Christian, was called
Don Diego and had left to him by Cortes only a part of
Cocopin's possessions, namely 265 houses, from which
he received tribute. There were in all, in Cortes' time,
twenty chiefs, who received tribute from their tenants,
which apparently was transferred to Cortes. In the
three years that Cortes owned the villages, he received
forty squares of fine gold, each of which weighed 30 pesos
of gold, one gold buckle and rich plumes. Besides, he
received four loads of fine mantles and eleven richly
wrought mantles, and still another load of rich mantles,
and 3000 hanegas of maize.
After three years, Cortes turned this pueblo over to
Diego de Ocampo, who received in one year forty squares
of gold, ten loads of richly wrought mantles, and eleven
loads of more richly wrought mantles of tochomitl,
** which is the silk of the country." This tribute is
obviously of the same character as that given to Cortes,
and we learn from this that the richly wrought mantles
were made from hare's wool. The following year the
encomienda was held by Miguel Diaz, who received as
tribute forty squares of gold, twelve loads of rich cloth,
80,000 grains of axi, 200 salt loaves, 800 loads of beans,
800 loads of maize flour, 800 loads of differently ground
maize, 20 loads of native bread, and a large quantity of
pots, pigs and dishes, 300 crates of fowls, 60 loads of
48 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
ground cocoa, 200 load carriers, 33,600 loads of maize,
10 millers per day, and all this although the excessive
taxes had already greatly reduced the population. The
terrible extortion in articles not produced on the land
was an intolerable burden to the Indians: "This first
year the Indians gave to the factor fruit, axi, salt, honey,
pitchers, pots, coal, ocote, which they bought in the
market at the price of 7300 loads of enequen mantles,
each load containing 20 mantles of enequen. " It is not
necessary to pursue further the exactions of the factor,
and the toll in Indian lives. We have so far gleaned a
number of important points for our purpose.
By time we find the gold weighed on Spanish
this
scales,which are represented in the Mexican hierogly-
phics. The Spanish word peso "weight" was at once
adopted by the Aztec and other languages, and we find
in the earliest Aztec dictionary pexouia "to weigh,"
and similarly, Kiche pis-oc, Pokonchi paj-am, Kakchi-
quel, Uspanteca paj, Maya ppiz "to weigh, measure,"
hence Maya ppiz-ah "to weigh, compare, arrange, mix
mortar," ppiz-ho "to try oneself, understand, fight,
war," ppiz'ih "rule," ppiz-kin "week," ppiz-muk ''to
try, attempt." Without a careful study of the whole
group of the Maya words, one would hardly have sus-
pected that they are of Spanish origin, and that in the
twenties of the XVI. century many of these words were
already current in Mexico and the neighboring coun-
tries. It was this extraordinary rapidity of the dissemi-
nation of borrowed words, which immediately undergo
phonetic changes, that set me to investigate the arch-
aeological data, which deal with centuries and aeons,
instead of years, where documentary evidence may be
found.
Another such word is the Spanish Castilla "Spain."
In the Codex Kingshorough we have a few references to
a tribute in chickens, as "gallinas de Castilla, " Hence
 " ^

COTTON IN MEXICO 49

the earliest Aztec dictionary gives caxtil "chicken."

In Kekchi caxlan is not only '* chicken/' but also
** Spanish," hence caxlan lent ''Spanish mirror," that
is, "eyeglasses," caxlan oua "Spanish bread," that is,
"wheat bread. " In Maya the word has reduced itself
to cax "chicken."
But what is of greater importance to us is the fact
that we have no reference to "cotton" mantles. We
hear only of those of tochomitl, maguey, and enequen.
The first refers to wool cloth, the second to common
mantles, and the last, obviously to the "mantas del-
gadas, " or "ricas, " the delicately wrought mantles of
the text. The statement that the Indians exchanged
their enequen mantles for articles in the markets is made
in order to show that it was not common maguey man-
tles that the Indians paid for them, but the better kind.
Enequen of the text is the same as pita of the Spaniards.
Of this Hernandez^ says: ''Pali, or metl, from which the
finest threads are made, resembles metl, but has nar-
rower, smaller, and thinner leaves, which are inclined
to be purple and form a thick fibrous root. It is the
kind which is called pita and from it are spun very fine
threads, which are held in high esteem and are adapted
for the weaving of costly linen cloth. " " Quetzaly chili
which some call metl pitae, seems to belong to the metL
It grows as high as a tree and has a large fibrous root,,
which by degrees grows slender. Its leaves are spinous
and resemble those of the metl. From them anything
can be made that is made from the metl, and from its;
threads very delicate and costly garments are made. It
grows in hot places.
In the third year of the encomienda, which is about the
year 1527, the factor asked for Don Diego's wife and,
not getting her, sent Don Diego to pasture his sheep,

^ F. Herndndez, Nova plantarum, animalium et mineralium mexicanorum

historia, Romae 1651, p. 275.
50 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
and here we get a very good representation of two
sheep. A year later the Indians raised wheat for the
mayordomo, and gathered two thousand hanegas of
wheat. Here we get, I believe, for the first time, a
Mexican picture of an ear of wheat. The following
year we once more hear of mantles of tochomitl "which
is the silk of the country." A few years later the
Indians were obliged at their own expense to paint the
factor's house, for which they spent 800 loads of mantles
of enequen, each of twenty mantles. From this night-
mare of tributes the Indians were freed only after four
years of the encomienda, approximately in 1548, by
Doctor Quezada, who examined the case and compelled
the factor to pay back to the Indians 1600 pesos.
We can now approach the great Book of Tributes in the
Codex Mendozo} and the Lihro de los trihutos} The latter
is, probably, an older copy than the first, but as so many

deductions have been based on the Spanish interpreta-

tion in the Codex Mendoza, we shall examine this one
more closely. Kingsborough says that "the M. S. con-
taining this collection of paintings is not original; the
outjine of figures is done with a pen, and they are
drawn on European paper. " This copy was, according
to Orozco y Berra, executed about the year 1549, just
before Viceroy Mendoza's reign came to an end. The
contemporary editor of the Codex craved the excuse of
the reader for the faulty interpretation of the Mexican
figure writing, which was frequently a matter of guess-
work. The Spanish translation was made a few days
before the departure of the fleet, and the reader should
keep in view only the subject matter.'
E. Kingsborough, Antiquities in Mexico, London 1830.
1

2 A. Peiiafiel, Monumentos del arte mexicano antiguo, Berlin 1890.

3 "El estilo grosero e interpretacion de lo figurado en esta ystoria supla el

Lector, porque no se dio lugar al ynterpretador, y como cosa no acordada ni

pensada, se interpret© a uso de proceso . . Diez dias antes de la partida
.

de la flota se dio al ynterpretador esta ystoria para que la ynterpretase, el

cual descuido fu6 de los Yndias que acordaron tarde, y como cosa corrida
 COTTON IN MEXICO 51

The list of tributes paid by the subjected cities to

Montezuma is found on plates XIX-LVII. What-
ever reliance theremay be placed on the Mexican writ-
ing, the Spanish interpretation of it is of extremely
doubtful value. The tribute begins with the city of
Tlatelulco, which later became a part of the city of
Mexico, and the Spanish translation says that the
tribute began in the time of Quauhtlatoa and Moqui-
huix, masters of Tlatelulco. The masters of Mexico
who started those of Tlatelulco and made them pay
tribute recognizing the vassalage were Yzgoagi and
Axayacagi.-^ In the Mexican text there are merely
pictures and hieroglyphics of Yzgoagi, Axayacagi,
Quauhtlatoa, Moquihuix, and Tlatelulco. The Spanish
interpretation is absurd, since Tlatelulco began to pay
tribute after Moquihuix' s suicide, and more than thirty
years after Quauhtlatoa' s reign, which was about the
same time as that of Yzgoagi of Mexico. Indeed the
same Spanish interpreter says in the history, which pre-
cedes the Book of Tributes, that Moquihuix committed
suicide, ** when the Mexicans were victorious, and since
then the city of Tlatelulco was a vassal of the masters
of Mexico, until the Spaniards came, paying them trib-
ute and recognizing the vassalage."^
In the Codex there is given a very large number of
mantles, from pure white to very elaborate colored
designs, of which the material is not specified, neither
in the Mexican text, nor in the Spanish interpretation.
In plates XXXII, XXXV, XXXXI they are specifi-
no se tuvo punto en el estilo que convenia ynterpretarse, ni se dio lugar para
que se sacase en limpio limando los vocablos y orden que convenia, y aunque
las interpretaciones van toscas, no se a de tener nota si no 4 substancia de las
aclaraciones, lo que significan las figuras, las cuales van bien declaradas por
ser como es el ynterpretador buena lengua Mexicana."
1 "Tuvo principio el dicho tributo desde el tiempo de Quauhtlatoa y
Moquihuix, seiiores que fueron de Tlatilula. Los seiiores de Mexico que
dieron principio a los de Tlatilula, y a que le tributasen reconociendo vasa-
Uage, fueron Yzgoagi, y Axayacagi," ibid., vol. V, p. 54.
^Ibid., plate X.
52 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
cally mentioned as of henequen (eneguen), although the
Mexican text has no corresponding hieroglyphics. In
plates XXXI, XXXVII, XXXVIII some of the man-
tles are crossed by a thorn, and the translator mentions
them as of henequen. But he is mistaken. The town
of CoQolan is marked by the same kind of maguey
needle, and it is clear that here gogo stands for the
needle and means ''worked with a needle, peculiar kind
of weaving or embroidery." The Aztec dictionary
'*
gives gogo ensartar cuentas, axi, flores, " gogoa ''tender
6 desplegar mantas 6 abrir libros, '' and there is no ref-
erence to material hence the thorn mantles have some
;

reference to workmanship, not material. In plate

XXXVI the fairly elaborate and the white mantles are
given as of eneguen, the very elaborate mantle is not
mentioned as to material, but in the preceding resum^
is given as of cotton. In plateXXXV the more elab-
orate and the white mantles are given as of eneguen,
while the one with a single blue and white border is of
cotton. In plate XXXVIII only the very elaborate
mantle is given as of cotton. Peiiafiel, in the Lihro de los
trihutosy wisely abstained from mentioning any mater-
ial in connection with these mantles.

We have unmistakable references to cotton in plates

XXXIX, L, LVII, where an enormous mass of raw
cotton represented by mat-covered loads topped by
is
an open cotton boll. If the tribute is correctly rendered
in the paintings, there is no escape from the conclusion
that at least raw cotton was in use among the Aztecs.
But it can be shown, chiefly from linguistic considera-
tions, that the reference is to the cotton of the Erioden-
dron anfractuosum, that is, the ceiha tree, which was
used for stuffing protective garments of war and pillows.
Of this ceiha Oviedo says: "The fruit of this tree is a
pad of the size of the middle finger and as thick as two
fingers, round, and full of fine wool, which opens up
 ^ rMp-'
'i'^m
vSB^

TRIBUTE OF COTTON, from Kingsborough's Antiquities in Mexico.

 a

9^
COITON MANTLES, from Kingsborough's Antiquities in Mexico.
 COTTON IN MEXICO 53

when ripe by the action of the sun and then the wind ;

carries this wool, among which there are the seeds, just
as there are in cotton. This wool seems to be wonderful,
and the fruit of the ceiha is like the wild cucumber of
Castille, except that it is larger and thicker, but the
largest is not bigger than the hand. When it is ripe,
it opens up lengthwise in four parts, and with the first
wind the wool is carried away, and it looks as though
it had snowed, since the wool covers the whole earth.
This wool is very short, and, it seems to me, it cannot
be spun; but for pillows and cushions (when it does not
get wet) it is very fine, both through its whiteness and
lightness, and for gentlemen's beds it is the most
precious of wools it is like silk, and finer than the finest
:

silk fiber, sothat no down, cotton or wool can equal it;

but if it gets wet, it is all ruined."^
The Aztec name for cotton is ychca, and this word is
found in a number of townnames in the Book of Trib-
utes, such as Ychcatlopan, Ychcatlan, hence must be
older than the Conquest of Mexico, but did ychca origin-
ally mean "cotton" or "ceiba wool?" This can be
determined only from a philological study of the word.
In Maya ix means ''woman, female," hence ix-cax
"hen," ix-nuc "old woman," ix-tux "turkey hen."
But ix is also used to express that which is not genuine,
not good, hence ix-kanahal "bitter cherry," ix-nahatun
"tinsel gold," ix-tun "chalk," that is, "false stone."
Similarly we have Kiche x-cah "wax," from cab
"honey."
The same evolution has taken place in Nahuatl with
the related ich. Its original meaning is "female,"
hence tel-pocatl "lad," ich-pocatl "lass." No doubt
ich-teco, "secretly," ich-tequi "thief," ich-
ich-taca
tectli "a
stolen thing" are pejoratives in which ich
refers to the wrong in the doing, teca "to put away."

' Historia general y natural de las Indias, vol. I, p. 342 flf.

 '

54 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

A similar pejorative is found in Maya x-mulis **curli-
ness, " and this idea of curliness, as something un-
worthy, is found in several languages of Mexico.
Thus we have Nahuatl ''anything fluffy, " ix-
ich-tli
pochina *' to fluff, card. " In Tarascan we have, side by
side, ura-pe-ni "white, " ura-pi maguey " ura "strong,
* ,
'

healthy," and x-ura-ni "to unravel," x-uri "worth-

'
less,
'
X'Ura cotton.
'
'
' Nahuatl tla-ch-pan-tli broom,
'
' *
'

och'pana "to card," by the side of Tarascan pan-qua

"broom, " shows that ch, och has here the same meaning
of "fluffy, " and the same is true of tla-ch-ayotl "fine
parrot feathers. " Nahuatl me-ca-tl "rope" is obviously
composed from me-tl "maguey," and a word which is
found in Pokonchi c'aj-am, caj-am, Kekchi c'am, c'am-al,
Maya kaan "rope, anything rope-like," so that in
Nahuatl we have the specific reference to maguey rope.
Hence ych-ca-tl can only refer to anything rope-like, but
of a fluffy character. Whenever real cotton was intro-
duced, whether before or after the Conquest, the old
name, which may have
referred to ceiha, or anything
else of little value as was transferred to cotton,
a textile,
and similarly to sheep's wool, and the sheep itself,
which are all given in Nahuatl as ych-ca-tl. Just as
ych-ca-tl, from the very beginning of the Conquest,
meant " sheep's wool" and "sheep, " both of which were
unknown before, so the reference to "cotton" under
the name of ych-ca-tl is no proof whatsoever that cotton
was known before the appearance of the Spaniards.
The complaints of the Indians that they were
obliged to buy things in the market by means of loads
of mantles are borne out by Motolinia himself, who in
1550 testifled to this in a letter to the King of Spain.
He also testified to the fact that the Indians had only
the cheapest of clothes to wear.^ In 1554 Nicholas de

1 "Lo que traen vestido, es tan poco

y tan vil, que apenas sabrdn qu6
precio le poner," P. M. Cuevas, op. cit., p. 163.
 COTTON IN MEXICO 55

Witte answered in full the questions put by the govern-

ment as to how the Indian tribute was to be distributed.^
As to the inquiry whether the Indians could not have
been taxed according to their ancient pictures, he said
that there was no order, no time, no precise measure as
to what they were to give, and that they contributed
only upon special occasions, as they still did secretly
among themselves. In reply to the question whether the
Spaniards were paying any attention to the ancient tri-
bute, he said They did not pay the slightest attention
:
'
'

to what they paid anciently, but only to gold and silver

and their farmwork, for formerly they did not pay such
large quantities of mantles, nor did they know what beds
were, nor cotton cloth, nor a thousand other things, such
as covers and blankets, and shirts, and hueypilles, but
they only used to do their planting and fix their temples,
and serve in their masters' houses, and gave only what
grew upon their lands, whenever the master asked for
it, and no attention was paid to what they used to pay

in Aztec times. "^

From the examination of all the accessible documents
itappears that, at whatever time cotton may have been
introduced into Mexico, whether before or after the
Conquest, it had not formed a part of the tribute to the
Mexican Emperor, and that only ceiba wool was
furnished for the purpose of stuffing the protective

1 Ibid., p. 221 fiF.

"Acerca de la 9^, si subieron respecto a lo que los indios daban antiguamen-

2

te,cuando echaron los tributes: No tuvieron respecto ninguno a lo que antes

daban, sino a oro y plata y sus gran j erf as, que antes no daban cargas de
mantas tan grandes, ni sabian que eran camas, ni cotonfas, ni cera, ni otras
mil sacalinias, como sabanas y manteles, y camisas y hueypilles, sino haclan
sus sementeras y reparaban sus cues de los demonios, y haclan las casas de
sus seiiores y daban de lo que nacla en sus tierras cuando el seiior lo pidfa,
y ningtin respecto hubo en si pagaban mds o menos en su infidelidad," ibid.,
p. 225.
56 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
military garments with it. Immediately after the Con-
quest, cotton became as familiar to the Indians as
maguey, even as they at once began to raise wheat, and
chickens and sheep, but the evidence up to the year
1554 is conclusive that the cotton cloth paid as a tribute
was an innovation by the Spaniards and did not have
the sanction of the Aztec tribute.
 CHAPTER IV.

Cotton in Peru.

When Pizarro conquered Peru, he, according to his

secretary's account, found there a large quantity of cot-
ton garments,^ and thus it would seem that cotton was
known in Peru before the discovery of America, and
that the archaeologists may be right in assuming a very
old date, as far back as 200 A. D., for the cotton cloth
found in Peruvian sepulchers. We
must, therefore,
first become acquainted with Peruvian chronology, as
established by the archaeologists, and for this purpose
we shall examine the interesting work of Ph. A. Means,
A Survey of Ancient Peruvian Art^^ where all the conclu-
sions are discussed in full.
Mr. Means attempts in chapter IV. to establish a
chronology and dates for early Peruvian art, but admits
that **the dates hereto presented are only approximate.
In the nature of things, we must be prepared to allow for
an error of a century or more in the remoter epochs."^
After showing the insufficiency in the historical data, as
deduced from the Peruvian lists of kings, Mr. Means
proceeds to base his chronology on the one approxi-
mately certain criterion derived from the guano de-
^ "Los hombres visten camisetas sin mangas y unas mantas cubiertas.
Todas en su casa, tejen lana y algod6n, y hacen la ropa que es menester,
y calzado para los hombres, de lana y algodon, hecho como zapatos,"
F. de Jerez y Pedro Sancho, Las relaciones (k la conquista del Peru, in Col-
eccion de libros y documentos referentes a la historia del Peru, Lima 1917,
vol. V, p. 49; "La ropa es la mejor que en las Indias se ha visto; la mayor
parte della es de lana muy delgada y prima, y otra de algodon de diversas
colores y bien matizadas," ibid., p. 63.
2 In Transactions
of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, vol.
XXI, p. 315 ff.
»
Ibid., p. 383.
 s:

58 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

posits: **The islands off the coast of Peru have long
been famous for their deposits of guano. These lie in
masses of enormous thickness. Markham says that
two and one-half feet a century is approximately the
rate of accumulation. The rate no doubt fluctuated
slightly, but the careful investigations made by Mark-
ham have led him to accept the above rate as a fair
average. According to Gonzalez de la Rosa, antiqui-
ties occur in the guano at depths varying from nine feet
to forty or more. This means that in 1870 (at which
date the investigations were made) the antiquities pre-
sumably varied in age from about four centuries (i. e.
9 feet gives a date of about 1450) to about sixteen cen-
turies (i. e. 40 feet gives a date roughly equal to 200
A. D.). Perhaps future work will yield more detailed
information as to which cultures are found at various
depths in the guano. At all events, it seems possible
that for want of a better criterion we must bear the
evidence of the guano deposits in mind."^
Mr. Means has apparently not verified Markham'
"careful investigations," for Markham did not take
them seriously. Speaking of the guano islands he says
**The Islands off the coast, called Guanape and Macabi,
were looked upon as sacred cemeteries, and had been
so used for more than a thousand years. Besides pot-
tery and other works of art, numerous mummies have
been found at various depths, all females, and all head-
less."^ To this he adds the footnote: "The height of
the mass of guano deposit on these islands was 730 feet
in many places, and the antiquities have been found at
a depth of 100 feet. The accumulation of guano is
calculated at ten feet in four centuries, 100 feet in 4000
years. Articles found at 40 feet must, on this estimate
of the time taken for the deposits, have been there for

1 Ibid., p. 387 f.
' C. Markham, The Incas of Peru, New York 1910, p. 218.
 COTTON IN PERU 59

1600 years. It is now doubted whether the deposits

can possibly be due entirely to the excreta of birds.
The deposits are regularly stratified. But no other ex-
planation has been forthcoming." It will be observed
that Markham does not speak of careful investigation,
but only of somebody's calculation. In fact, ten pages
further on he distinctly admits that there is no cogency
in the calculation: "The depth at which ancient relics
have been found in the deposits of guano on the Chincha
Islands has been considered as another proof of the very
remote period when there were inhabitants in these
coast valleys. There is, however, some reason to douht
the cogency of this argument.'' ^^ Here again we have a
footnote, in which the calculation is completely nega-
tived: "Mr. Squier argues that articles may have been
buried in the guano at considerable depths, also that
they may have been placed on the surface and have
fallen down to an apparent great depth with the disin-
tegration of the material in course of removal, and thus
appear to have been deposited there." But the case
is much worse. As early as 1854 the Peruvian govern-
ment made a careful survey of the Chincha Islands^
and gave plans of the guano deposits from which it re-
sults that the guano is found in irregular heaps which
bear little relation to the physical condition of the
islands. Sometimes the level of the guano follows that
of the earth, sometimes it seems to be entirely the re-
verse, and again the guano sometimes rises abruptly
without any accountable reason. The thickness of the
guano varies from a few feet to a few hundred feet. An
object deposited at the bottom of the guano would not
be any older in one place than in another, yet there
would be hundreds of feet difference in the thickness of
1 Ihid., p. 228.
2Informes sobre la existencia de huano en las Isla^ de Chincha presentados
por la comision nombrada por el Gobierno peruana, con los pianos levantados
por la misma comision, Lima 1854.
60 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
the layers above them. Similarly, an object deposited
one hundred feet below the surface would in one place
be hundreds of feet above the earth, in another fifty or
more feet below the earth. It is evident that no con-
clusions whatsoever can be drawn from this, since it
appears that the guano was not deposited in horizontal
layers, but arbitrarily in spots, and no calculation is
equally applicable to the various parts of the islands.
Thus Mr. Means' only criterion for the determination
of the age of objects found in the guano deposits
vanishes completely.
In 1873 an inquiry was sent to Garcia, governor of
the guano island of Guanape,^ in regard to the mummies
and artifacts disinterred from the guano. He says that,
among other things, a vast number of pieces of some
kind of cotton (piezas de genero de algodon) in a rotten
condition had been found there, but that the idols came
from a depth of three to four meters. To this Gonza-
lez de la Rosa remarks: "If the finds come from the
sacrifices found only at a depth of from three to four
meters under the guano, according to Garcia, then it is
to be assumed that they are of a relatively modern
period, but, in any case, anterior to 1532, when the
Spaniards came, and most likely, before the Incas ruled
at the coast and suppressed the sacrifices."^ All this is
mere supposition, but Gonzalez de la Rosa is certainly
nearer the truth than Means.
Unfortunately it is impossible to ascertain from the
Spanish documents how and when cotton was intro-
duced into Peru, because from the very beginning of the
Conquest a number of European or other foreign articles
were constantly and persistently demanded of the
Indians. In the cedula of 1537 it was determined that
1 Gonzalez de la Rosa, Estudio de las antiguedades peruanas hcUladas bajo
el huaru), in Revisia Historica, organo del InstittUo Histdrico del Peril, Lima
1908, vol. Ill, p. 39 flf.

2 Ibid., p. 44.
 COTTON IN PERU 61

the Indians should pay tribute in kind, of what they

raised or possessed in their own lands, ^ but in the
Reform of the ''encomiendas,'' published by Governor
Pedro de la Gasca in 1549,^ we have a definite proof
that the tribute was practically identical with that in
existence in Mexico, and was based on the Spanish
needs, and not on the ancient Peruvian custom. The
Indians had to pay a certain amount of gold, and a
given quantity of cotton mantles, maize, wheat, fowls,
fish, eggs, salt, and charcoal, besides planting maize and
wheat for the encomenderos. The same articles were
demanded in the Governor's Reform of 1552.^ As the
wheat was an innovation, in comparison with the Inca
times, so is cotton here an innovation, since at Lima,
with its moderate climate, it is not likely that cotton
was raised, and since the ancient tribute of the Incas
refers only to cloth made of llama and vicuna wool, and
not to cotton.
In 1571 and 1577 extensive inquiries were sent out by
the Spanish government as regards the Indians of Peru,
and from the answers one sees how greatly at that time,
and unquestionably much earlier, the European meth-
ods had been forced upon the natives. Cotton mantles
formed an important part of the tribute, not only in the
hot coast region, where cotton prospered,* but also in
the temperate regions, where they had to buy it from the
hot yungas.^ Furthermore it is distinctly mentioned
1 E. Torres Saldamando,Li6ro primero de cabildos deLima, segunda parte,
Paris 1900, p. 98.
2 Ibid., p. 152 ff.
» Ibid., p. 155 flf.

* M. Jimenez de la Espada, Relaciones geogrdficas de Indias, Madrid

1881-97, vol. I, pp. CXI, CXII, 34, 102, vol. Ill, p. 116, vol. IV, pp. XLVII,
XLIX, 135.
6 "A los treinta y tres capltulos se dice que sus tributos lo pagan en

dineros de oro y reales y ganados de la tierra que tienen, y en malz y trigo,

que en la tasa que tienen seiialada (asl) y que sus granjerias son de los
;

ganados de la tierra que tienen y ropa de cumbi y abasca que hacen y las
venden 4 espanoles y A indios que vienen 4 sus pueblos 4 buscallos, y ellos
los Uevan d las ciudades; y que tambien van ellos a valles callentes d comprar
62 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
that the cloth industry among the Indians was further-
ed by the Spanish industry,^ and that Spanish cloth was
equally manufactured by the Indians.^
It is only natural that cotton should have at a very
early time been cultivated by the Indians, since they
were soon after the Conquest put in charge of Negroes.
In 1535 a complaint was entered in the Cabildo of Lima
that the Negroes brought from Panama to Jauja were
prejudicial to the Indians and caciques by taking their
food and doing them other harm.^ The early legisla-

axi y camarones y algodon y otras cosas y lo toman 4 revender," ibid.,

vol. II, p. 20. "Benefician y hacen lienzo de algod6n, aunque no se coge
en 61 por demasiada f escura y fertilidad." "Vistense todos por la orden
que los del Piru, de algodon y lana que sus encomenderos les dan," ibid.,
vol. II, p. 149.
1 "Criaban avestruces mansas en sus casas, gallinas
y patos, y asi lo hacen
ahora, aunque, despues que los xpianos entraron en aquella tierra, se visten
todos en general, 4 fuer de los del Piru, de lana y de algod6n. Es gente
bien partida; tenian tratos unos con otros con las cosas que habia en la
tierra, que son las dos declaradas, no para grangerlas, sino para suplir sus
necesidades. Hoy tienen algunas granjerfas los que son ladinos que tratan
con los espanoles." "Dan de tasa el servicio de sus personas con mucha
moderacion, para beneficio de chdcaras y heredades y algodonales de que
ellos se visten, como dicho es, y despues benefician en telares este algodon y
lanas de ganados de Castilla que tienen los xpianos y naturales, de que se
hace, mediante el industria de los espanoles, sobre-camas, vestidos de indios,
lienzos y telillas y otras cosas de que se aprovechan los encomenderos y lo
envian al Piru y dello sacan dineros con que se proveen de cosas de Castilla,
asi medicinales como necesarias al sustento de la vida," ibid., vol. II, p. 144.
2 "Cogese abundancia de miel y cera y cochinilla, pastel y anill (asi), y
hay mucha ralz con que tinen gualda y otros colores que se crian y dan en
la tierra, y mucha abundancia de pez y cabuya, que sirve de cdiiamo, y otra
resina que llaman incienso, olorifera y saludable," ibid., vol. II, p. 145.
"Hay dos obrajes de jerga e sayal," ibid., vol. I, p. 89.
3 "Dixeron q.e porquanto enla cibdad de xauxa se fizieron ciertas hor-

denanzas sobre los negros q.e enesta governacion seme tian etrayan dela
cibdad de panama segund q.e mas largamente porellas parecia eagora parece
yes publico q.e los dichos negros fazen mucho dafio eperjuizio en los casiques
e yndios desta cibdad tomandoles sus comydas e haziendas e haziendoles
otros malos tratamyentos los no seles devia de hazer equebrantando las
dichas ordenanzas q.e sobre ello estan fechas mandaron q.e qualquier
espaiiol q.e pillare negro eaziendo daiio lo pueda traer preso ala justicia q.e
lo castigue mandaron q.e qualquier negro o esclavo q.e fuere por yerva
otraxere hoja de mayz q.e lesean dados cient azotes por la primera vez
eporla segunda q.e pague su amo veynte pesos eporla tercera vez q.e tal
negro oesclavo sea echado dela tierra." E. Torres Saldamando, op. cit.,
vol. I, p. 27.
 COTTON IN PERU 63

tion against the Negroes^ shows that their influence

upon the Indians was at least as great as that of the
white overseers, hence the introduction of African
methods of agriculture is only natural, and such meth-
ods would not be specifically mentioned in the docu-
ments, that is, while we have specific references to the
introduction of wheat, bananas, sheep, horses, we never
hear of the similar importations from Africa, which
were indirect, from one Negro colony of slaves to
another, as in this case from Panama, without any men-
tion whatsoever of the fact.
The oldest literary source for conditions in Peru is
Pedro Cieza de Leon's account of his travels in Peru
from 1532 to 1550, which was first published in 1553.^
Authorities agree to Markham's judgment that this
*
work, 'bearing evident marks of honesty of purpose,
and skill in the selection of materials, on the part of its
author, is at the same time written by one who examined
almost every part of the empire of the Yncas, within a
few years of the conquest. It is, therefore, a work of
the greatest possible value to the student of early South
American history, and has always stood very high as an
authority, in the estimation of modern historians."^
We shall therefore examine this account closely as to
the presence of cotton in Peru. Cieza de Leon fre-
quently refers to the custom or the Indians of burying
their dead in deep holes. "In the other provinces,
when a chief dies, they make a very deep sepulchre in
the lofty parts of the mountains, and, after much lamen-
tation, they put the body in it, wrapped in many rich
cloths, with arms on one side and plenty of food on the
other, great jars of wine, plumes and gold ornaments.
At his feet they bury some of his most beloved and
1 Ibid., p. 73.
2 C. R. Markham, The Travels of Pedro de Cieza de Leon (The Hakluyt
Society), London 1864.
3 Ibid., p. XVI.
 .

64 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

beautiful women alive; holding it for certain that he
will come to life, and make use of what they have placed
round him."^ "Thus, when the chiefs die, their bodies
are placed in large and deep tombs, accompanied by
many live women, and adorned by all they possessed of
most value when living, according to the general custom
of the other Indians of these parts. "^ **When their
chiefs die, they make large and deep tombs inside their
houses, into which they put a good supply of food, arms,
and gold, with the bodies."^ **In many other provinces,
through which I have passed, they bury their dead in
very deep holes, while in others, as those within the
jurisdiction of the city of Antioquia, they pile up such
masses of earth in making their tombs, that they look
like small hills."^
This custom of burying the dead deep below the
ground once more emphasizes the correctness of Squier's
view that the distance below the surface of the guano
where burial objects have been found is no criterion
whatsoever as to the age of these deposits. But the
case is much worse still, for we have the information
from so excellent an authority as Ondegardo, in 1571,
that artificial layers of sand were created in the Peruvian
sepulchers, at least in the cities of Cuzco and Quito:
** These natives had another kind of tribute, which,
though not common, was heavy and troublesome and
arose from their strange whims, engendered by their
Incas, who wished to impress one with the greatness of
the City of Cuzco They say that from the
whole square of Cuzco the earth had been removed and
had been taken to other parts as of great esteem, and
that it had been filled in with sand from the sea-shore,
two palms and a half in thickness and in some places
1 Ibid., p. 65.
«
Ibid., p. 81.
» Ibid., 102.
p.
* Ibid., p. 227 f
 COTTON IN PERU 65

more. In it they placed many gold and silver vessels,

small sheep and manikins of the same, of which we have
seen removed a great quantity. The whole square was
filled with that sand, when I went to govern the city,
and if it is true that this sand was brought as is afi&rmed
and contained in their accounts, it seems to me that the
whole earth thereabout must be understood by it, for
the square is large and there is no counting the loads
that entered unto it, and the nearest coast is more than
ninety leagues, so far as I know, and I am satisfied, as
all say, that there is no such sand any nearer than the
coast; for I made all possible inquiry, both among
Indians and Spaniards, asking for the cause of its trans-
portation, and found that they did so out of respect for
Tizibiracocha, to whom they principally direct their
sacrifices When the ground was broken for
the great Church at Cuzco, the sand there being of poor
quality and far away, the architects said that if the sand
from the square were not used, the cost would be great,
for that which was found was poor and hard to trans-
port, and so I had it all taken from there, and there was
a great quantity of it, and we leveled it up with other
dirt, which the Indians out of their superstition took
very hard, but would not think ill if we restored the
square to its old condition, and when I understood this,
I gave it so much more the readily to the church, and
there is no doubt that it was worth more than four
thousand castellanos, for it would have cost a great deal
more to transport it and would not be profitable, and
with it I made four stone bridges over the river of this
city, by which much labor and cost was saved, for there
was a great quantity of it, and other useful works
were produced with it, but above all it helped to destroy
the reverence which they had thus had for this square.
The old people say that they brought it by tambos and
provinces, the whole people assembling on the highway.
66 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
and every province brought it to its boundaries, which
they did in times of leisure, and thus this square was
held in great veneration not only in Cuzco, but also in
the whole realm .... They also affirm that the
Inca did the same when a wife of his to whom he was
attached died in Cuzco, the earth for her sepulcher
being brought from her place of birth. I satisfied my-
self that this was so, because they averred that there
was a sepulcher in the houses of Captain Diego Maldo-
nado worked in masonry under the ground, where a wife
of the Inca, a native of the Yungas, was buried. We
found it very deep and built of very fine masonry,
three stories high and about twelve feet square, and
they affirmed that the sand was from the sea-shore, and
when the sand was brought out there was found but one
body in a certain hollow in the tomb and to one side,
which seemed to be a proof of it. There is also no
doubt that in Quito there is a house which the Incas had
built, from the stoneworks of Cuzco, from which,
although not large in itself, it was a big job to bring,
considering the distance on the road, which is five
hundred leagues."^
I have given this long extract in as readable a form
as the bad Spanish of the original permits, in order to
show the faulty method of the archaeologist who applies
the Egyptian stratification of the sand to the Peruvian
necropolis, where we have the emphatic statement that
enormous stratifications were produced by hand and
suddenly. This also confirms the conviction otherwise
obtained that the depth at which bodies are found in the
guano deposits is no criterion whatsoever as to the age
of the respective interment. But the cotton which is
found in such artificial sepulchers, or in any other sepul-
chers in Peru, is frequently not even as old as the

^Coleccion de libros y documenios referentes a la historia del Peru, Lima

1916, vol. Ill, p. 109 ff.
 COTTON IN PERU 67

original burial. Cieza de Leon the following of the

tells
burial customs in the coast valleys: "The Indians of
many of these coast valleys have great walls made,
where the rocks and barren mountains commence, in
the way from the valleys to the Sierra. In these places
each family has its established place for burying its dead,
where they dig great holes and excavations, with closed
doors before them. It is certainly a marvellous thing
to see the great quantity of dead bodies that there are in
these sandy and barren mountains, with their clothes
now worn out and mouldering away with time. They
call these places, which they hold to be sacred, Huaca, a
mournful name. Many have been opened, and the
Spaniards, when they conquered the country, found
a great quantity of gold and silver in them. In these
valleys the custom is very general of burying precious
things with the dead, as well as many women and the
most confidential servants possessed by the chief when
alive. In former times they used to open the tombs, and
renew the clothes and food which were placed in them; and
when a chief died the principal people of the valley
assembled, and made great lamentations. Many wom-
en cut off their hair until none was left, and came forth
with drums and flutes, making mournful sounds, and
singing in those places where the dead chief used to make
merry, so as to make the hearers weep. Having made
their lamentations, they offered up more sacrifices, and
had superstitious communion with the devil. Having
done this, and killed some of the women, they put them
in the tomb, with the treasure and no small quantity of
food holding it for certain that they would go to that
;

country concerning which the devil had told them.

They had, and still have, the custom of mourning for
the dead before the body is placed in the tomb, during
four, five, or six days, or ten, according to the import-
ance of the deceased, for the greater the lord the more
68 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
honour do they show him, lamenting with much sighing
and groaning, and playing sad music. They also re-
peat all that the dead man had done while living, in
their songs; and if he was valiant they recount his
deeds in the midst of their lamentations. When they
put the body into the tomb, they burn some ornaments
and cloths near it, and put others with the body.
*'Many of these ceremonies are now given up, be-
cause God no longer permits it, and because by de-
grees these people are finding out the errors of their
fathers, and how little these vain pomps and honours
serve them. They are learning that it suffices to inter
the bodies in common graves, as Christians are interred,
without taking anything with them other than good
works. In truth, all other things but serve to please
the devil, and to send the soul down to hell more heavily
weighted. Nevertheless^ most of the old chiefs order that
their bodies are to he buried in the manner above described,
in secret and hidden places, that they may not be seen by
the Christians; and that they do this is known to us
from the talk of the younger men.'*^
Cieza de Leon's statement is emphatic. The cloth
and the food in the graves were frequently changed,
and the custom was still in use in his day. But we have
also the positive assertion of Ondegardo that in 1571 the
practice was still common: "It is common for the
Indians secretly to disinter the dead from the churches
or cemeteries, in order to bury them in the huacas, or
hills, or prairies, or ancient sepulchers, or in their
houses, or the house of the deceased, in order to give
them food and drink in proper time. And then they
drink and dance and sing in company with their rela-
tives and friends. .When the Indians bury
. .

their dead, they place silver in their mouths and hands,

in their bosoms, or elsewhere, and dress them in new
1 Op. HL, p. 228 flf.
 .

COTTON IN PERU 69

clothes, and place other clothes folded inside the tombs,

even woolen bags and foot gear and headdresses, to
serve them in the other life, and in the dirges which they
recite they tell of their past heathen times. They eat
and drink a lot during these funerals and give drinks to
the deceased while reciting a mournful song, wasting
in this and other ceremonies the time of the funeral,
which lasts in some parts eight days, in others less, and
they celebrate their anniversaries from month to month,
or from year to year, with feasting, chicha, silver,
clothes and other things, in order to sacrifice them and
do other ancient ceremonies in all possible secrecy.
They believe that the souls of the deceased wander
about alone in this world, suffering hunger, thirst, cold,
heat and fatigue, and that the heads of their deceased
or phantasms visit their relatives or other persons, to
indicate to them that they are about to die or suffer
some evil. Because of their belief that the souls suffer
hunger, thirst, or other inconveniences, they offer in
the sepulchers chicha and food, silver, clothes, wool,
and other things which may be useful to the deceased,
and that is why they are so particular in celebrating
their anniversaries. And the very offerings which
many Indians bring in the churches for the sake of the
Christians they make for the very purpose for which
their ancestors used to make them."^
Bernab^ Cobo, nearly one hundred years later, tells
the same story about the renewal of the clothes and
food.^ Ondegardo says that at the death of Guayana-
capa, the last Inca, one thousand persons of all ages were
killed, and that the same immolation took place with
a number of lords in Spanish times. ^ The body of a
1 Op. dt., p. 194 f
' "Celebraban sus aniversarios acudiendo 4 ciertos tiempos a las sepul-
turas, y abriendolas, renovaban la ropa y comida que en ellas hablan puesto,
y ofreclan algunos sacrificios," P. Bernabe Cobo, Historia del Nuevo MundOy
Sevilla 1893, vol. IV, p. 238.
8 0p. «<., p. 118f.
70 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
deceased Inca was taken out every day to the square,
where a mass of woolen mantles were burned over a
quantity of cotton. The women, who attended to the
deceased Inca, never returned home, but were kept "to
cleanse and wash the corpse and to renew the clothes
and the cotton."^ Nothing is said about cotton clothes,
which do not seem to have been common, because
under the chapter of De la ropa^ we have long accounts
of woolen clothes, but not a word is said of cotton
clothes. Cobo says that the Indians wove both
woolen and cotton cloth, but only the Yungas and the
inhabitants of the coast valleys dressed in cotton
clothes, and that "the people of the mountains, which
is the greater part of the realm and where the ancient
nobility of the Incas and Ore j ones lived, made only
woolen clothes."^
That a large number of the Peruvian mummies
found in museums are no longer encased in their origi-
nal cloth wrappings, but in later textiles, is proved by
the archaeologists themselves. Reiss and Sttibel^

* "No era pequena pesadumbre aunque se hacfa pocas vezes el servigio

que estos davan al Ynga quando sus^edla por Senor en el rreyno porque
como estd dicho, el servigio de su antegesor ny en la rropa que en el discurso
de su vida se hallaba en los depositos del Cuzco, ny en su vaxilla de oro e
plata, que era muy notable lo que se hagia para cada Ynga quando susgedla
en el rreyno, ny en otra cosa quel tuviera por propia, sino que todo esto e la
gente de su servigio que dava para el cuerpo para el qual e para el servigio se
le haglan chdcaras e tenyan gran gasto porque cada dia se sacavan los
cuerpos todos de los yngas a la plaga, e alii se les hagla su f uego, muy cuviertos
e embueltos en muncha suma de mantas rricas sobre cantidad de algodon, y
estavan devajo sentados en sus sillas, e alii delante se les hagia su fuego como
al propio Ynga bivo, e su gente y mugeres con sus cdntaros de chicha ques el
vino de que ellos usan, hecho de mayz; y esta gente nunca bolbia a su tierra,
sino siempre estavan alii acompaiiando al cuerpo, e antes quando faltava
se les proveya de mds para aquel servigio, e tenya siempre el cuerpo un
capitdn a cuyo cargo quedava toda aquella gente dende que fallesgia, y
solo 6ste y las mugeres a cuyo cargo estava el linpiarle y lavarle de hordinario
e rrenovarle la rropa y algodon, le podian ver el gesto, aunque dizen que
giertas vezes le veya el hijo mayor que suspedia en el rreyno; e ansi lo hall6
yo en diferentes con toda esta custodia," ibid., p. 123 f.
2 Ibid., p. 94 f.; 2a parte, 84 ff.
3 Op. cit., p. 204.
< The Necropolis of Ancon, Berlin 1880-1887, vol. I, plate 17.
MUMMY PACK, from Baessler's Peruanische Mumien.
X-RAY PICTURE OF MUMMY PACK, from Baessler's Peruanische Mumien.
 COTTON IN PERU 71

write: **Iii the present case the bundle contains the

bones of a human skeleton no longer connected together,

but packed up in a small space. It would therefore
appear as if some older body, which had already fallen
to pieces, had been dug out and again consigned to the
grave in a fresh and carefully prepared equipment.
Many peculiarities of the Ancon graves point at such
opening and re-burial of those who had long departed
this life, and the practice is confirmed and explained by
the religious customs of the inhabitants of this coast, as
handed down by tradition." Baessler^ investigated
eleven mummy packs
consigned to the Royal Museum
for Anthropology at Berlin, some of them with the aid
of X-rays, and came to the same conclusion. In one
pack "there were bones of four separate individuals,
but of none were there enough to construct even dis-
tantly one complete skeleton. Besides, there were
some animal bones present. Hence these must have
been older, broken-up bodies, which were exhumed and
then buried together." Baessler refers to a mummy
pack from Trujillo which contained two incomplete
skeletons of adults and one of a child, "hence it seems
to have happened frequently that the bones of several
broken-up bodies were disinterred and buried anew in a
common pack." These were the cases that were
obvious at a glance, but several other packs of the col-
lection contain two and three mummies, which would
indicate later re-burials, since it is not likely that so
many packs taken at random should represent original
multiple interments.
In a paper read before the Second Pan-American
Congress,^ Tello tells of his investigations of four types,

1 Arthur Baessler, Pertianische Mumien, UrUersuchungen mil X-Strahlen,

Berlin 1906.
2 J. C. Tello, Los antigtios cementerios del Valle de Nasca, in Proceedings

of the Second Pan-American Scientific Congress, Washington 1917, vol. I,

p. 283 ff.
 72 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
supposedly very ancient, of cemeteries in the Nasca
Valley. In the Inca cemetery bodies were found only
one or two feet underground, generally wrapped in cot-
ton, but these burial places are of late origin, mostly
post-Columbian, although no objects of Spanish origin
are found in them.^ In a Tiahuanaco cemetery proof
was found that the tombs were periodically opened and
the mummies removed or the space filled up with new
mummies.^ Since objects of the Inca period, though rare,
are found here,^ and the native offerings of mummies are
the same as at Ancon,^ the great antiquity of the cotton,
which may have been found there, though not specifi-
cally mentioned, is negatived. In the Nasca cemetery
so well preserved corpses were found that Tello doubted
their antiquity.^ It is true he assumes that below that
stratum the Nasca burials are older, and here cotton is
recorded. Here again we have no criterion whatsoever
as to the age of the mummies, for if they were disinterred
like the other bodies the presence of cotton by the side
of wool may be of very late origin.

1 "El aspecto de todas estas tumbas es de data muy reciente; algunas

son seguramente post-colombinas aunque no se encuentra en ellas objeto
alguno de origen espanol," ibid., p. 284.
2 "La pared occidental est^ protegida por una hilera de estacas bien

apinadas que dejan a un lado una abertura destinada probablemente a

servir de entrada a la cdmara. Esta se abrfa quizds periodicamente sea
para incrementar el contenido o para sacar a las momias y hacerlas participes
de las festividades u otras ceremonias del ayllu o tribu, si es que aqui existi6
tambien esta curiosa costumbre consignada como es sabido por alguno
de los cronistas espaiioles," ibid.
3 "Tampoco son infrecuentes los objetos de estilo incdsico y no pocas

momias llevan cubierta la cabeza con largas hondas de color rojo predo-
minante las que se hallan tambien en las momias provenientes de las tumbas
de esta clase," ibid., p. 286.
4 "El unku o comision de tapestrla, y annas, utensilios diversos y ofrendas

votivas como las de las momias encontradas en Anc6n y otros lugares de la

Costa," ibid., p. 285.
^ "Enterradas casi en la superficie se encuentran tambien en estos cemen-

terios unas oUas grandes conteniendo caddveres de criaturas, algunas tan

bien conservadas que hace dudar sobre si dichas oUas funerarias son real-
mente de la misma epoca o si son de origen mds moderno," ibid., p. 287.
JI^H^^^^^^^^^^^^^f^^^
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 .

COTTON IN PERU 73

Byfar the most. extensive excavations were made at

Aneon by Cessac and Savatier and later by Reiss and
Stiibel. Opinions vary as to the antiquity of the mum-
mies at Ancon, but Hamy^ is certainly not far from the
mark when he says that the graves at Ancon do not go be-
yond the first half of the XVI century. The proof of this,
.

at least for some of the graves, is given in Rochebrune's

list of plants found in the Cessac and Savatier collec-
tions,^ where, among other plants, we find the musa
paradisiaca, that is, the banana. We have already seen
that the banana was introduced from the Canaries into
America in 1516.^ Cobo^ tells the same story and adds
that another variety was introduced from Guinea to
Panama and in 1605 from Panama to Peru. Llano y
Zapata,^ writing in 1761, mentions a third native vari-
ety, named coyllo, which Cuyus-Mancu had trans-
planted from the Andes, and that Pedro Antonio de
Llano y Zapata at the end of the XVII. century ex-
tended its cultivation in Lima. No dictionary, no
other work records such a banana, and it is impossible
for any banana to have been transplanted from the
Andes, where it cannot exist. De CandoUe's conclusion^
must stand that there was no native banana in America.
But there is a blunder in de Candolle which makes his*
argument appear inconclusive, and which shall be cor-
rected here. De Candolle refers to Garcilasso de la
Vega, who lived between 1530 and 1568 and who spoke
of the banana as cultivated in the days of the Incas. In
reality Garcilasso de la Vega was born in 1539 and
wrote his History at the end of the sixteenth century.
He nowhere says that the banana was known to the
Incas and only mentions Acosta and Bias Valera whose
1 Botanisches CentrcUblatt, Cassel 1880, vol. Ill, p. 1634.
2 Ibid., p. 1633 f.
3 Africa and the Discovery of America, vol. I, p. 129.
< Op. cit., vol. II, p. 444 ff
5 Ibid., p. 448 n.
« A. de Caftdolle, Origine des plantes cuUivees, Paris 1883, p. 242 ff.
74 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
opinion he gives in regard to the banana.^ Aeosta^ says
that ** there are small bananas, white and delicate,
which in Hispaniola are called dominicos, while the
others are larger and red in color. They do not grow
in Peru. They are brought from the Andes, as in
Mexico from Cuernavaca and other valleys."^ Gar-
cilasso de la Vega simply mentions the two varieties, but
Llano y Zapata misunderstood Acosta's "de los Andes,"
which refers to the eastern province of Peru and not to
the mountains, and translated **blancos" by the cur-
rent Aymara word coyllu "white," and created a new,
non-existing variety which his ancestor popularized in
Lima. It is quite possible that dominico was by him
misread Cuyus Mancu, and a Chimu chief was thus
made the originator of the species. With this correc-
tion the very last trace of a native variety of banana
in America disappears completely, and the antiquity
of the Ancon graves is permanently destroyed.
If bananas are found in Ancon graves, why not pea-
nuts? Hence the large amount of peanuts {Arachis
hypogaea) actually deposited in Peruvian tombs is no
criterion whatsoever as to their age. The sophisticated
question may be asked, "But why are there no European
objects, no distinctly European fruits in the graves?"
Tello, who had no doubt of the post-Columbian origin of
some of the graves, none the less had to admit that no
Spanish articles were found in them. The fact is that
burial customs persevere as nearly as possible according
to the ancient rites, and new objects make their appear-
ance in them but sparingly. And yet, Rochebrune
reports beans in the Ancon graves, and their American
1 VIII. 14.
2 IV. 20.
3 "Hay unos platanos pequenos,
y mas delicados y blancos, que en la
Espaiiola llaman dominicos: hay otros mas gruesos, recios y colorados.
En la tierra del Peru no se dan: traense de los Andes, como ^ M^jico de
Cuernavaca y otros valles," J. de Acosta, Historia natural y moral de las
Indias, Madrid 1894, vol. I, p. 377.
PEANUTS IN PERU, from Reiss and Stuebel's The Necropolis of Ancon.
 COTTON IN PERU 75

origin seems doubtful.^We have chiefly African plants,

sweet potatoes, yams, manioc in the mummy packs,
because the food for the common people was chiefly
due to Negro influence, and, besides, as Reiss and Stli-
bel have remarked, the vast majority of the vegetables
found are those of a starchy nature.
We have the emphatic and detailed proof that the
bodies were disinterred at least as late as 1621. In the
Extirpacion de la idolatria del Piru, by Pablo Joseph de
Arriaga, printed at Lima in that year, we are told of
the continued adoration of the huacas, in spite of their
wholesale destruction by the Spaniards. ** Since

February 1617 up to July 1618, 5694 persons came to

confession, 679 ministers of idolatry were discovered,
and did penance as such, 603 principal huacas were
taken from them, 3418 conopas, 45 mamazaras, and as
many compas, 189 huancas (which are different from
the huacas), 667 malquis, and 63 wizards were
chastized in the plains, 357 cradles were burned,
and 477 bodies were stolen from the church, without
counting many bodies of chacpas and chuchas, which
they also reverence and keep in their houses, nor the
pactos, axomamas, micsazara, huantayzara, hayriguazara,
or other things, with which a thousand superstitions are
connected, which all were burned, as we shall explain in
the following chapters. The villages where all these
were found were to the number of 31, some of them
very small, four of which were visited three years before
by Doctor Don Placido Antolinez, who was their curate
by especial commission of the Archbishop and who had
taken away and burned many huacas and conopas,
and yet not a few escaped him."^ The only objects
we are interested in here are the malquis "which are
the bones or whole bodies of their gentile progenitors,

1 Op. ciL, p. 1634.

«
Op. cit., p. 9.
76 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
who, they say, are the children of the huacas, which
they have in the fields or secluded places, in the ma-
chaysj which are their ancient sepulchers, and some-
times they adorn them with very costly shirts or many
colored feathers or cumhi; these malquis have their es-
pecial priests or ministers, and they offer them the same
sacrifices and celebrate for them the same feasts as for
their huacas. And they have with them the same tools
which they used in life, the women spindles and tufts of
spun cotton, and the men tacllas or lampas with which
they fought. And in one of these machays of the mal-
quis there was a lance with its iron and shoe, which,
they say, one of the first conquistadores of this realm
had given for a church banner, and in another there
was another handsome lance, which they call quilcasca
choque 'painted, or sculptured lance,' which was taken
to the Viceroy. In these malquis, as in the huacas, they
have some dishes, in order to give them to eat and drink,
which are gourds or vases, some of clay, others of wood
and sometimes of silver, and seashells.'*^ Similarly
''the bodies chuchos, otherwise called curi, when two
are born of one womb, if they die young, are placed in
a vessel and are kept in the house like a sacred thing,
and they say that one of them is the child of a ray . . .

In the same way they keep the chacpas if they die

young, which are those that are born by their feet, in
regard to which they also have great superstitions, and
if they live, they call them chacpas, and their male child
they call masco, their female chachi. The greatest
abuse in regard to them is that they do not baptize their
chuchus and chacpas, if they can hide them from the
curates. Of these chuchus and chacpas, which they had
kept in their houses, a great number had been burned
in the exhibitions."^

1 Ibid., p. 14.
2 Ibid., p. 16 f.
 COTTON IN PERU 77

As regards the disinterment from churches, Arriaga

says: *'But the greatest abuse consists in disinterring
and carrying off the dead from the churches and taking
them to the machays, which are the cemeteries they
have in the fields for their ancestors, and in some places
they call them zamay, which means resting places, and
the dead they equally call zamarcam 'requievit.' And
when they are asked why they do so, they say it is
cuyaspa, for the love of them, because they say that the
dead are in the church much oppressed by the earth and
that in the field they are in the air and rest better disin-
terred. And a few days before we came to a village
there was a chief Indian with his wife who had carried
away from the church their two children, and in order
to do this more easily they had buried them about two
months one before the other in a kind of vault made of
slabs, and they took them home and kept them there
two days and had a great celebration for them and put
new clothes on them and took them in a procession
through the village and invited all the relatives to the
feast and then took them back to the church. We had
them disinterred a second time and broke up the vault
and filled it with dirt. And thus it must be understood
as of importance that by no means should consent be
given to their being buried in vaults."^
We also have a complete explanation for the presence
of bodies in the guano islands: **In the village of
Huacho, whenever they went for guano to the islands
which are the steep rocks of Huaura, they made offer-
ings of chicha upon the shore, that their rafts should
not be wrecked, after two days of fasting, and when they
came to the island they worshipped the huaca Huaman-
cantac as the lord of the guano, and offered sacrifices
to him that he might allow them to take the guano, and

»
Ibid., p. 35.
78 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
upon returning to the harbor they fasted two days and
then they danced, sang, and drank. "^
From Arriaga's account it becomes clear that a vast
number of the interments in ancient cemeteries were
made as late as the year 1621, and that the presence of
multiple burials of imperfect skeletons, of a child's
skeleton without the lower parts, found in the mummy
packs by Baessler, is due to the burial of corpses long
after their death. Moreover, the constant occurrence
of bodies buried upside down is not, as Baessler thinks,
the result of mere carelessness, but may be an attempt
at burying persons born with their feet foremost, the
so-called chacpas, whose very children bore special
designations.^ Similarly the burials in the guano
islands took place there where excavations were made
for guano, and the depths at which sacrificial objects
were found are no indication whatsoever of the age of
the burial. Thus we once more have upset the chronol-
ogy derived from mummy-packs and cemeteries, and
the whole question must be settled in a different way.
The first apparently authentic account of cotton
cloth is found in an anonymous account of Pizarro's
and Almagro's discoveries in 1525, previous to their
conquest of Peru.^ They departed from Panama in
1525. Their pilot, Bartolomeo Ruiz, who went down
the coast, saw an Indian boat with twenty men, which
he captured. The boat was of about thirty tons, had
henequen tackle and cotton sails. The Indians were
carrying a great variety of objects for trade, among
them woolen and cotton mantles, which they intended
to exchange for wampum, with which their boat was
filled. There would seem to be no escape from the fact
that cotton was already in use in Columbia in 1525, nor
^ Ibid., p. 31.
2 /hid., p. 17.
^Colecdon de documentos ineditos para la historia de Espafla, vol. V,
p. 193 ff.
 COTTON IN PERU 79

is there any need for denying the fact. But toward the
end of the report we read: *' There is an island in the

sea near the villages where there is a meeting-house in

the form of a tent, made of very rich mantles, where they
have an image of a woman with a child in her arms, by
the name of Maria Meseia. If any one has any infirm-
ity in a limb, he makes a limb of silver or gold and offers
it to her, and at a given time sacrifices before the image
some sheep. "^ The reporter was not shrewd enough
to recognize the Virgin Mary and the Catholic adora-
tion of the Virgin by idolatrous Indians, or he purposely
omitted to make the obvious deduction. But, if the
Catholic faith had already made its entrance among a
distant Indian tribe, there must have been there white
men or Christianized Negroes before that time, and the
cotton mantles and cotton sails are a matter of course.
Again the proof of native cotton vanishes, and we are
once more in the dark.
Holmes^ quite correctly remarks: *'But little is
known chronologically of the various groups of art
products obtained from the burial places of the coast
belt of Peru, but most of them belong in all probability
to what may be called the Incarial epoch In ...
the Sierra and upland regions, where the conditions of
burial were not so favorable, but slight traces of the
more perishable articles appear to have been preserved."
This being the case, the very oldest cotton objects could
not go beyond the XIII. century, and such representa-
tions of peanuts as are found in Chimu vessels cannot
be any older.
So far we have only established the absence of all
criteria of chronology for Peruvian cotton, and now we
shall by the linguistic criterion show that if cotton was

1 Ibid., p. 200.
W. H. Holmes, Textile Fabrics of Ancient Peru, in Smithsonian Institution,
2

Bureau of Ethnology, Washington 1889, p. 5 flf.

80 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
present before Columbus, it must have been introduced
into Peru directly or indirectly by Mandingo Negroes.
Wehave Bambara kotondo, korandi, kori, kuori, Ma-
linke kotondin, Mandingo korande, kutando, koyondyi,
kodondi, Soninke kotollin ''cotton,'* Dyula korho "cot-
ton plant," which are all derived from the Arabic word
for "cotton/'
In South America the Mandingo kotondo words are
found southwards from Venezuela to Peru, and Central
Brazil. In Venezuela the Mandingo word is best
preserved in some Carib languages. Here we find
Cumanagota otocuare, Chayma otoquat, while Makusi
(south-west of Guiana) kotoka shows that an initial k has
been lost in the other languages. Bakairi in Central
Brazil, near the Xingu River, has atakxera, atakxira, tata-
kxera, which in Nahuqua is corrupted in torokire. Still
farther south, on the Rio Tocantins, we find the non-
Carib Apinages kathodnie and Guaycurus cottamo.
Other languages, apparently related to Carib, have
similar words: Yabarana (on the Bentuari) quetejuate,
Mapoyo (between the Paruaza and Suapure) quetate.
From these forms it would appear that the languages of
Venezuela and to the south began with a form like Ma-
linke kotondin or Soninke kotollin, which is still preserved
in Apinages kathodnie, Guaycurus cottamo, and that
Makusi kotoka, Cumanagota otocuare are corruptions
of it. But it is more likely that we have here the
Soninke kotollin-khare, and similar forms in the other
Mandingo languages, literally "cotton plant." In the
extreme south-west the latter Indian forms are abbre-
viated to Moxa cohore, but these forms abound through-
out the whole region, where we have Mandauaca cauarli,
Caruzana jariderli, Piapoco sawari, Puinabe saurlot,
Uarao (in the delta of the Orinoco) ahuaramuto, Baniba
auarli, aualri. Some of these languages seem to have
Carib affinities, but Baniba is classed as Nu-Arawak.
 COTTON IN PERU 81

In the Kechua of Peru we have an abbreviated otocuare,

namely utku, while Aymara qhuea is another abbrevia-
tion of an original (ata) kxera of the Bakairi or a similar
form, while Chibcha quihisa is another transformation
of the same word.
All these words apparently proceed from the shores of
Venezuela, in any case from the north. But there is
another series of words which began at the eastern
shores of South America, from somewhere in Brazil,
and from there proceeded northward and westward. We
have in the Tupi languages Brazilian amaniuy amaju,
amanyjuy amydu, Apiaca amuijo, Emerillon muiniju,
Cocama amano, hamaniu^ Aueto amatsitu, Kamayura
amuniju, Guarani amandyju, Oyampi amoniu, and in
the Carib languages these become Galibi amulu, man-
hulu, mauru, in the islands manholu. Von den Steinen^
also records Trumai moneyu, Mehinaku Kustenaa ayupe^
Yaulapiti aliupo, ayupo. That these are corruptions of
the same original word becomes clear from Anti ampe,
ampegi in the western part of Peru, where the latter is
obviously a development of Apiaco amuijo, etc. But
this Anti ampe explains Ghimu jam, the furthest cor-
ruption of the word. Chimu (Mushika) has the tend-
ency to turn words as much as possible into monosyl-
lables, and Spanish caballo ''horse" here becomes col and
coj. Even thus jam represents the Tupi word for cot-
ton. But the Brazilian words are all obviously de-
rived from Kimbundu mujinha ''cotton." Kimbundu
is the language of Angola, whence therefore the Portu-
guese brought the cotton to Brazil, whence it spread
westward as Peru and northward to Guiana and
far as
the West But another path of distribution
Indies.
very likely preceded it from the West Indies or Vene-
zuela toward Peru. "Welwitsch in ApontamentoSy
1 K. von den Steinen, Vnter den Naiurvolkern Zentral-Brasiliens, Berlin
1894.
82 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
p. 558, states that three distinct kinds of cotton are
cultivated in Angola with greater or less frequency.
He calls them G, vitifolium, G, barhadense, and G. her-
baceum, the two first being also met with wild in the
neighborhood of villages."^ According to Welwitsch,
Gossypium peruvianum grows wild at Golungo Alto.^
It is, therefore, not at all unlikely that the cotton in
Peru was introduced from Brazil, and, since Angola was
discovered only in 1482, this introduction must be of a
more recent date. As the banana in Peru originates
from the province of the Antis, that is, on the eastern
side of the Andes, precisely where the Antis are domi-
ciled, where it still was the source of the Peruvian ba-
nana in 1555, and this banana has been discovered in
the Ancon necropolis, it follows that we h«ive no proof
of any cotton in Peru before that which was brought to
Brazil from Angola, unless another variety came down
earlier from Venezuela or Darien, and this could have
come only from a Mandingo pre-Columbian colony in
America. We are not yet in a position to determine the
date for such a colony from the data so far obtained.
1W. p. Hiern, Catalogue of the African Plants collected by Dr. Friedrich
Welwitsch in 1853-61, London 1896, vol. I, p. 78.
^Ibid,
PART II: THE SOVEREIGN REMEDY,
 A

CHAPTER I.

Smoking in Antiquity.

Galen has the following remedy for a toothache *' :

toothache is soon relieved by alcyonium smoke another ;

smoke of henbane seed relieves pain."^ *' Alcyonium/'

says Galen, ^ ''wears down and dissolves everything,
having an acrid quality and hot power, but there are
different degrees of such acridity and pungency, ac-
cording to the consistency of their whole nature, for
one is dense and heavy and of a bad odor, smelling of
rotten fish, and resembling a sponge in form; another
is rather long in shape, light and thin, having the odor
of seaweed; the third resembles a worm in shape, is of
a purple color and of soft consistency, and is called
milesium; there is a fourth, soft and thin like the sec-
ond, resembling unwashed wool; at last, a fifth has a
light outside, but is rough within, of no odor, appar-
ently acrid in taste, and is the hottest of all the alcyonia,
so that it will burn off the hair. While the first two are
good for the scurvy, vitiligo, mange, and leprosy, and,
besides, possess the power of making the skin more
shining, the last cannot do that, for it does not purify
the skin, but excoriates it, penetrating into the depth
and causing sores. The third is by far the most deli-
cate, hence, when burned, it cures foxbaldness, when
dissolved in wine, and is of a yellow color and soft sub-

U'YjtodvuLaM-a xoi? oKyovcKv 68oi3aiv 'AXxuoviov ujtodvuia

. xal
Evftecog outovos ecrtai . dXXo voo^udixou ojieq^u vjiodvpiacr^ev ojtovov
.

rtOl£i,> IXEoi- EUJtOQlOXCOV, 11. 8.4.

^ qX
li z X r\ tc&V
C a k \ & V q>aQ')idx(Dv »ccd-
OECo^ %al 6 V vduEO) 5, XI. 2.3.
86 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
stance. The fourth shares its powers with it, but is
not a little weaker/' Dioscorides^ tells nearly the same
about the alcyonium, but with some important addi-
tions: "The third is good for those who suffer from
urinary trouble or bladder stones, also for those who
suffer from the kidneys, the dropsy, or the spleen.
Burnt and dissolved in wine it restores the hair. The
last will whiten the teeth. Mixed with salt it is also
used for other perfumes or hair removers. If one should
want to burn it, let him add salt and throw it into an
unglazed vessel, and close the aperture with clay, and
put it into the furnace. When the clay is baked, let
him take it out and keep it for use. It is distilled like
cadmia." Pliny^ gives nearly the same information
about alcyonium: "There is a sea production called
'halcyoneum,' composed, as some think, of the nests of
the birds known as the *halcyon' and *ceyx,' or, accord-
ing to others, of the concretion of sea-foam, or of some
slime of the sea, or a certain lanuginous inflorescence
thrown up by it. Of halcyoneum there are four
this
different kinds; the an ashy colour, of a compact
first, of
substance, and possessed of a pungent odour; the sec-
ond, soft, of a milder nature, and with a smell almost
identical with that of sea- weed; the third, whiter, and
with a variegated surface the fourth, more like pumice
;

in appearance, and closely resembling rotten sponge.

The best of all is that which nearly borders on a purple
hue, and is known as the 'Milesian' kind; the whiter it
is, the less highly it is esteemed.
"The properties of halcyoneum are ulcerative and
detergent: when required for use, it is parched and
applied without oil. It is quite marvellous how effic-
iently it removes leprous sores, lichens, and freckles,
used in combination with lupines and two oboli of sul-

^Ileol vXtic; laxoixfig, V. 118.

2 XXXII. 86 f.
 SMOKING IN ANTIQUITY 87

phur. It is employed, also, for the removal of marks

upon the eyes."^
In spite of the definite references to alcyonium in the
ancient medical writers and in Avicenna, there is no ref-
erence to this sea-foam in mediaeval literature as a
medium for the toothache, no doubt because this zoo-
phyte was hard to obtain. It is certainly no accident
that in the XVIII. century the mineral meerschaum was
being used as a material for pipeheads. The best al-
cyonium was of a purple color, and the necessity for a
substitute, which by the purple or brown discoloration
of the pipehead would prove itself to be an equal of the
traditional sea-foam, led to the adoption of the universal
meerschaum, which was also found floating in the sea
near the region from which the alcyonium is recorded.
Thus a trade device has preserved for us the fact that
meerschaum, that is, alcyonium, was at one time used for
the fumigation of the mouth, which is the initial step
toward smoking, as the idea is understood now. That
other products of the sea were used for fumigation ap-
pears from the fact that aphronitrum, that is, an efflores-
cence of saltpeter, according to Dioscorides and others,
is mentioned in this connection: "some place aphronit-
rum on burning coal, putting it first in a new vessel,
until it ignites."^
In the mediaeval medical literature, henbane became
*
the 'smoke" medicine par excellence, especially in the
Salerno school. The Catolica Magistri Salerni says:^
** Henbane seed wrapped in a little wax may be put on

hot coal and the smoke should be drawn into the tooth,
and the worms will soon be killed." There is a poem
on the toothache which is repeated in all the textbooks
1 See also Avicennae Liber Canonis, Venetiis 1582, fol. 164 (No. 605).
2 Op. cit, V. 130.
3 "Semen iusquiami cum pauco cere involutum seu calido superponatur

et fumus inde respiret in dente et statim vermes pemecabuntur," P. Giacosa,

Magistri Salernitani, Torino 1901, p. 106.
 :

88 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

of the Salerno school. In the Flos Medidnae^ we read:
**This is the way to treat the teeth: Collect the grains
of leek and burn them with henbane, and catch the
smoke through an embolus into the tooth."^
This is found in a variety of versions, from which it
follows that incense was mixed with henbane

**Dentes sic sana: porrorum collige grana

Nee careas thure cum iusquiamo simul ure;
Hinc ex amhoto fumum cape dente remoto."^
In the De cirurgia we have a longer account, from
which it follows that henbane, with other ingredients,
was put on hot coals, and the smoke was inhaled through
an emhotus. Or the ingredients could at first be made
into troches and then smoked.

"Aut sic: jusquiami, portulace quoque semen

Et porri; super ardentes apponito prunas,
Inde per embotum fumum quem sumat in ore
Egrotum supra dentem, qui fumus honeste
Lenit et educit quem fecit reuma dolorem;
De quorum foliis tritis f ormato trociscos
Quosque super prunas ardentes ponito, fumum
Emboto capiat patiens in dentibus ipsum. — "*
The prose accounts are not less interesting. In the
De adventu medici ad aegrotum^ we are told that the hen-
bane was smoked through a reed: Semen jusquiami
**

et porri igniti cum aliquantulum cere et thuris impone."

In the Chirurgia Willehelmi de Congenis, of the end of
the XII. century, we similarly have: *'Ad idem accipe
semen iusquiami et porri et ceram et pone super car-
bones ardentes et per embotum paciens fumum inde reso-
* de Renzi, Collectio Salernitana, Napoli 1852, vol. I, p. 509 f.
S.
»"Sic dentes serva: porrorum collige grana, Ne careas jure, cum jus-
quiamo, quoque ure, Sicque per embotum fumum cape dente remotum."
8 Ibid., vol. II, p. 678, vol. V, p. 94.
* Ibid., vol. IV, p. 69.
5 Ibid., vol. II, p. 178.
 SMOKING IN ANTIQUITY 89

lutum recipiat.'*^ We
are more fully informed of the
efficacy of the henbane in the Chirurgia of Roger Fru-
gardi: *'Accipe semen casillaginis (id est iusquiami)
et porri equaliter et super prunas ardentes pone, super
prunas etiam emhotum ponas et per canellum emboti
patiens super dentem patientem recipiat; hie enim
fumus qui inde progreditur, reuma, quod dolorem facit,
"^
mirabiliter dissoluit et educit et ipsum mitigat.
We must first ascertain the manner in which the hen-
bane was smoked. The embolus, emhocus would seem
to be some kind of funnel, and, indeed, Provengal
emhutz is distinctly mentioned as the implement by
which wine or water is poured into a vessel,^ and here
also it is a surgical implement for introducing smoke
into the anus.^ Only in the XVI. century is embut
recorded in French as a funnel, and the famous Par^ in
1573 gave the shape of an implement for producing
smoke with which to cure the toothache as a vessel top-
ped by an inverted funnel. His concoction is more
violent: ''Take ginger, pepper, pyretrum, half a dram
of each, crush it, let it all boil in a pot, in wine and vine-
gar, and take the smoke to the tooth through a well-
attached funnel, just like this figure."^
Obviously the Middle Ages no longer followed the
precepts of the ancients, or had forgotten the precise
method, which must have prevailed among the laymen.
Dioscorides tells us precisely how fumes were trans-
ferred from a vessel by distillation: "An iron vessel
^ Karl Sudhoff, Beitrdge zur Geschichte der Chirurgie im Mittelalter, in
Stvdien zur Geschichte der Medizin, Leipzig 1918, vol. II, p. 339.
2 Ihid., p. 181.
3 Emil Levy, Provenzalisches Supplemeni-Wdrterbuch, Leipzig 1892-1915.
* "El fendement dels pos . . pren grana de camilhada e met sobre las
.

brasas ardens: pueis met I.I. embut desobre las brasas, el malautes recepia
aquel fum el fendement," ibid.
* J.-F. Malgaigne, Oeuvres completes d'Ambroise Pare, Paris 1840, vol. II,

p. 446. But he has still more violent smokes, that must have cured or
killed the patient; "Faites fumigation de graines de coloquintes, et de
moutarde, et d'ails, receue par entonnoir," ibid., p. 447 f.
 ^

90 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

containing cinnabar is placed in a clay retort, over
which an amhix (a[x6i^) is fastened by means of clay,
and then the coals are ignited."^ Here we have the top
of a still through which the fumes pass. Caelius Aure-
lianus calls amhix a kind of cupping glass, made of glass
or clay,^ and Athenaeus similarly mentions the word as a
designation of a cup ending in a sharp point.
From the writings of the alchemists it follows that
the distilling glass, into which the fumes were condensed,
was called pixog, pixiov, while the amhix was the cup
of the still or the whole distilling apparatus. Zosimus,
in the IV. century, described the process of distillation.
"Take a male-female (dQaevoflrjA,!)) glass vessel called
amhix,'' he says, in a discussion of the Divine Water,^
"and close the amhix and the top (fxaaxctQiov) with the
receiving cup (Qoyiov)," etc. Here the amhix refers to
the lower containing bottle, but usually it refers to the
upper part which here is called mastarion, "the teat,'*
as, indeed, the implement resembles a teat with a long
nipple. We have a large number of illustrations of
alchemists' alembics in Berthelot.^ The oldest of these
is from a manuscript of Zosimus, of the IV. century
after Christ.® Here the mastarion is of a typical form.
The same is reproduced in manuscripts up to the XVII.
century,^ though in some of these the nipple is barely
indicated by a small knob. It is clear from these illu-
strations that the process of distillation was conceived
as a union of the male and the female, the large bowl
of the mastarion being the uterus in which the ascending

1 Op. ciL, v. 110, also in Der Leidener und Stockholmer Papyrus, in

Entstehung und Aushreitung der Alchemie, by E. von Lippmann, Berlin
1919, p. 10.
2 A. de Haller, Artis medicae principes, Lausannae 1774, vol. XI, p. 328.
3 XI. 61.
^ M. Berthelot, Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs, Paris 1888,
vol. II, p. 141, French translation, p. 143.
5 Ibid., vol. I, p. 127 ff.

6 Ibid., p. 164.

7 Ibid., pp. 136, 161.

bo

I
 SMOKING IN ANTIQUITY 91

fumes, the male sperm, is transformed into the new

chemical combination, which is deposited in the glass
vessel at the end of the tube of the mastarion.
A vast number of pipes have been found in Roman
graves. The excellent series of articles by B. Reber on
such pipes from Swiss burial places^ make it possible to
dispense with other sources, and to discuss their use
from the illustrations given by him. We shall also refer
to the resume of all the latest articles on smoking by H.
Lamer, Das Rauchen im Altertume}
Gustave Lejeal describes a pipe found by him in
Rome: "This Roman pipe was found in Rome in 1845.
It is now part of the collection Campana at the Louvre.
It is a vessel of which the pipe is arranged in such a way
as to receive the pipestem, which Pliny has clearly indi-
cated. But, they will say, one testimony does not
count. Excuse me, the testimony is not unique, for
some fifty similar pipes were found and thrown into
the Tiber as useless articles, probably without value in
the eyes of the official archaeologists. One or two
specimens were saved, to which ours belongs. The fact
is attested by Count de I'Escalopier, as great a smoker as
fervent archaeologist, who visited Rome just as the act
of vandalism was accomplished."^ Reber reproduces
this and a similar pipe. A glance at them shows that
they are mastaria, if they are turned upside down. The
large bowl ends in a nipple, and the stem which comes
out of it at an angle of 45° is obviously intended to be
set into a distilling glass, as may be seen from the rim
at the end of the stem.
All the other pipes described by Reber, to the number
of 93, are of a totally different character. Whether
they are ancient or belong to the Middle Ages, they are
1 Les pipes antiqued de la Suisse, in Anzeigerfiir schweizerische Altertums-

kunde, N.F., vol. XVI, pp. 195, 287, vol. XVII, pp. 33, 241 ff.
2 In Jahresberichte des philologischen Vereins, vol. XLIV, p. 47 flf.

3 Reber, op. cit., vol. XVI, p. 198.

92 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
distinctly smoking pipes in the modern sense of the
word. is much smaller and at an angle of
The bowl
135° from the stem. Whether of metal or of red or
white clay, they are all of nearly the same size. Some
of them have heads molded upon the bowl, and from
their position it is evident that the bowl was kept with
the orifice up as in modern pipes because the heads were
then standing up. This is still further proved by the
metal caps attached to many of the pipes, just as in
certain modern Nearly all the pipes still have
pipes.
visible a protruding knob where the nipple is in the
mastarion, which shows that the pipes from which sub-
stances were smoked are a direct development of the
distilling cap of the alchemists.
We can now show the tremendous influence which the
alchemists have exerted upon the European nations by
means of the distilling apparatus, especially the distil-
ling In the alchemist's vocabulary the word
cap.
xvo'uqpio'V according to Ducange, used for the mas-
is,

tarion. This word is not recorded anywhere else. A

guess has been made^ that this word is derived from the
Egyptian God Knuph, whose headgear the lid resembles.
But as Knuph is represented with a ram's head and a
headgear totally different from the mastarion, the case
is impossible. The Greek Kvovcpiov is, indeed, taken
from the Egyptian, but, in all probability indirectly,
through the Arabic. We have Egyptian qenu, qend
*
'embrace, hug, breastbone, bosom, breast, body, belly,"
and qend "sheaf, bundle of grain," the latter obviously
from the idea '* to embrace, hug," hence qenh **to tie, bind"
and "corner of a building" are, no doubt, of the same
origin. The Coptic koun "breast, embrace" and knaau,
knau, hnauj that is, knaaw, knaw, hnaw "sheaf, bundle
of grain" are from the corresponding Egyptian words.

This leads to Arabic ^ qunh, pi. qunuh, "the calyx of

^ Lippmann, op. dt., pp. 305, 344.
ANCIENT PIPES, from Reber's Les pipes antiques de la Suisse.
ANCIENT PIPES, from Reber's Les -pipes antiques de la Suisse.
 SMOKING IN ANTIQUITY 93

the flower of a plant, sheath of the penis of a beast, pre-

puce of the clitoris, part of the f orepaw of the lion into

which the claws enter," hence ^

qnaha "he entered
into it, withdrew his claw, cut off from the grapevine
what would be injurious, the flowers, or blossoms, came
forth from their calyxes." This word is rare in the
Semitic languages, only the Talmud recording ^5jp

q^nah **to nip off, pluck,'* "^^^^i? qenubah **what is

plucked off."
Neither Greek nor Latin records any borrowing from
this Egyptian stem, except the alchemist xvoTjqpiov, but
the Germanic and Romance languages have borrowed
extensively from the Arabic. German knoph, knopf
*
'button, bunch" is recorded early, and from this comes
English knob and a large number of words. The very
phonetic irregularity indicates a borrowing from with-
out. ONorse knappr "knob, stud, button, scanty" at
once indicates how German knapp "scanty," Knabe
"boy," and English knave, knap are related to it as
meaning originally "bunchy, small." The relation to
the Arabic is indicated by a large number of Germanic
words with the underlying meaning of "to pinch off,"
hence German kneifen "to pinch," English nip, nibble,
etc., ONorse kneif "nippers, pincers," hence Gothic
dishniupan "to tear to pieces," where the phonetic
irregularities once more indicate borrowings. Olce-
landic knifr, modern hnifr, English knife, LLatin knivus,^
OFrench canivet, ganivet are all derived from the same
word, since the statement frequently made in the
mediaeval glosses that it is a small pointed dagger
places it, with AS. cnafa "parvulus," in the same family
with Arabic ^ qanaba, but here we have a much closer
relation still, since already in Arabic there developed

1 "Cultellum cum cuspide, qui vulgo knivus dicitur," (1231), Ducange.

94 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
the meaning "he cut off from its upper part what would
not bear and what would perhaps injure its produce,"
that is, "to prune."
From Greek afx6i^ the word d^6ixiajA6g, dpi6vxia|>i6g
"distilling"^ is formed, and we have also d\i6vySt,(0 "to
distil."^ Just as Greek ambix has produced Latin
embocus, emhotus, so to Greek d|x6iJXi^(o corresponds
Latin imhotare, Catalan emhotar, Spanish embudar "to
pour through a funnel into a cask." But the Latin
huttis "cask" is already recorded in the year 562 A. D.,
and from this come Latin huia, hutta "vat" and the very
large Romance family of "bottle "words. But embolus
is also the equivalent of Greek xvo'uqpiov hence we should
expect the meaning "knob" to develop from it. In-
deed, an enormous mass of Romance and Germanic
words is derived from the simpler botus, bocus, meaning
"bud, boss," such as French bout "end," bouton "bud,"
bosse "boss," etc. All these may be found in Korting's
Lateinisch-Romanisches Worterbuch, though their origin
is not understood. The two groups of words illustrate
how wrong philology may be if it does not invoke the
historical sciences. Without a study of the Graeco-
Arabic alchemy an enormous mass of words would
forever remain a mystery. Similarly anthropology
suffers from a neglect of the historical method. Only
by overlooking the mediaeval alchemy could the origin
of tobaccosmoking have been placed in America. We
shallsoon see how the tobacco pipes and the tobacco-
smoking develop from the alchemist's distilling cap.
Smoking was also resorted to in troubles of the chest,
especially in coughing. According to one treatise of
Salerno, "the smoke of orpiment and of colt's foot
taken through an embolus into the mouth would cure a

Berthelot, op. ciL, vol. Ill, p. 273.

2/6id., p. /in
ThiA r\ 411
 SMOKING IN ANTIQUITY 95

cough. "^ According to the same authority, the same

with arsenic and ammonia was good for asthma.^ Long
before that Pliny wrote: **The smoke of this plant
(bechion, colt's foot) in a dry state, inhaled by the aid
of a reed and swallowed, is curative, they say, of chronic
cough; it is necessary, however, at each inhalation to
take a draught of raisin wine,"^ and also: **They say,
too, that the smoke of dried cow-dung that of the —
animal when grazing, I mean is remarkably good for —
phthisis, inhaled through a reed."* For hechion or tus-
silago Pliny also uses chamaeleuce, which Linn^ identi-
fied with colt's foot: "The Chamaeleuce is known
among us as the *farfarum' or *farfugium;' it grows
on the banks of rivers, and has a leaf like that of the
poplar, only larger. The root of it is burnt upon cy-
press charcoal, and, by the aid of a funnel, the smoke
inhaled, in cases of inveterate cough. "^ Similarly Dios-
corides prescribed smoking of colt's foot for a cough,*
and it is right here that we have a good description of
this pipe. ''Fumigation is good for an old cough.
Through a reed and an amhix perforated at the bottom
the smoke is taken into the mouth, the amhix being
1 "Fumus auripigmenti, radicis ungule caballine per embotum ad divi-
sionem ore suscipiatur et tussis ad expulsionem provocetur," P. Giacosa,
op. cit., p. 205.
2 "Fumus auri pigmenti, arsenici, amoniaci puri, radicis ungule caballine
per embotum ore suscipiatur," ihid.f p. 215. See also De aegritudinum
curatione, in Collectio Salernitana, vol. II, p. 208.
3 "Huius aridae cum radice fumus per harundinem haustus et devoratus

veterem sanare dicitur tussim, sed in singulos haustus passum gustandum

est," XXVI. 30.
* "Fimi quoque aridi, sed pabulo viridi pasto bove, fumum harundine
haustum prodesse tradunt," XXVIII. 230.
5 "Chamaeleucen apud nos farfarum sive farfugium vocant. nascitur
secundum fluvids, folio populi, sed ampliore. radix eius inponitur carbonibus
cupressi, atque is nidor per infundibulum bibitur inveteratae tussi,"
XXIV. 135.
^ <:'Yjto^uM'ito|iXEva 8e ^riea «*? v;roxajtvuJn6v xov; vjio Iriods Ptj-
Xog xai op'&ojrvoiac; evoxXovhevov? ^SQCuievei, oxav xavovxEc; xov xoutvov
8e|(ovxai xq? axoM-axt xal xaxam(om.» IIeoi (jXtis i ax q iy.fi z,
III. 112.
96 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
placed on the fire/'^ The same bechion is smoked for
cough according to Galen, ^ but the best description of
the pipe is given by Marcellus Empiricus: **An effica-
cious medicine for the cough. The herb, called in Gallic
calliomarcus, in Latin horse's hoof (apparently colt's
foot), gathered in the old moon, dried on Thursday, is
at first put in a new vessel with burning coals, which are
put into the vessel; the top is closed carefully with clay
and a reed is inserted, and through it the humor or hot
smoke is drawn into the mouth, until it penetrates all
the arteries and the stomach.'*^
A large number of other substances were smoked.*
The best summary of smoking in mediaeval times was
made by Par6, and this we give in the English transla-
tion. **Suffitus or fumigation is an evaporation of
medicines having some viscous and fatty moisture: of
fumigations some are dry, othersome moist, the dry have
the form of trochisces or pills their matter ought to be
:

fatty and viscous, so that it may send forth a smoake by

being burnt: such are ladanum, myrrhe, masticke,
pitch, waxe, rosine, turpentine, castoreum, styrax,
frankincense, olibanum, and other gummes, which may
bee mixed with convenient powders: for they yeeld

1 <*Yrtodvju(oji8va 6e dxpEXei xQOviai; p^x"?, »«al 8ia xoXaM-Cvov

crCqxovog tcoX au6ixog TexQTiiiEvov xaxa xov mrflhptEva, 6l' o^ xal 6 oiqxov
xa^ie|Aevo5 dvojrenjiEi elg to (rr6|ia xov dxiiov doaEvwtov, <yav8aodxTi
Xeui, 6Qaxevxa vbaxi xod nkaaftevxa x(p xExoruiEVQ* diJ,6uci, jtEOixidenEvow
T(p jwqI xov Sjiifiaux;' 6r\xiov €pvXka fhJii\miie\a, ^eiov SjwQcyv, xoXottog,
aQ(a\iaxixr\(; xad' iavxbv xal ovv qtixi-vt] xeqjiiv^vxi, jtoojtoXig, oavSa-
odxTl ouv QT^xLvn xEQuivftivxi, &oq>aXxo(;, Xi6ava)x65 crirv Qni^Cvn, OKiXXa
kr\Qa, iQvaiiio\, sXaiov x^figivov, y.t\xavQiov qIXjol, v-clqo^qov xaoJt6g,>
11 e Q I £ u n o Q ( a T 0) V, II. 33.
» VI. 7.
«
*'Ad tussem remedium efficax: Herba, quae Gallice calliomarcus, Latine
equi ungula vocatur, coUecta luna vetere liduna die lovis siccata prius in
ollam novam mittitur cum prunis ardentibus, quae intra oUam mitti debent;
superficies sane eius argilla diligenter claudi debet et calamus inseri, per
quem umor vel fumus caloris hauriatur intra os, donee arteria omnia et
stomachum penetret," II. 101.
* Lamer, op. cit., p. 56.
 SMOKING IN ANTIQUITY 97

them a body and firme consistence; the fumigations

that are made of powders only, yeeld neither so strong
nor long a fume.
**The quantity of the powders must bee from 5i^- to
5i./^. but the gummes to 5ii- as, ^ sandarachae, mastiches,

rosar. an. 5 i. henioini, galang. an, 5 iii. terehinthina ex^

cipiantur, & fiant trochisci, quibus incensis sugumigentur
tegumenta capitis. 4. marcasitae, 5 ii. hdellii, myrrhae,
styracisy an. 5 i /^- cerae flavae, & terebinth, quod sufficit^
fiant formulae pro suffumigio. 4.cinnabaris^ § ii. styracis
& benzoini, an. S ii. cumterebinth. fiant trochisci pro suf-
fumigio per embotum.
*'Wee use fumigations in great obstructions of the
braine, ulcers of the lungs, the asthma, an old cough,
paines of the sides, wombe, and the diseases of some
other parts; sometimes the whole body is fumigated,
as in the cure of the Lues venerea to procure sweat; some-
timely onely some one part whereto some reliques of the
Lues adheres; such fumigations are made of cinnabaris,
wherein there is much hydragyrum. The fume must
be received by a funnell, that so it may not bee dis-
persed, but may all be carried unto the part affected, as
is usually done in the affects of the womb and eares.
**In fumigations for the braine and chest, the vapour
would be received with open mouth; which thence may
passe by the weazon into the chest, by the palate and
nostrils into the braine but in the interim let the head
:

bee vailed, that none of the vapour may flye away.

Moist fumigations are made somewhiles of the decoc-
tion of herbes, otherwhiles of some one simple medicine
boiled in oile, sometimes a hot fire-stone is quencht in
vinegar, wine, aqua vitae, or the like liquor, so to raise a
humide vapour. We oft time use this kinde of fumi-
gation in overcoming scirrhous affects, when as we
would cut, discusse, penetrate deep, and dry: take this
as an example thereof.
98 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
'*!^. later em unum
crassum, aut marchasitam
satis
ponderis i. heat it red hot, and then let it bee quencht
lb
in sharpe vinegar, powring thereon in the meane while
a little aqua vitae, make a fumigation for the grieved
part.
**
Fumes of the decoction of herbes doe very little
differ from fomentations properly so called; for they
differ not in the manner of their composure, but onely
in the application to the affected parts: therefore let
this be an example of a humide fumigation.
"!^5. absinth, salv. rut. origan, an. p. i. rad. hryon. &
asar. an. 5/^. sent, sinap. & cumin, an. 5 ii* decoquantur
in duahus partihus aquae, & una vini pro suffitu auris
cum emboto.'"^ It will be observed that the substance
smoked must be fatty or viscous, such as pitch. This
at once leads to Lat. bitumen and Arabic dibq or (dia-
hence tubbaq, as the designation for the
lectically) tibq,
substance smoked. Before doing so, we shall show
that smoking was popularized in the Spanish peninsula
by the Arabs, who left many proofs of the fact in the
languages of Europe.
1 Th. Johnson, The Workes of that famous Chirurgion Ambrose Parey,
London 1634, p. 1072 f.
 CHAPTER II.

The Smoke Vender.

In Portuguese we have bufarinha *'a peddler's tray,
trifles, cosmetics," bufarinheiro, bofarinheiro ''peddler."
This is unquestionably from Arabic JJ^j*. buhdriy
''seller of incense, cosmetics," from J^y. buhdr, Jj^^.

bdhilr "fumigation, smoke, incense." Indeed, in the

Spanish- Arabic dictionary^ we get for "sahumar," that
is, "to use incense or smoke," the Arabic bakdr, for

"sahumaduras" bokor. This bufarinheiro was early

corrupted into bufo, as which it appears in the thirteenth
century Portuguese documents as the designation for a
small trader. A bofon paid the lowest tax in the Foro
of Ericeira of 1229.^ The same is recorded at Ega
(1231)^ and at Midoes (1257),^ while at Coja (1260) a
bufonus is mentioned as crying his wares (preconizare).^
By a Spanish law of 1562® the buhoneros were not per-
mitted to walk the streets or enter the houses in order
to sell their buhonerias, even though these could legiti-
mately be sold. These vagabond hawkers had ob-
viously never been in favor, and their wares were con-
sidered as trifles. No wonder, then, that in the XIV.
century a bufo should have been classed with jugglers
and should have received the designation of a bufi'oon.
The bufonerus originally sold cosmetics, just like the
1 P. de Lagarde, Petri Hispani de lingua arabica libri duo, Gottingae 1883.
2 Portugaliae monumenta historica, Olisipone 1856, vol. I, p. 621.
3 Ibid., p. 622.
« Ibid., p. 674.
6 Ibid., p. 696.
« Novisima recopildcion, IX. 6. 10.
100 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
Portuguese hufarinheiro, and the Span, alhafor, Port.
alhafar **incense, perfume" still bear witness to the
Arabic origin of the trade. But we have also the abbre-
*
viated Span., Port, hafo, haho 'breath, exhalation,''
*
Port, baforada 'breath, bad odor." The latter word
also means 'cheating, boasting" and the relation to
*

hufo "buffoon" is at once obvious. Hence we have

Port, hafejar, hofar "to boast, blabber, breathe," hence
Span., Port, hofe "lung," hufar "to boast, to snort."
The other Romance words related to these need not be
adduced here.
Weshall now treat of the particular kind of hufa-
rinheiro which was developed in Africa and America, as
this will bear upon the distribution of African plants in
America. In the pharmacy of the XVI. century, and
unquestionably much earlier, pulpa was the technical
term for a jamlike extract from exotic fruits, such as
pulpa cassiacj colocynthidis. This was readily confused
with pulmentum, which may itself be a derivative of
pulpa, but which, in any case, was early understood,
like pulpa, to* refer to sweetmeats or delicacies, hence
Joannes Janua wrote: ''pulmentum is said of delicate
and sweet food, from pulpa, similarly pulmentum or
pulmentarium is said of any food other than bread. "^
We, therefore, read in the Italian ''polpa difichi secchi,''
and "si adulterano i tamarindi colla polpa delle susine.''
Similarly the Portuguese dictionary records "a polpa do
figofartum" and ''polpa de canafistula concretum casiae
stramentum." But the Portuguese has also ''polme, the
denser part of a liquor" and translates it similarly by
"crassamentum." There is also here a corrupted pom-
hinha, the fleshy part of the thigh of an ox, "bubulis
cruris pulpa intima," which is obviously related to the
Latin pulpa,

> Ducange, sub ptUmentum,

 THE SMOKE VENDER 101

In the Bantu countries of Africa there is made a

liquor known as pomhe. Andr^ Fernandes, writing from
Mozambique, in 1560, said: **As the millet is the best
and chief part of their provisions and they use what
would feed them for thirty days to make a drink called
empomhe for one occasion, it is said that they often die
of hunger."^ A fuller description of the preparation of
pomhe was given by Joao dos Santos, in 1605: **The
wine usually drunk by these Kaf&rs is made of millet,
and is called pomhe. It is made in the following manner:
first they soak about three gallons of millet in water,
where it remains for two days, in the course of which it
sprouts; the water is then drained off, and it is left to
dry for two or three hours, and when it is well dried,
they pound it thoroughly to a pulp. This is done in a
large wooden mortar which reaches to a man's waist,
which the Kaffirs call cuni, and the Portuguese pildo, as
has been said. This being done, they place a large
cauldron half full of water on the fire, and when it boils
they gradually mix in about a gallon and a half of millet
flour, as if making a broth, and when it has boiled a
little they take the cauldron off the fire and throw into
it the pulp made of the ground millet, mixing it until
it dissolves. The cauldron is then left for two days,
during which the liquor cooks and boils without fire,
like the must of grapes, and after these two days they
drink it. They make it in this manner every day.
This pomhe is as intoxicating as wine if much of it is
drunk; it is so sustaining that many Kaffirs eat and
drink nothing else, but live on pomhe alone. If they
leave it in the cauldron for four or five days it becomes
very sour, and the more sour it is the more intoxicating

» G. McC. Theal, Records of South-Eastern Africa, [London] 1898, vol. II,

p. 64.
102 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
itbecomes, and the Kaffirs esteem it greatly so, because
they say it gives them more strength."^
It is clear that in pomhe we have a Portuguese word,
related to pombinho and meaning "fruit, pulp." A
word for wine and wine itself could not have been fost-
ered by the Arabs, who are opposed to it. At the same
time the word pomhe is not universal in the Bantu
languages but only coincides with the Portuguese trade,
hence it is found also in non-Bantu languages. In
Angola, mbombo is fermented manioc from which fuha
is made. In the Kongo we have '*a fermented liquor
made from maize and cassava or manioc. The maize
is malted by placing it on the ground, sprinkling with
water, and covering with leaves until it sprouts; when
the grain has run out roots about an inch long it is dried
by exposure to strong sunshine for a day or two, when it
becomes menia. It is sweet, and is proper malted
grain. Cassava is peeled and dried in the sun, when it
is called kela. The menia and kela are then pounded
together in a mortar until fairly crushed. It is then
mixed with a due proportion of water, and the mash
thus made is boiled for 12 hours, strained and left to
cool. It is then a sweet, not intoxicating beverage called
mulu. After two or three days it ferments and be-
comes intoxicating, sour, and more or less acid, and is
called mhamvu.''^ In Swahili we have ''pomhe native
beer, an intoxicant made from many kinds of grains
and some fruits, e. g. bananas, by fermentation." In
Hausa we get humho, ham, hummi **palmwine," which
is *' obtained by direct incision into the stems of the
palm-tree, it begins to ferment on the second or third
day."

1 lUd., vol. VII, p. 210. See also vols. II, pp. 293, 329, VII, pp. 190,
196, 307, VIII, p. 110.
2 W. H. Bentley, Dictionary and Grammar of the Kongo Language, London
1887, p. 19.
 THE SMOKE VENDER 103

Having fostered the habit of intoxication among the

natives, the Portuguese early employed native traders
to corrupt the Negroes by the sale of pombe. Such
traders were known as pombeiros. We
have a good de-
scription of such pombeiros in the Congo region by
Dapper, who unfortunately tried to derive the word
from that of a mythical country, Pombo, in the interior
of Africa. "The country properly called Pombo, hes
more than one hundred leagues landwards from the sea-
coast, or from the city of Lovango and, as some say,
towards Abyssinia. Some think that what the Portu-
guese call Pombo, is a collection of kingdoms and lands
near a certain large sea (I think the sea of Zambre which
lies in the interior between both the seas). But it is
quite uncertain where that place is, since no Christian
has ever been there; but it is said that a certain Kaffir
of Mozambique who traveled over land from Sofala to
Angola has come to it, as the Portuguese report. All the
blacks who dwell at the sea-coast, receive their laws,
rights and privileges from Pombo.
**Boththe Portuguese who live in Lovango, Congo,and
Lovango Saint Paul, have a great trade with this Pombo,
through their trusted slaves, whom they bring up in
their houses and send thither with merchandise, who
for slaves, elephants' teeth (but these are not as large
as those which come from Bukkameale), and panos lim-
pos, barter Canary, Spanish, or Madeira wine, large
simbos from the island of Lovando, beads, and other
wares. The masters let these their slaves, generally
called pomberos after the emporium Pombo, if they show
any aptitude, be instructed in reading, writing, and
arithmetic, as much as is necessary for the trade.
These pomberos have yet other slaves under them, some
times as many as one hundred or one hundred and
fifty, who carry the goods upon their heads up in the
country, such as wine in pots called pereleros, which are
104 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
covered with esparto or a certain Spanish grass of which
frailsare made.
Sometimes these pomheros stay out a year, some-
**

times eighteen months and two years, and then bring

back with them four, five, and six hundred slaves.
Some of the most trusted remain up in the country and
send the slaves they have bought to their masters, who
return to them other commodities. Occasionally dis-
honest pomheros deceive their masters and run away
with the slaves and commodities.
''The whites or Portuguese are obliged to carry on
the trade through these their Negroes or pomheros, be-
cause, according to their statement, it is impossible for
white men to carry on the trade, because of the diffi-
culty of the journey, the hunger and trouble they have
to undergo, and especially on account of the unwhole-
someness of the country and the like. The country is
said to be so unwholesome that the heat of the sun
makes the head swell to double its size.
**The journey from the seacoast, from Lovango and
Lovango Saint Paul to Pomho, is slow, on account of the
difficulty of the road, and because of the rocky moun-
tains and many ravines which sometimes, after a rain,
hold up the travelers for ten or fourteen days."^
Diogo de Couto long before that pointed out the fact
that the Portuguese from Tete carried on their trade far
inland by means of natives: ** Those who wish to do so
go themselves, others send their Kaffirs, as some of these
merchants have one or two hundred Kaffir slaves whom
they employ in this trade, and they are so faithful that
up to the present no one was ever known to be guilty of
any dishonesty, or to remain there with his master's
property."^ It is clear that pomheiro originally meant
^ O. Dapper, Naukeurige Beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche Gewesten van
Egypten, Barbaryen, Lybien, Biledulgerid, Negroslant, Guinea, Ethiopien,
Abyssinie: Amsterdam 1676, p. 219 f.
2 Theal, op. cit., vol. VI, p. 368.
 ^

THE SMOKE VENDER 105

**a wine dealer/' and that the mythical Pomho is merely

the interior where the pomheiros carried on business in
the name of their Portuguese masters. Just as the
bufarinheiro was a peddler who began by corrupting
the people's manners with illicit fumigations, that is,
smoking, so the pomheiro began his career as a liquor
dealer. The Kimbundu dictionary^ gives pilmbela as a
native word and translates it by **a kind of bufarinheiro
merchants' agent for the retail trade." Without these
pombeiros the trade with the interior of Africa would
have been well nigh impossible, and Dapper tells of
their traveling two hundred leagues inland.^ History
does not record the deeds of the lowly, and these van-
guards of European civilization have passed away
unnoticed.
In 1603 "the king of Congo now reigning is a tyrant
and shows the same bad will as the previous kings in
everything he can, because every time that he wants
to close the roads to the pombeiros who in his country
trade cloth, he does so."^ A description of the pom-
beiros was given by Vieira in his Arte defurtar: *'The
Portuguese go to Guinea, Angola, Cafraria, and Mozam-
bique, filling ships with Negroes For these pur-
. . .

poses they have instructed people, whom they call pom-

beiros and the Negroes call tangomaos: these carry
cloths, iron articles, and trifles which they give for
slaves, and these they fetch naked and in chains."*
From all this it follows that the pombeiros were active
before the XVII. century, in fact, must have had their
beginning with the first Portuguese settlement in
Guinea, in the middle of the fifteenth century.
1 J. Cordeiro da Matta, Ensaio de dicdonario kimMndu-portugiiez,
Lisboa 1893, p. 128.
2 Op. cit., p. 234.

' L. Cordeiro, Da Mina ao Cabo Negro, in Memorias do Ultramar.

Viagens, exploragoes e conquistas dos Portuguezes, part 2 (of 1574-1620),
Lisboa 1881, p. 8.
* A. Vieira, Arte de furtar, in Historia do futuro, Lisboa 1855, cap. XL VI.
106 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
Vieira's tangomao throws a light upon the Portuguese
trade in Africa. A law of the year 1565^ provides
**that when the heir of a tangomao, deceased in some
part of Guinea, asks the Hospital of all the Saints of
the City of Lisbon to restitute to him the property left
after such a tangomao he has to go through certain
formalities in order to ascertain the death of the tan-
gomao,'" In 1607 a large number of tangos maos con-
gregated at Cape Verde, to trade with the Negroes in
ivory, gold, wax, and slaves,^ to which the editor quotes
from Father Fernao Guerreiro's Relagdo annua, 1605:
"The tangos maos or langados with the Negroes and who
are slave traders in the interior; who are a sort of people
who by nativity are Portuguese and by religion or bap-
tism Christians, but who live in such a fashion as if
they were neither, for many of them walk about naked,
and who accomodate themselves to the native customs
of the country where they trade. They mark their bod-
ies with an iron, drawing blood and tattooing them, by
anointing them with the juice of certain herbs, making
various figures appear, such as locusts, snakes, or what-
ever they like, and in this way they march through this
Guinea trading and buying slaves." Guerreiro tells of
a number of Europeans who settled in Africa and be-
came thoroughly Negroized.^
Boletim do conselho ultramarino, Legislagao antiga, Lisboa 1867, vol. I,
^

p. 85 f.
2 L. Cordeiro, op. ciL, part V (of 1607), Estabelecimentos e resgates poriti-

guezes na costa occidental de Africa, Lisboa 1881, p. 8 f.

3 "Neste reino achei hum Christam crioulo da ilhade Sanctiago que
aula muytos annos viuia como gentio sem mais differenga que enxergarse
nelle ainda algum lume da Fe. Estranheilhe quanto era rezam o estado
em que estaua, & o nam se ter ido confessar comigo despois que vim a estas
partes podendoo fazer, conheceose & humilhouse, & prometeo que viria
comprir com esta obrigacam, & traria consigo hum filho que tinha de
dezasete. ou dezoito annos pera eu o bautizar, & instruir nas cousas de sua
saluacam oqual comprio dahi a algum tempo, & o filho depois de bautizado
ficou encarregado a hum Portugues casado que o cria, & ensina com muyto
charidade, & elle se foy a buscar isso que tinha pera se vir morar entre os
Christaos. Tambem achei hum Alemam que tomaram com certos cossa-
rios nas ilhas que chamam mesmo Fatema, & por
dos idolos pertencentes ao
 THE SMOKE VENDER 107

Somewhat earlier Alvares d' Almada wrote :

*
'Among
these Negroes there are many who can talk our Portu-
guese language, and are dressed like ourselves. And
there are also many Portuguese (ladinas) Negresses
called Tangomas, because they serve the langados. And
these Negresses and Negroes go with them from one
river to another and to the Island of Santiago and else-
where/'^ Among the Balolas "there are many langados,
because the country is pacified and quiet, and many con-
gregate there for the sake of barter, both of slaves (who
are very cheap here), and of produce, because these
Negroes are more addicted to work."^
Alvares d' Almada gives us a detailed account of
these langados or '* outcasts:" *'This kingdom of Budu-
mel has many parts, besides those of the Senegal River,
and beginning there and running down the coast as far
as Sereno, the two principal ones being Angra and Bizi-
guiche, which is a very beautiful bay, constant refuge
of the English and French, where a large number of
ships can stay without peril from the weather, since
they are protected from the winds. And in this very
Angra there is an island which is in the lee of the winds,
and between it and the mainland there is a large channel
where the ships can stay; and between this island and
the land the French have several times escaped our
galleys. In this island a very good port could be built,

ser grande tangedor de trombeta bastarda Iho mandaram. Fallaua ja bem

a lingoa da terra, &
viuia como os outros gentios tam contente, que nem con-
sentimento quis dar peraque eu o pedisse disse ao Rey, &
tambem fora
difficultoso tirarlho das maos porque hia ensinando a tanger a alguns mocos
da terra. He lastima ver como andam estes homens entre gentios, sem se
lembrar que sam Christaos, &
sem se quererem apartar delles polla largueza,
& liberdade de consciencia em que viuem. Em
Bena achei tres, ou quatro
tam arreigados na terra, que por mais que fiz polios tirar della com nenhum
delles o pude acabar." F. Guerreiro, ReloQam annal das cousas que fizeram
OS padres da Companhia de Jesus, nas partes da India Oriental, Lisboa
1611, fol. 234.
1 A Alvares d'Almada, Tratado breve dos rios de Guine' do Cabo-Verde,
ed. by D. Kopke. Porto 1841, p 60.
2 Ibid., p. 66.
108 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
and with little cost, because from the land shore the
island is protected by a rock built by nature itself, and
on the ocean side it can be fortified at little cost, and
being fortified would keep the enemy from making port,
and with brigantines (which are vessels of little cost)
one could keep the langados from giving aid and solace
to the enemies, as they now do. This island serves the
English and French as a refuge, where they congregate
their ships and boats and is the narrows through which
;

most of the hostile ships pass, those that make for

Sierra Leone, as well as for the Pepper Coast, for Brazil,
or for the Spanish Indies. All of them stop at Angra,
and here overhaul and repair their ships, and live on it,
and consider it their own, as if it were one of the English
or French ports; so much so that the Negroes of these
ports speak very good French, and many times travel
to France, and now, since they are friendly with the
English, travel to England, to learn English and see the
country, by order of the Alcaide of the Port of Ale, who
serves as a commercial agent of the king. This Angra
is almost at the point of Cape Verde, between it and
Cape Mastros, but nearer to Cape Verde. Anciently the
greatest business done by the inhabitants of the Island
of Santiago was with this land of Budumel, in the days
when in it ruled a king named Nhogor, a great friend of
our nation, in the days when the locusts had caused
such a famine on the coast that slaves were sold for a
half a bushel of corn or beans, and the mothers drew
among their children and sold them for food, saying
that it was better to live, even as slaves, than to die of
mere hunger. And from the Cape Verde Isle each year
went loads of horses and other wares for this trade.
**
There succeeded in this reign the king called Bud-
umel Bixirin, who drank no wine and ate no pork. He
lived constantly in his court at Lambaya, along the sea,
and treated our people badly and gathered at his ports
 THE SMOKE VENDER 109

the French, whom he liked, and for this cause the in-
habitants of the island lost the business, which is now
more in the hands of the English than of the French, to
both of them succor is given by many Portugese and
some strangers, who live at the port of Joala, in the land
of the Barbacins, in the kingdom of Ale-Embicone.
And these Portuguese are those who aid the English and
the French, despatching their business from river to
river and many leagues inland. And every year the
English and French export a large quantity of hides of
oxen, buffaloes, gazelles, and other animals called dacoy
at the Gambia River, which they say is the true anta,
and much ivory, wax, gum, amber, musk, and
also
gold, and other things, bartering these for iron and other
wares brought from England and France, and these
our Portuguese langados are much fondled by these our
enemies. And on the days when they receive their pay
and hand in their goods the English give them banquets
on land, with much music of fiddles and other instru-
ments, and thus the whole trade from Cape Verde to the
Gambia River is lost. And nobody does business there
except these langados with the enemies, who at S. Do-
mingos River and Grande River do business with those
who live there, whither they send their iron and what-
ever else they have, and they send their wares to our
enemies and if it were not for these Portuguese langados,
;

these two nations would not have such business or com-

merce in Guinea as they have nowadays, because the
pagans have not the ability to give them such business,
since they do not navigate and do not carry the goods
inland except at a great loss. Now these Portuguese
langados roam all the rivers and lands of the Negroes,
acquiring everything they find there for the ships of
their friends, so much so that there is a Portuguese who
went inland as far as the Kingdom of the Great Fulo,
which is many leagues away, and from there he sent
110 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
much ivory to the Senegal River, whence the ships at
Angra fetch it in their boats. This Portuguese langado
went to the kingdom of the Great Fulo by order of Duke
Casao, who is a powerful Negro living in a port in the
Gambia River above sixty marine leagues. He sent
him with his people, and at the court of the Great Fulo
he married a daughter of his, with whom he had a
daughter, and wishing to return to the seaport, his father-
in-law permitted him to take her along, and his name is
Joao Ferreira, native of Crato, and called by the Negroes
Ganagoga, which in the language of the Beaf ares means
*man who talks all the languages,' as, indeed, he speaks
the Negro languages, and this man can traverse all the
hinterland of our Guinea, of whatever Negro tribe. And
with the aid of these langados the trade of our enemies
is growing in Guinea, and ours is disappearing."^
Jobson describes these langados under the name of
Porting ales: "I must breake of a while from them,
and acquainte you first, of another sort of people we
finde dwelling, or rather lurking, amongst these Mand-
ingos, onely some certaine way up the Riuer.
''And these are, as they call themselves, Portingales,
and some few of them seeme the same; others of them
are Molatoes, betweene blacke and white, but the most
part as blacke, as the naturall inhabitants: they are
scattered, some two or three dwellers in a place, and
are all married, or rather keepe with them the countrey
blacke women, of whom they beget children, howbeit
they haue amongest them, neither Church, nor Frier,
nor any other religious order. It doth manifestly ap-
peare, that they are such, as haue beene banished, or
fled away, from forth either of Portingall, or the lies
belonging vnto that gouernement, they doe generally
imploy themselues in buying such commodities the
countrey affords, wherein especially they couet the
1 Ibid., p. 13 ff.
 THE SMOKE VENDER HI
country people, who are sold vnto them, when they
commit offences, as you shall reade where I write of the
generall gouernement all which things they are ready
:

to vent, vnto such as come into the riuer, but the blacke
people are bought away by their owne nation, and by
them either carried, or soldo vnto the Spaniard, for him
to carry into the West Indies, to remaine as slaues,
either in their Mines, or in any other seruile vses, they
in those countries put them to Some few of these sort-
:

ing themselues together, in one time of the yeare, haue

vsed to go vp this Riuer, in a boate or small barke, as
farre as Setico, and there to remaine in trade, from
whence it is certainely knowne they haue returned
much gold, aboue which place they neuer attempted,
which is not halfe the way, we haue already gone vp,
since our trading there. With these, in their places of
dwelling, wee are very conuersant, notwithstanding,
we receiued such a horrible treachery from them, as is
set downe in my beginning, in regarde they tell vs,
those that were the Actors thereof, are banished from
amongst them, as being hated and detested for the fact.
Howsoeuer, wee hope, and desire it may stand, for all
our Nations warning, neuer to let them haue the like
occasion, but beleeue, euer they will doe as they say,
in telling vs they do loue and wish vs wel, prouided they
may neuer haue vs vnder their power, to be able to
doe vs ill, which it behooueth vs to take especiall care of.
*'The conditions they Hue subiect vnto, vnder the
the black Kings, makes it appeare, they haue little
comfort in any Christian countrey, or else themselues
are very carelesse what becommeth of their posteritie;
for whensoeuer the husband, father, or maister of the
familie dies, if hee be of any worth, the King seizeth
vpon what hee hath, without respect, either to wife,
children, or seruant, except they haue warning to pro-
uide before, or are capable of themselues, to looke out
112 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
for the future time; whereby we finde in some those
few places we trade with them, poore distressed child-
ren left, who as it were exposed to the charitie of the
country, become in a manner naturalized, and as they
grow up, apply themselves to buy and sell one thing
for another as the whole country doth, still reseruing
carefully, the vse of the Porting all tongue, and with a
kinde of an affectionate zeale, the name of Christians,
taking it in a great disdaine, be they neuer so blacke, to
be called a Negro and these, for the most part, are the
:

Portingalls, which liue within this Riuer.'*^

A tangomao, tangomdo was, accordingly, a European
naturalized in Africa or a Negro speaking Portuguese,
who traveled through the country for barter, that is, a
pomheiro. Obviously the word is supposed to be a
Guinea word, and we can identify it and pursue its
history. We have the word in many of the Mandingo
dialects, but generally in that fragmentary form which
causes the despair of the philologist. In Dyula we have
tarhama **to march, travel," hence tarha "to walk, go
away.'* This is in Bambara contracted to tama 'march,
*

travel," tamaha "traveler," but also "lance," which

shows that the latter was formed under Portuguese influ-
ence, on account of the meaning of langado "trader,"
that is, "traveler." In Malinke the Bambara "lance"
word tama (or tamha) remains, but otherwise we have
tokhoma "march, travel," while takha is "to walk." In
Vei we have tamha "lance," but ta "to walk," while
Mandingo has tama "to walk."
The Dyula tarhama is clearly Arabic o^ J* tar^amdn
"interpreter," which leads to Eng. dragoman, etc., pre-
cisely as tangomdo is "one who speaks two languages,"
hence "trader," and that this is unquestionably the case
is proved by the use of the corresponding word in French

1 R. Jobson, The Golden Trade: or, A Diseomry of the Riuer Gambra, and
the Golden Trade of the Aethiopians, London 1623, p. 28 ff.
 THE SMOKE VENDER 113

for the Indianized French trader in Brazil in the XVI.

century. Nicholas Barr^ tells of a Norman truchement,
who had been given to Villegaignon and who had been
married to an Indian woman and lived in a truly Indian
fashion.^ This was about the year 1550. About the
same time Hans von Staden found in Brazil a number
of **mammelucks'* of a Portuguese father and Indian
mother, who were as savage as any Indian,^ while a little
later, in 1587, Soares de Sousa described the large num-
ber of descendants of French fathers and Indian women,
who had turned Indian in their habits: "When the
French returned home with their ships filled with brazil
wood, cotton, and pepper, they left among the natives
a few lads to learn the language and to help them in the
country, when they would return to France, to carry on
their barter. These became naturalized in the country
where they lived and did not wish to return to France
and lived like the natives, with many wives, from whom
and from those who every year came from France to
Bahia and the Segeripe River, the land was filled with
mammelucks, who were born, lived and died as Indians;
of these there are now many descendants, who are
blonde, white-skinned and freckled, but are considered to
be Tupinamba Indians, and are more savage than they."^
^ "Nous auons sceu que
ce auoit este conduict par vn truchement, lequel
donne audict seigneur par vn gentilhomme Normand, qui auoit
auoit, este
accompagn6 ledict seigneur iusques en ce lieu. Ce truchemet estoit mari6
auec vne femme Sauuage, laquelle il ne voulait ny laisser ne la tenir pour
femme. Or ledict seigneur de Villegaignon, en son commencement regla
la maison en home de bien, & craignant Dieu: deffendat que nul home
n'eust affaire a ces chienes Sauuages, & sur peine de la mort. Ce truche-
ment auoit vescu (comme tous les autres viuent) en la plus grande abomi-
nation &
vie Epicurienne, qu'il est impossible la raconter: sans Dieu, sans
foy, ne loy, I'espace de sept ans." N. Barre, Copie de quelques letres sur
la navigation du chevallier de Villegaignon es terres de lAmerique oultre
VAequinoctial, iiLsques soulz le tropiqiie de Capricorne, Paris 1558, second
letter.
2 A. Tootal, The Captivity of Hans Stade of Hesse in A. D. 1647-1555,
among the Wild Tribes of Eastern Brazil (The Hakluyt Society), London
1874, p. 44 f.
3 G. Soares de Sousa, Tratado descriptivo do Brasil em 1687, Rio de Janeiro

1879, p. 309 (cap. CLXXVII).

114 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
That the same Negro pombeiros were active in Amer-
ica is shown by a large number of documents. The
Spanish did not develop the word pombe, but stuck
closer to the Latin pulpa, as a base of a word for native
liquor, hence pulperia is, according to the Spanish dic-
tionary of the Academy, *'in America, a shop where all
kinds of products are sold, wine, brandy, liquor, and
things referring to drugs, buhoneria, market wares, but
not cloth or any other textile." But the word varies
in meaning in the different Spanish countries of Amer-
ica.^ Simon^ says that *'a pulpero is he who sells in
public Spanish and native fruit, but not cloth, especially
uncooked eatables" and gives an atrocious etymology
for the word. Garcilasso de la Vega^ says that in Peru
a pulpero was the humblest kind of vender, and gives
the same etymology, while Escalona more specifically
says^ that wine, bread, honey, cheese, butter, oil, bana-
nas, sails and other trifles were sold there, although a
law of the year 1623^ prohibited the manufacture of
sails by a pulpero and as early as 1586 a pulpero could
,

not sell any "vino cocido," that is, distilled wine. So-
lorzano^ says that such a shop was in the Indies called
pulperia or pulqueria, from pulque, the intoxicating
drink used by the Indians of New Spain.
There can be little doubt that Span, pulpa entered
into the American languages, whither it was carried as
pulque, even as the corresponding Arabic term ^jt^jt.-*-

Jj>a§ii has survived in Spanish and Portuguese chicha

1 D. Granada, Vocabulario rioplatense razonado, Montevideo 1890,

p. 329 ff., and L. Wiener, Pseudo-Karaibisches, in Zeiischrift fur Romanische
Philologie, vol. XXXIII, p. 526 ff.
2 Primera parte de las noticias historiales de las conquistas de Tierra Firme

en las Indias, [Cuence 1627], in the vocabulary.

' Historia general del Peru, Cordova 1617, parte II, lib. VI, cap. XX.
* G. de Escalona y Agiiero, Gazophilativm regivm pervbicvm, Matriti
1675, parte II, lib. II, cap. XXIV.
5 Recopilaciones, IV. 18. 14.

s
J. de Solorzano Pereira, Politica Indiana, Madrid 1647, p. 751.
 THE SMOKE VENDER 115

**meat for children/' that is, "soft food," hence intoxi-

cating drink made from "mash." Ramos i Duarte^
derives chicha in the latter sense from Nahuatl chichilia
"to ferment," while D. Granada^ says that c/iic/ia is de-
rived from the Peruvian. This is at once made impos-
sible from the fact that chicha is mentioned before either
Mexico or Peru was discovered, namely in a document
of the year 1516, from Castilla del Oro: "las esposas del
dicho cacique me enviaban siempre chicha^ de su mano
fecha."^ Chich is an onomatopoetic sound used for
"suck the breast" in a very large number of uncon-
nected languages, and it is a mere coincidence that we
have Nahuatl chicha "spittle," chichi "to suck," chi-
china "to suck, smoke incense through a pipe." The
Portuguese dictionary^ says: ''chicha, a plebeian word,
beef; in general, a certain portion of agreeable food or
drink, fried food, cake, pastry, sweets, wine, etc. This
is the meaning given to it in the northern provinces of
Portugal, food as for children, nursing women, or any
food which they enjoy." It is just the kind of word
slaves would pick up, and Portuguese pombinho,
Spanish pulpa indicate at once that the pulperia, put-
queria was an establishment to cater to the sweet tooth
of the lowly. The dissemination of chicha and pulque
over America at once shows that the Europeans or the
Negro slaves may be responsible for the inebriety of the
Indians, so frequently reported by the early writers.
The very method of preparing chicha by masticating
the grain, as reported from Peru and elsewhere, is com-
mon in Africa where the fruit of the baobab is masti-
cated and made into a sherbet.^
1 F. Ramos i Duarte, Diccionario de mejicanismos, Mejico 1895, p. 165.
2 Op. ciL, p. 190 ff.
3 Colecdon de documentos ineditos del archivo de Indias, vol. II, p. 485.
* A. de Moraes 6 Silva, Diccionario da lingua portugueza, Lisboa 1877,
vol. I.
^ P. A. Benton, Notes on some Languages
of the Western Sudan, London
1912, p. 190.
116 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
The same Portuguese dictionary quotes from a letter
of Vieira to the effect that in the Maranhao in Brazil a
pomheiro traded in slaves, and Vieira, in his Arte de fur-
tar, says that the same practice as in Africa prevailed
in Brazil in connection with the pomheiros, and pom-
heiro has survived in Brazil as the name of a chicken
peddler. But African pomheiros were known in the
West Indies before the so-called discovery of America
by Columbus. When Columbus started out, in 1498,
on his Third Journey, "he wished to go to the south,
because he intended with the aid of the 'Holy Trinity'
to find islands and lands, that God may be served and
their Highnesses and Christianity may have pleasure,
and that he wishes to prove or test the opinion of King
Don Juan of Portugal, who said that there was conti-
nental land to the south: and because of this, he says
that he had a contention with the Sovereigns of Castile,
and finally the Admiral says that it was concluded that
the King of Portugal should have 370 leagues to the
west from the islands of the Azores and Cape Verde,
from north to south, from pole to pole. And the Admi-
ral says further that the said King Don Juan was cer-
tain that within those limits famous lands and things
must be found. Certain principal inhabitants of the
island of Santiago came to see them and they say that
to the south-west of the island of Huego, which is one
of the Cape Verdes distant 12 leagues from this, may
be seen an island, and that the King Don Juan was
greatly inclined to send to make discoveries to the
south-west, and that canoes had been found which start
from the coast of Guinea and navigate to the west with
merchandise.''^ **He ordered the course laid to the way
of the south-west, which is the route leading from
these islands to the south, in the name, he says, of the
Holy and Individual Trinity, because then he would
1 J. B. Thacher, Christopher Columbus, New York 1903, vol. II, p. 379.
 THE SMOKE VENDER 117

be on a parallel with the lands of the Sierra of Loa and

Cape of Saneta Ana in Guinea, which is below the equi-
noctial line, where he says that below that line of the
world are found more gold and things of value: and
that after, he would navigate, the Lord pleasing, to the
west, and from there would go to this Espanola, in
which route he would prove the theory of the King
Juan aforesaid: and that he thought to investigate the re-
port of the Indians of this Espanola who said that there
had come to Espanola from the south and south-east, a
black people who have the tops of their spears made of
a metal which they call 'guanin,' of which he had sent
samples to the Sovereigns to have them assayed, when it was
found that of 32 parts, 18 were of gold, 6 of silver and 8 of
copper,''^

There can be no question whatsoever as to the reality

of the statement in regard to the presence in America
of the African pomheiros previous to Columbus, because
the guani is a Mandingo word,^ and the very alloy is of
African origin. In 1501 a law was passed forbidding
persons to sell guanin to the Indians of Hispaniola.'

1 lUd., p. 380.
* See Africa and the Discovery of America, vol. I, p. 32 f.

» "Sepades que a nos es fecha Relacion que pertenesciendo como pertene-

cen a nos todos los mineros de metales e otras cosas que ay e se hayan
hallado e descubierto f asta aqui e se hallaren e descubrieren de aqui adelante
en las dichas yslas e tierra firme del dicho mar oceano algunas personas
syn tener para ello nuestra licencia e mandado se han entremetydo a descob-
rir e sacar mineros de ciertos metales que se disen gumines en las yslas de
la paria e de quibacoa e otras de las dichas yslas e tierra firme e lo han
traydo e traen a vender a los yndios de la dicha ysla espanola e a otras
partes lo qual es en nuestro perjuicio e de nuestras rentas e patrimonio Real
de nuestros Reynos e senorios e que nuestra merced e voluntad es que lo
suso dicho no se haga de aqui adelante acordamos de mandar dar esta
nuestra carta en la dicha razon por lo qual defendemos e hordenamos e
mandamos que ningunos ni alguna persona o personas nuestros subditos e
naturales vezinos e moradores de nuestros Reynos e senorios e de las dichas
islas e tierrafirme ni otras qualesquier personas de Reynos e provincias
escrivymos no sean osados de buscar ni descobrir ni Uevar a vender 4 los
118 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
But in 1503 guanines were still imported secretly.^ In
the same year twenty-nine pieces of guanin were to be
returned from Spain to Hispaniola, because they were
a base alloy that had more value there than in Spain.^
When we turn to Africa we learn that the natives were
given to the adulteration of gold in precisely the man-
ner objected to. Bosman wrote: ''The Gold which is
brought us by the Dinkirans is very pure, except only
that 'tis too much mixed with Fetiche's, which are a sort
of artificial Gold composed of several Ingredients among ;

which some of them are very odly shaped: These

Fetiche's they cast (in Moulds made of a sort of black
and very heavy Earth) into what Form they please and ;

this artificial Gold is frequently mixed with a third part,

and sometimes with half Silver and Copper, and conse-
quently less worth, and yet we are pestered with it on
all parts of the Coast; and if we refuse to receive it,
some Negroes are so unreasonable that they will unde-
niably take back all their pure Gold: So that we are

yndios de la dicha ysla espanola ni a otras partes los dichos guanines ni otros
metales ni mineros de las dichas yslas de la paria e cuquibacoa ni de otras
algunas de las dichas yslas e tierra firme syn tener para ello nuestra licencia
e mandado so pena quel que lo contrario figyere por el mismo fecho sin otra
sentengia ni declaracion alguna aya perdido e pierda los dichos guanines
e mineros e metales e todos sus bienes los que desde agora aplicamos a nuestra
camara e fisco e el cargo sea a la nuestra merced," Coleccion de documentos
ineditos de Ultramar, Madrid 1890, series II, vol. V, p. 20 f.
1 "En quanto a lo que dezis que Rodrigo de la bastida trae muchos

guanines e cosas de algodon que en esa ysla valen mucho mas que aca e
que lo deviamos mandar conpartir para lo tomar e enviar alld, en esto nos lo
mandaremos proveer para que se faga asy," ibid., p. 47.
2 "Y en lo que dezis de las veynte
y nueve piezas de guanynes que
recivystes y que vos envie a mandar sy se fundirian para sacar el oro que
tiene 6 sy se tornaran a enviar al my governador de la ysla espanola, pues
que alia valen mas cantidad que aca, en quanto a esto yze por la carta quel
dicho my governador me escrivio abreys visto como por ella dize que los
guanynes el los avia fecho dexar alia en la ysla y que enviaba a myciertas
piezas de cobre rico; asy que vos debeys ynformar sy estas veynte y nueve
piezas que recivystes son de guanynes 6 de cobre, e savyda la verdad dello
ynformadme de lo ques. para que yo vos envie k mandar lo que fagays,"
ibid., p. 61.
 THE SMOKE VENDER 119

obliged sometimes to suffer them to shuffle in some of

it. There are also Fetiche's cast of unalloyed Moun-
tain Gold; which very seldom come to our Hands, be-
cause they keep them to adorn themselves So that if :

ever we meet with them, those who part with them are
obliged to it by Necessity, or they are filled with the
mentioned black heavy Earth. "^ But long before, in
1602, Marees^ has a long chapter on the deception
practised by the Negroes with just such an alloy.
Now, that the presence of pomheiros in America be-
foreColumbus is made certain, we can at once see why
tobacco should have been introduced by them before
Columbus, and the passages in all the early writers on
America receive a new interpretation. The African
slaves, who swarmed in Spain and Portugal ever since the
discovery of the Guinea Coast by the Portuguese, that
is, since 1440, had become acquainted with the customs

and vices of their surroundings and had carried these

back to Guinea where they, as pombeiros, spread the
new ideas into the interior and, simultaneously, into
the NewWorld, which their masters, the traders, kept
from the knowledge of the authorities, in order to carry
on their illicit and profitable trade without molestation
from the Portuguese government. Just as they had
learned in Portugal and Spain of the use of wine and
sweetmeats from children and nurses, so they had be-
come acquainted with the practice of smoking from
quacks and bufarinheiros, even though the medical
property of fumigation had reached them long before
through the Arabic medical science.

^ W. Bosman, A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea,

London 1721, p. 65.
2 P. de Marees, Beschryvinghe ende historische verhael van het gout kon-

inckrijck van Gunea, 's-Gravenhage 1912, p. 197 S.

120 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
That smoking was already known to them from the
Arabs follows from the fact that in the Niger valley
huckoor, that Arabic Jj^V hdhur, is still the name of
is,
*
'incense smoked with tobacco for cold/'^ even as it was
in Spain a name for the medical **sahumerias'* of Villa-
lobos and the older physicians. We have in Spain an
old reference to smoMng in the thirteenth century,
though the manuscript is of a later date, in any case long
before the discovery of America. Mosen Jaime Febrer
composed in 1276 a poem on the Conquest of Valencia
by Jaime I, in which the following occurs: **They say
of the lavender (espigol) that it has the property to
withhold sleep and give valor to him who takes it in
smoke, because it dries up the humidity of the brain,
and the cause being easily removed, it works with great
vigor. Peter Espigol, noble Catalan, who came from
Gerona, took part in the Conquest and was esteemed
by the Bang, for he contrived to give him great rewards
and granted him five stalks of lavender to be placed in
his escutcheon over a crimson field, and these look well."*
In Spain the Negroes had sufficient opportunity to
learn of the sovereign remedy from the quacks. The
bane of the average man was the toothache, and there
is, as we have already seen, a large number of references

to it in the mediaeval medical works. The quack who

* P. A. Benton, op. ciL, p. 190.
2 "Dihuen del espigol, que t6 propietat
de Uevar la s6n e de dar valor
a qui en fum lo pren, perque la humitat
del celebro trau, 6 ab agilitat
Uevada la causa, obra ab gran vigor:
El que Pere Espigol, noble catald,
Vengut de Gerona, tingue en la Conquista,
Conegu6 lo Rey, puix que procurd
de darli grans premis, 6 li senyald
cinch mates de espigol, que en orles allistd,
sobre camp bermell, que fan bona vista."
Revista de Archivos, Biblioteeas y Mriseos, Madrid 1913, vol.
XXVII, p. 283.
 THE SMOKE VENDER 121

furnished the sufferer with a pipe and henbane^ was a

deliverer, and other smoking remedies were offered.

1 The fourteenth century English medical writings are full of such refer-
ences: "Take J?e sed of hennebane and Jje sed of lekys and recheles and
do l)es iii Jjynges vp-on an hot glowying tilstoun; and make a pipe J)at
haj> a wyd hende and hold hit ouer j^e smoke J)at may rounse J)orwe \>e
pipe into l^y teyth and hit schal sle ]>e wormes and do a-wey Je ache,"
G. Henslow, Medical Works of the Fourteenth Century, London 1899, p. 8.
—
"For tothache of wurmes. Take hennebane-seede and leke-seed and poudre
of encens, of iche Hike mychil, and ley hem on a tyl-ston hot glowyng and
make a pipe of latoun that the nether ende be wyde that it may ouer-closen
the sedes and the poudre and hald his mouth there ouer the ouerende that
the eyre may in-to the sore tothe and that wil slen the wurmes and do away
the ache," ibid., p. 95. "For wormys ]?at eten teth.— Take henbane-sede
and leke-sede and stare, and ley Jjese on a red glowing tile-ston; and make
a pipe with a wyde ende, and hold J>i mouth ouyr Ipe ston, J>at J?e breth
may come J)orw \>e pipe to J?i teth; and it shal sle ]>e wormys and don
awey \>e akyng," ibid., p. Ill f.
 CHAPTER III.

Tobacco of the Moors.

Marceilus Empiricus facetiously begins his chapter

on the toothache with the words: "Although very many
say that the best remedy for the toothache is the forceps,
yet I know that many things less forcible have been use-
ful/' and he goes on to give two substances which should
be smoked for the toothache, the first thing henbane
seed, the second bitumen} But this remedy is much
older since the recipe is taken word for word from
Scribonius Largus.^ We have already seen from Fare's
resum^ that bitumen, that is, a viscous substance, in
Arabic o^ tibq, is the toothache remedy par excellence,
even as it may be used for the cough or headache.
Scribonius Largus also recommends chewing of pyre-
thrum for the toothache.^ In the mediaeval medical
works Spanish pyrethrum is a common substitution for
henbane. In the XIII. century pelydr ysbain was used
for toothache by Welsh pharmacists;^ in England it is
frequently mentioned as peletre of Spain,^ but it seems
to have been chewed and not smoked. It is interesting
merely from the fact that a Spanish plant is mentioned
as in use in English medicine.
We have seen from Park's discussion of fumigations
that any pungent, viscous substance could be used for

* "Levat dolorem dentium et bitumen suffitum," G. Helmreich, Marcelli

de medicamentis, Lipsiae 1889, cap. XII, p. 120.

2 G. Helmreich, Scribonii Largi compositiones, Lipsiae 1887, No. LIIII,

(p. 25).
3 Ibid.,Nos. villi and LV, (pp. 9 and 25).
* G. Henslow, op. cit., p. 234.
6 Ibid., pp. 47, 80, 95, 111, 130.
 TOBACCO OF THE MOORS 123

them. In the Arabic practice one of several varieties

of resin could be employed for the purpose: *' Steep a
cloth in oil of resin, dry it in the sun, then use it for
fumigations in the case of a cold in the head, and it will
be quickly cured. These fumigations are equally
efficacious inan old fever. If you take it in powdered
form a mithkal in two eggs in the shell and before
breakfast, it will help in the case of a cough, asthma,
and lung ulcers. Take a part of it, add half of rabbits'
dung, red arsenic, and lard, melt it all in a gentle fire,
and make it into tablets, each a mithkal worth, and then
it can be used, when needed, in a cough a tablet at a
time in a fumigation produced by a gentle fire, and
taken through a tube and funnel."^ For lung ulcers
bitumen could be used instead of resin.^ But for our
purposes the most interesting viscous plant is the one
known in Arabic as Jr^ tuhhdq or tahhdq. Of this Ibn-
al-Baitar, an Arabic physician of Malaga, in Spain,
wrote: '*A1-Gafeki. In Spain the people call it toh-

bdqah ^M» , while the Berbers call it tarheldn or tarheld.

Our physicians used to employ it, thinking that it was
the Eupatorium, ^^, before they knew the true Eupa-
torium. I the Eastern people made the
learn that
same use of then by mistake applying to it the defi-
it,

nitions of Galen and Dioscorides. Abu Hanifa. The

tohhdq is a plant which attains the size of a man. It
lives in groups, and one never finds one alone. It has
long, narrow, green, viscous leaves. Soaked in water
it is applied to fractures where they cause agglutination
and consolidation. Its flowers are conglomerate and
are visited by the bees." The same author adds:
*'This plant heats in an obvious manner. It is of ad-

* L. Leclerc, Traite des simples par Ibn El-Beithar, in Notices et extraits

des manuscrits de la Bibliothdque Nationale, vol. XXV, No. 1581.
2 Ibid., vol. XXVI, No. 1818.
124 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
vantage in cold affections of the liver: it dilates the
obstructions, lowers the inflammation and oedema,
which follow from its weakening, and bring it back to
its functions. Hence, I think, proceeds the error of the
ancient physicians who have taken the tohhdq for the
Eupatorium. Razes says, in regard to the Eupatorium^
that it is an emmenagogue, but this is the action of
tohhaq, and not of Eupatorium. It is good against
poisoning by animals, especially against scorpion poi-
son, both internally and externally, and against shoot-
ing pains. It gently evacuates the burnt humors, and
on that account it is good for refractory fevers, the
mange and the itch, taken as a decoction or as an ex-
tract. As to the stinking tohhdq, dr^^ almanian, which
in Greek is called qunlzd, ^jify, it is more active and
hotter, but less efficacious, in the affections of the liver.
It is recognized by the fetidness of its odor. The toh-
haqah properly called has an agreeable, though some-
what strong odor. Its savor is sweet. As to the qun-
Izd, it has an acridity and evident bitterness. Many
physicians use it as a substitute for tohhdqah and Eupa-
torium, but they are deceived by the resemblance of the
"^
qunlzd, which the people call *fleabane.'
Ibn-al-Baitar confuses two distinct plants. The tar-
heldn of the Berbers is given in Avicenna as tarifilon,^
which is the Latin Trifolium, and which is, like Con-
yza, used against snake bites. The tohhdqah of Spain
is still found in Andalusia as altahaca,^ and is the Inula
viscosa of the botanists. The Spanish and Arabic name
of the plant is due to its viscosity. Since Eupator-
ium was also used against snake bites, tohhdq was occa-
sionally applied to this plant as well.'* From all these
1 Ibid., vol. XXV, No. 1448.
2 Op. cit., II. 688.
» Leclerc, op. cit., vol. XXV, No. 1448.
* Ibid., vol. XXVI, No. 1618.
 TOBACCO OF THE MOORS 125

botanical names it follows that tobhaq was subsequently-

applied to any viscous plant, which was supposed to be
good in fumigations and as a styptic or poison-killer.
Ibn-al-Baitar specifically informs us that in Persia,
Syria, and Egypt ''they employed another plant, of an
extreme bitterness, with blue flowers, slightly elong-
ated, with roundish branches, as thin as the stem, with
leaves and stems of a yellowish color in all its parts; it
is of an extreme bitterness, more bitter than aloe, more
active and efficacious in obstructions of the liver and the
other organs than the medicine considered by the inter-
"^
preters to be the gafets of Dioscorides and Galen.
The name of the plant is not given, but it apparently is
different from Abu Hanifa's tuhbdq of the IX. century.
From the Arabic sources it follows that tuhbdq was the
name of a number of medicinal plants, not in the Greek
pharmacopoeia, which, containing a pungent, aromatic,
viscous juice, were eminently fit to the popular mind as
a cure-all. We are specifically informed that such a
cure-all was in use in Egypt and in Africa, from a plant
unknown to the Greek pharmacopoeia. But fumigation
spread from the Arabic north to the Negro lands, and
there something must have been used which corres-
ponded to the tubbdq of the north. The wide distribu-
tion of this word for the Nicotiana tabacum, which, ac-
cording to Welwitsch,^ is found in a wild state, makes
it more than plausible that, containing as it does the
qualities of a cure-all in a high degree, it must have been
in use, since very early time, at least as a medicine.
The anthropologists and historians make much of it
that the absence of any reference to tobacco in Africa
before the XVII. century is a convincing proof that it
was imported there from America. To this it must be
remarked that smoking is but once mentioned in the
1 Ibid.
2Seevol. I, p. 111.
126 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
Belles Lettres of Europe, namely in Febrer, that pipes
are not mentioned at all, and that if it were not for the
overwhelming proof from medical works that smoking
and pipes have been in use for at least 1700 years, and
for the corroborative evidence of the finds of pipes in
ancient tombs, one would jump to the conclusion that
smoking and pipes never existed. Smoking none the
less was so common as a medical practice that it did
not attract any attention, anymore than hundreds of
medical phenomena which existed but did not find their
way into literature. Only when the vice of smoking as
a pleasure became common in Europe, and that was
only at the end of the XVI. century, did people begin
to observe more closely the same phenomenon in Africa,
while in America, where the vice spread immediately
after the discovery, this observation was being made
from the start.
There no evidence that the tobacco plant was
is
known Europe before its importation by Thevet in
in
1556.^ A few years later the Nicotiana rustica was de-
scribed by Dodoens as Hyoscamus luteus and as some
kind of henbane by Matthiolus and others. In 1586
it was given as Ital. lusquiamo nuovo, lusquiamo mag-
giore, German Wundt Bilsam, gelh WundkrauL^ Ger-
arde, in his Herbal, in 1597, named it **yellow henbane''
or "English tobacco,"^ and thus it was named by J.
Parkinson.*
In the second half of the XV. century an Arabic
source refers to smoking in Africa: *'At Kubacca the
tobacco serves also as money. By a singular homo-
1For the European data on tobacco I use O. Conies' Histoire, geographie,
du tabac, Naples 1900. Unfortunately this interesting and
statistiqtie
important work abounds in wrong dates and statements, due to quotations
at second hand.
2 I. Camerarius, De plantis epyiome utilissima, Francofurti ad Moenum
1586.
3 II. LXII. 284.
^ Paradisi in Sole Paradisus TerrestriSt London 1904, p. 363.
 :

TOBACCO OF THE MOORS 127

phony with the European name the inhabitants of the

Darfur language taba. Moreover, this
call it in their
is the usual name in the Sudan. In Fezzan and at
Tripoli in Barbary it is called tabgha. I have read a
kasidah, or a poem, composed by a Bakride or des-
cendant of the Khalif Abu Bakr, to prove that smoking
is no sin. These verses, I think, date from the middle of
the IX. century of the hegirah. Here are a few of them
'All powerful God has made a plant to grow in our fields
of which the true name is tabqha. If any one in his
ignorance maintains that this plant is forbidden, ask
him to prove his assertion. By what verse in the Koran
can he prove it?' "^
We havea more definite reference to Negro smoking
in 1599: "In the year 1001 (October 8, 1592-September
27, 1593) they brought to Elmansur an elephant from
the Sudan. When this animal entered Morocco, it was
a great event, for the whole population of the city, men,
women, children, and old people, came from their
dwellings to see the sight. In the month of Ramadan
1007 (March 28-April 17, 1599) the elephant was taken
to Fez. Certain authors pretend that it was as a re-
sult of the arrival of this elephant that the use of the
dire plant called tobacco was introduced into the
Magreb, since the Negroes who had brought the ele-
phant also had brought tobacco which they smoked,
claiming that the use of it offered great advantages.
The habit of smoking which they brought then became
general in the Draa, later at Morocco, and at last in the
whole Magreb."^
These are but late recollections of what has been a
custom for centuries. With the XVII. century the
references to an inveterate habit of smoking among the
Negroes are common. They chiefly come in English
1G. Binger, Du Niger au Golfe de Guinee, Paris 1892, vol. II, p. 364.
2 O. Houdas, Histoire de la dynastie Saadienne au Maroc (161 1-1670), TsltIs
1889, p. 264.
128 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
sources, since it was the English who by their Virginia
venture were most active in the tobacco trade. Job-
son,^ who in 1620 and 21 visited Gambia, wrote:
** Another profession we finde, and those are they who

temper the earth, and makes the walles of their houses,

and likewise earthen pots they set to the fire, to boyle
and dresse their food in for all other occasions, they
vse no other mettle, but serue themselues with the
gourd, which .performs it very neatly; onely one prin-
cipall thing, they canoot misse, and that is their Ta-
hacco pipes, whereof there is few or none of them, be
they men or women doth walke or go without, they do
make onely the bowle of earth, with a necke of the
same, about two inches long, very neatly, and artificially
colouring or glasing the earth, very hansomly, all
the bowles being very great, and for the most part will
hold halfe an ounce of Tahacco; they put into the necke
a long kane, many times a yard of length, and in that
manner draw their smoake, whereof they are great
takers, and cannot of all other things Hue without it."
*'They doe likewise obserue their seasons, to set
other plants, as Tobacco, which is euer growing about
their houses."^ Jobson also tells of some Negroes from
the interior who *'had neuer scene white men before;
and the woemen that came with them were very shye,
and fearefull of vs, insomuch as they would runne be-
hind the men, and into the houses to hide from vs when
;

we offered to come neare them: I sent therefore into

the boate for some beades and such things, and went
vnto some of the boldest, giuing them thereof into their
hands, which they were willing to receiue, and with
these curtesies imboldned them, that they soone became
familiar, and in requitall gaue me againe. Tobacco, and
fine neate Canes they had to take Tobacco with."'
1 R. Jobson, op. cit., p. 122.
«
Ibid., p. 125.
»
IMd., p. 94.
 TOBACCO OF THE MOORS 129

The tobacco habit must have had some time to

spread so far, hence it is certain that it was known in
Guinea before the XVII. century. We have already
seen that tobacco has been found growing wild in
Africa.-^ The most emphatic statement to this effect
is from the beginning of the XIX. century, when
Bowdich^ saw it growing wild in the Gaboon: *'The
tobacco grows spontaneously, but I do not consider this
so strong a proof of its being indigenous to Africa, as
that it grows in Inta. The Portuguese have probably
introduced it into Gaboon." Bowdich did not wish to
be positive on a wild-growing variety in a region reached
by the Portuguese. Although the superiority of the
imported tobacco caused the Asantes to buy it from
the Portuguese, they had recourse to the wild-growing
native species, if necessary: "A serious disadvantage
opposed to the English trade, is that the Ashantees
will purchase no tobacco but the Portuguese, and that
eagerly even at 2 oz. of gold the roll. Of this (the
Portuguese and Spanish slave ships regularly calling
at Elmina), the Dutch Governor-General is enabled to
obtain frequent supplies, in exchange for canoes, two
of which, though they cost him comparatively nothing,
fetch 32 rolls of tobacco; and the General has some-
times received 80 oz. of gold a day from the Ashantees
for tobacco only. If they cannot have this tobacco,
they will content themselves with that grown in the
interior, of which I have brought a sample."^ But, as
he had remarked before, tobacco grew wild in the in-
terior, toward the Mandingo country: "Mr. Park
observed the tobacco-plant, which grows luxuriantly
in Inta and Dagwumba, and is called toah. The visi-
tors from those countries recognized it in a botanical
1 Vol. I, p. 111.
2 T. E. Bowdich, Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, London
1819, p. 444.
' Ibid., p. 337.
130 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
work. They first dry the leaves in the sun, then, hav-
ing rubbed them well between their hands, mix them
with water into oval masses."^
Long before Bowdich knew of the wild tobacco in the
interior, Labat described the excellent quality
of the
tobacco in Guinea,^ although very poorly cultivated by
the natives. "The tobacco is here (near Fort St.
Louis) excellent. It is a wonder that the heads of the
Company have not yet been able to find the means for
getting the Negroes to plant a larger quantity. It
could be bought from them at a very low price, and a
more considerable profit could be obtained from it than
from other articles of merchandise which have to be
bought for cash from the English and the Dutch. The
Island of Jean Barre, which is next to Fort St. Louis,
and most of the land of Cajor are supremely adapted
for this plant and produce the best possible tobacco
that can be expected. It is true, the Negroes manu-
facture it poorly, since they pound it as soon as it is
picked, without curing or drying it, in short, without
giving it the form which the Americans gave it even be-
fore the Spaniards who seized their country, taught
them to give this plant the necessary treatment. The
Negroes do nothing of the kind. After they have
pounded or beaten the tobacco leaves, they press them
and make them into bricks or a kind of twists, which
they tie tightly and dry slowly in the shade. This
tobacco is none the less excellent in spite of the poor
treatment. What would it be if it were worked care-
fully and regularly? For this it would be necessary
to have a larger quantity planted and sell it on the spot
to people who would give it the proper treatment and
make it into cords, leaves, twists, and torquettes,
such as would be demanded by the French manufac-

1 Ibid., p. 327.
' J.-B. Labat, Nouvelle relation de VAfrique occidentale, Paris 1728.
 TOBACCO OF THE MOORS 131

turers. This easy enough, but what is harder is to

is
overcome the laziness of the Negroes. Mr. Brue has
tried it several times, but in vain. He has frequently
convinced Jean Barre and Jamsec of the great advan-
tage to be derived from the cultivation of this plant, and
of other things which they could get from their land.
They agreed with him, but when it came to put a hand
to the work, their arms dropped, and they said that their
ancestors had not done so and consequently they must
not undertake it, and this reason, pitiable as it was,
kept them in inaction.''^ *'They produce a lot of to-
bacco in this region (at Bievert), whole fields being
occupied by it. I have said elsewhere that the Negroes
neither take it as snuff, nor chew it, it all being con-
sumed in smoking. They pound it when it is ripe, and
put it into bricks. Although they give it little attention
even as they lack a number of things necessary for it in
other countries, it is none the less excellent. One can
imagine what it would be if it were treated as in
America."^
From the preceding extracts it follows that the to-
bacco in and near the Mandingo country was of excep-
tional quality even though it was not properly treated.
In other localities the tobacco was apparently of an
inferior quality, but precise information on this point
is not obtainable. Some American archaeologists
point to this inferiority in the treatment of the tobacco
as a prima facie proof that it was imported to Africa
from America, because there it has received a better
treatment. This reasoning may be paralleled by the
statement that the potato is a native of Maine or Ire-
land, whence it was imported to Peru, because in Maine
or Ireland it receives a better treatment, or that the
double roses are native in those countries where they
lUd., vol. Ill, p. 202 f.
Ihid., vol. IV, p. 185.
132 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
are produced and have been imported into those coun-
tries where they grow single and wild. The absurdity
of this is self-evident and needs no further discussion.
Labat tells of the Negro pipes as follows: '*The
cassots are pipes, of which the bowl is nicely made of
clay, while those of the women are of gold or silver.
The stem, which always at least eighteen inches long,
is
is a reed set in circles of gold, silver, coral, and amber.
One sees cassots made by Moors which are perfect in
beauty.*'^ **The Negroes of these regions are the most
skilful makers of cassots or pipe bowls in the whole coun-
try."^ This cassot is obviously the Arabic qa^ahah
"pipe," which once more shows that the habit of smoking
the tabhdq was derived by the Guinea Negroes from the
Arabs. Other authors. Dapper half a century earlier,
and later ones, all agree that the cultivation of a good
quality of tobacco was universal in the Guinea region.^
Bosman, who found the Guinea tobacco stinking, had
no higher opinion of the Brazilian kind: ''This country
produces none of those green Herbs common in Europe,
except Tarragon and Tobacco; of both which here is
great Plenty, especially of the last, which stinks so
abominably, that it is impossible for one that is even
not very nice to continue near the Negroes when they
smoak this devilish Weed; which yet agrees very well
with them.
**Some of them have Pipes made of Reeds, which are
about six Foot long; to the End of which is fixed a
Stone or Earthen Bowl, so large that they cram in two
or three Handfuls of Tobacco; which Pipe thus filled,
they without ceasing can easily smoak out: and they
are not put to hold their Pipe, for being so long, it rests
on the Ground.
1 Ibid., vol. Ill, p. 134 f.
2 Ibid., vol. IV, p. 53.
8 Comes, op. cit., p. 130 fif.
 .

TOBACCO OF THE MOORS 133

the Inland Negroes take this Tobacco, but those

**A11
who liveamongst us, and daily converse with the Euro-
peans, have Portugueze, or rather Brasil Tobacco,
which, tho' a little better, yet stinks to a great degree.
"Both the Male and Female of the Negroes, are
so very fond of this Tobacco, that they will part with
the very last Penny which should buy them Bread, and
suffer Hunger rather than be without it; which so en-
hances the Price, that for a Portugueze Fathom, which
is much less than one Pound of this Trash, they will
give five Shillings, or a Gold Quarter of a Jacobus.
**Let us therefore rather praise those Smoakers (my
good friend) who take the noble Spanish or Virginia
Tobacco; but as for those stupid wretches who content
themselves with the Amorsfort Weed, I heartily wish,
as a Punishment of their depraved taste, that during
their lives they may never smoak better than our
Negroes, and Brasil on Sundays and Holidays; yet
under Condition they be obliged to keep Company with
each other, and be banish'd the Company of genteel
Smoakers: But this by the way only.
**The Tobacco- Leaf here grows on a plant about two
Foot high, and is of the Length of two or three Hands-
breadth, and the Breadth of one, bears a small Bell-
flower; which, when ripe, turns to seed."^
Not in the coast region of Guinea, but far in the
interior, whether one proceeds from the Senegal or the
Gold Coast toward the Niger basin, was the ancient
native home of the tobacco, after it may have been
transported thither from farther north by the Arabs.
The farther one gets away from Arabic influence, the
less ancient is the custom of smoking. In the Portu-
guese Congo, where the smoking must have been
known from its association with Brazil, one hears noth-
ing of smoking tobacco until the middle of the XVII.
1 W. Bosman, op. ciL, p. 286 f
134 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
century, when it spreads through the south and east,
mostly through the Dutch trade. But smoking of
another substance by the Portuguese in Angola is
mentioned earlier, in Purchas* rendering of Pigafetta's
account of the Congo, ^ where we read: '*Signor
Odoardo affirmed, that the Portugals have proved it
(the Sanders) for the head-ache, by laying it on the
coales, and taking the smoake of it.''
* S. Purchas, Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimes, Glasgow
1905, vol. VI, p. 424.
 CHAPTER IV.

The Sovereign Remedy of the Indians.

It is not necessary to go once more^ over the American

side of the tobacco smoking, since it has become appar-
ent that it is derived from the Negro habit. few A
additions, however, can be made that will illustrate the
Negro influence. Thevet^ showed that the tobacco
was dried by the Indians in the shade, that is, precisely
as it is dried by the Negroes of Guinea. Although
The vet, in the middle of the XVI. century, described
the smoking among the Indians of Brazil, yet the cus-
tom was only sporadic and, according to an anonymous
authority, who wrote after 1568, '' tobacco was not yet
raised at that time, nor was its usefulness known.''^
In Nicaragua smoking in our sense of the word is al-
ready reported in the year 1529: **One Saturday,
August 19, 1529, in the square of Nicoya, Don Alonso,
otherwise called Nambi, which in his Chorotega langu-
age means 'dog,' two hours before it became night,
while at one part of the square eighty or one hundred
Indians, apparently common or plebeian people, be-
gan to sing and dance about in an areyto, the cacique
sat down in another part of the square with great pleas-
ure and solemnity upon a duho or small bench, and his
chiefs and about seventy or eighty others on similar
duhos. And a lass began to bring them drink in small
calabashes like plates or saucers, some chicha or wine,
^ See the chapter on Tobacco in vol. I.
2 Ibid., p. 132 f.
3 "De tabaco se nao tratava ainda neste tempo, nem se entendia a sua

utilidade," Revista do Instituto historico e geographico de Sao Paulo, vol. Ill,

p. 171.
136 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
which they make of maize, and which is very strong
and acid, which in color resembles chicken broth, when
one or two yolks of eggs are dissolved in it. And when
they began to drink, the same cacique brought a hand-
ful of tabacos, which are a span in length and a finger in
thickness, and are made of a certain rolled leaf and tied
with two or three cabuya strings, which leaf and plant
they raise with great care for the sake of these tabacosj
and they light them a little at one end it burns slowly ;

down an incense stick until it stops burning, which

like
lasts a day; and from time to time they put it in the
mouth at the other end from the one at which it burns,
and they draw in the smoke for a little while and take
it out, and hold the mouth closed and retain the breath
for a while, and then breathe forth, and the smoke
comes out of the mouth and nostrils. And every one
of the Indians mentioned held one of these leaf rolls,
which they called yapoquete, and in the language of this
Island of Hayti or Hispaniola it is called tahaco,''^
Unfortunately no trust can be placed in the whole
account, since it is at variance with Oviedo*s later
statements. I have already shown^ that in 1535 he
knew of tobacco, which he in virtue significantly com-
pared with henbane, only from hearsay accounts, and
as falsely recorded by Ramon Pane as being smoked
through the Y-shaped fork and through the nose. Be-
sides, tdbaco was to him the Y-shaped instrument,
and not the weed. He also knew at that time that the
Negroes of Hispaniola were smoking. In 1547 he still
repeated the same account, but, in 1557, when he com-
posed his larger work, he correctly stated that tdbaco
was the thing smoked, "the smoke, "as he puts it. As
the account of the year 1529, which refers to Nicoya in
Nicaragua (modern Costa Rica), was also written in
1 G. F. de Oviedo, Historia general y natural de las Indias, Madrid 1855,
vol. IV, p. 96.
2 Vol. I, p. 115 ff.
 .

THE SOVEREIGN REMEDY OF THE INDIANS 137

1557, it was giving here his knowledge

follows that he
of the year 1557, and not that of 1529. Whatever he
may have seen at Nieoya in that earlier period did not
make an impression upon him until he knew precisely
what tahaco was. There can be no doubt whatsoever
that he had seen the Negroes smoking in or before 1535,
but he did not dare to tear himself away from the
Columbian myth of smoking, and so perverted the facts,
until the universal knowledge of smoking, which was
becoming known throughout Europe in the years 1556-
1558, especially through The vet in 1557, who boasted
of being the first to bring tobacco seed to Europe, led
him to making corrections in the direction of truth, and
not of myth.
Now, it would be strange, indeed, if in 1529 the caci-
ques of Nieoya had not been smoking. Nicaragua was
opened up in 1513, after Central America had been
known for eleven years, through Columbus' discovery,
and the city of Panama, not more than three hundred
or four hundred miles away from Nieoya, had been
founded in 1519. Panama became the distributing
centre of Negro superintendents, as we have seen from
the specific reference to them in 1535 in Peru,^ and the
GuK of Nieoya, on the west coast, was the very region
where Avila had opened up Nicaragua to Spanish set-
tlement. Even as early as the year 1513 there was a
Negro^ in Balboa's expedition for the discovery of the
western ocean. Ever since Gil Gonzalez de Avila had
come to Nieoya, that is, several years before 1529, the
Indians of the region had at least nominally turned
Christians,^ and consequently had fallen under Spanish
influence.
But the case is far worse still. Negroes were resi-
dents in Darien before 1513, that is,before any white
1 See p. 62 f
2 G. F. de Oviedo, op. cit,, vol. Ill, p. 12.
3 Ibid., p. 111.
138 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
men had made permanent settlements there. Peter
Martyr says: "The Spaniards found Negro slaves in
this province. They only live in regions one day's
march from Quarequa, and they are fierce and cruel.
It is thought that Negro pirates of Ethiopia estab-
wreck of their ships in these
lished themselves after the
mountains. The natives of Quarequa carry on inces-
sant war with these Negroes. Massacre or slavery is
the alternate fortune of the two peoples."^ G6mara
similarly remarks: "Balboa found some Negroes,
slaves of the lord. He asked them whence they got
them, but they could not tell, nor did they know more
than this that men of this color were living nearby, and
they were constantly waging war with them. These
were the first Negroes that had been seen in the Indies,
and I think no others have been noticed."^
Of course, the explanations given by Peter Martyr
and Gomara as to the presence of the Negroes in Darien
and their fierceness are of no consequence, since the
conquerors could not understand the natives. What is
certain is that Negroes were present in 1513 in Darien
and we shall later see that these or their like were there
in the interest of trade, along the trade route to Peru
and Mexico. The presence of tobacco in this region
cannot be dated earlier than the presence of Negroes
there, at whatever time they may have come there.
Oviedo mentions chicha in the same breath with
tobacco, and here at least the name is of Negro origin.
In another place^ Oviedo informs us that in Nicaragua
yaat was "a certain herb which the Indians hold in their
mouths, and with which, they say, they do not get so
tired as if they did not have it." The Chorotega lang-
uage of Nicaragua is a corrupted Nahuatl, and yaat
» III. 1.
2 F. L. de Gomara, La historia general de las Indias, Anvers 1554, cap.
LXII.
3 Op. cit, vol. Ill, p. 106.
 THE SOVEREIGN REMEDY OF THE INDIANS 139

corresponds to Nahuatl yetl "incense, perfume, tobacco,"

and yapoquete ''cigar" compounded
of Nahuatl yetl
is
''tobacco" and"smoke." This latter tautologi-
poctli
cal compound at once betrays an attempt at popular
etymology, where tahaco, through tapaco, since Nahuatl
has no 6, has become ya-poqu-ete. In Nahuatl itself
the compound has been inverted and poc-yetl has been
further transformed to pic-yetl "small, crushed incense,"
which it is not, for Molina's dictionary gives for picyetl
"a plant like henbane, which is medicinal," thus fully
agreeing with Oviedo's definition of tahaco in 1535, and
with the African plant which was used for the henbane
of European medicine. Oviedo is the only early author
on America who records the placing of tobacco in the
mouth in order to cure fatigue, although this is the
common method of using tobacco in East Africa,^
hence it is more likely that Oviedo confused the tobacco
with the coca, even as another time he confused it with
the datura arhorea.
have already pointed out the fact that picyetl, in all
I
probability, was formed from a Maya language.^ This
assumption is greatly strengthened by the fact that in
the Maya country we have a compound which is much
nearer to tohaco, and which at once explains Chorotega
yapoquete and Nahuatl piciyetl. Las Casas quotes a law
of the Indians of Vera Cruz: "If a married man sinned
with a widow or married woman, he was chastized once
or twice, and if they saw him persevere in his sin, they
tied the hands of both behind their backs, and so high
that they could not reach the ground, and burned be-
neath them an herb which they called tahacoyay, which
must have been stinking, and put the smoke through
their nostrils for a good while, and then let them go,

1 Comes, op. cU., p. 152 et passim.

2 Vol. I, p. 150.
140 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
advising them to mend their ways."^ The law is un-
questionably apocryphal, but it is interesting to observe
that in Las Casas' time the name of "tobacco," which
was here not yet used for pleasure smoking, but for a
punishment, was named tahaco-yay, the second part
corresponding to yetl of the Mexicans, while the first
is obviously the same as yapoquete, I have already
*
pointed out that yetl is, in all likelihood, a 'smoke"
word and of Man dingo origin.^ This is again shown
by the extraordinary distribution of the word, for we
find it not only in Vera Paz, but also in Chibcha, where
we have ie 'smoke."
*

In Venezuela, Oviedo says, "the horatio (wizard) says

that he will give his answer after having consulted with
the devil, and for this conversation and consultation
they lock themselves up in a room alone, and here they
make certain smokes (ahumadas) which they call
tahacos with such herbs as bereave them of their sense;
and here the horatio remains a day, or two, or three, and
sometimes longer, and, after coming out, he says that
the devil has told him so and so, answering the questions
put to him, according to the desires of those whom he
wishes to satisfy and for this they give the horatio some
;

gold trinket or other things. For less important mat-

ters the Indians have another way. There is in this
country an herb called tahaco, which is a kind of plant
as high as a man's breast, and more or less branching,
which puts forth leaves a palm in length and four fingers
in width, and of the shape of a lance iron, and they are
hairy. And they sow this herb, and the seed which it
makes they keep for the next year's planting, and they
watch it carefully for the following purpose: When
they reap it they put the leaves in bunches and dry it
M. Serrano y Sanz, Historiadores de Indias, Apologitica historia de las
Indies, de Fr. Bartolome de las Casas, in Nueva Biblioteca de autores espanoles,
Madrid 1909, vol. I, p. 627.
2 Vol. I, p. 154.
 THE SOVEREIGN REMEDY OF THE INDIANS 141

in the smoke in bunches, and they keep it, and it is

a much appreciated article of commerce among the
Indians. In our Hispaniola there is much of it in the
ranches, and the Negroes whom we employ value it
highly for the effect which it produces by smoking it
until they fall down like dead, and thus they are the
greater part of the night, and they say that they do not
feel the fatigue of the previous day."^
This account is of extraordinary importance, since it
shows that tobacco was raised in the middle of the cen-
tury in Hispaniola, where the Negroes were addicted
to it, for the trade among the Indians, that is, that the
Indians were encouraged by the Whites and Negroes
to smoke it, not that it was a common native article
among the Indians, precisely as in Nicaragua we are told
that only the caciques and their chosen men smoked in
1529. However, Oviedo, as before, is not certain of
his grounds. While his description of the tobacco
plant is correct for Hispaniola, except as to its soporific
effect, he confuses the plant with the action by attach-
ing in the first part the name tabaco to the act of smok-
ing. Here the substance smoked is obviously supposed
to be different from tobacco. We have in G6mara the
same account for New
Granada, where we are told,
''they offered incense to the gods with herbs; they have
oracles with the gods, from whom they seek advice and
answer as to temporal wars, suffering, marriage, and
such things. For this purpose they put on their joints
certain herbs which they call jop and osca, they take
"^
the smoke.
The runs in the Medina 1553 edition
last sentence
**unas yerbas que Uaman
jop, y osca. Y toman el
humo." The Saragossa 1554 edition reads *'jop y osca,
y toman el humo," while the Anvers 1554 edition has it
1 Op. ciL, vol. II, p. 298.
* G6mara, op. eit., cap. LXXII.
142 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
*'Jop, y osca. Toman el humo.'* The many varia-
tions show that we have here a printer's error, most
likely for 'Hahacos, y toman el humo," acos having pied
*
into osca, tab into jop, while the y before 'toman" got
between the two. However, osca has assumed in
Chibcha the name for either ** tobacco" or datura ar-
bor ea. In the Chibcha dictionary^ we read **tabaco,
borrachero, hosca,'" and "borrachero" is given in the
Spanish dictionaries as the name of the datura arborea,
**a shrub of South America which grows to the height of
from sixteen to eighteen feet; it is very branching, has
large hairy leaves, and white funnel-shaped flowers.
The whole plant exhales a disagreeable odor, and its
food causes delirium, hence its name." Under "bor-
rachero" the Chibcha dictionary gives tyhyquy, which
is doubled in Oviedo's tectec, ** There is in this country

a plant called tectec, which drives one mad, and if a man

eats enough of it, it will kill him. To craze a man,
they throw it into a pot in which they cook food and
if the guests eat of the plant with the meat with which
it was cooked they become crazed for three or four days
and the madness is according to the quantity thrown
in."^ Apparently the leaves of the datura arbor ea were
used like the tobacco for narcotic purposes, and with
this G6mara's references to tobacco are reduced to ex-
tremely slim proportions for we have only one in regard
to the use of cohoba in Hispaniola which is based on
Ramon Pane, and this is of no consequence, besides
suspiciously resembling the effect of the datura arborea,^
and another, which relates to Darien, where there is
merely reference to a smoke offering to the gods.^

* E. Uricoechea, Gramdtica, vocabulario, catecismo i confesionario de la

lengua chibcha, Paris 1871.
2 Op. cit., vol. II, p. 390.
3 Op. cit., cap. XXVII.
< lUd., cap. LXVIII.
 THE SOVEREIGN REMEDY OF THE INDIANS 143

We have already seen that in Mexico no definite ac-

count of smoking is contained in the early historians,
who simply tell of the use of liquid amber wrapped in
tobacco leaves as incense, employed by Montezuma
after a repast, in order to induce sleep. This acayetl,
literally **reed incense,'' is very frequently depicted in
the Mexican manuscripts as an attribute of power, as,
for example, in the splendid portraits of Toculpotzin
and Quauhtlazacuilotzin, and was held in the hand
without being taken into the mouth. ^ Even as late as
1582 very few Indians smoked tobacco, and of these
only laborers, that is, such as came in contact with the
Negro slaves, while the custom had become universal
with the Spaniards.^ For this reason hardly any pipes
have been found in Mexico. But the case is quite dif-
ferent in Michuacan, where the Tarascans were addicted
to smoking.

1 "II ne faut pas confondre Vacayetl ou roseau brule-parfums, avec la

pipe proprement dite; dans les premiers temps, ces roseaux parfum^s se
portaient allumfe a la main; ce n'est plus tard qu'ils se convertirent en
pipes, c'est-a-dire, qu'on s'avisa d'en aspirer la fumee par une extremity,"
E. Boban, Documents pour servir a Vhistoire du Mexique, Paris 1891, p. 177,
and see Tables 66 and 68.
2 "La yerba que llaman picietl, que segCin dicen es la misma que en

Espana llaman beleno, aprov6chanse de ella para dormir y amortiguar las

carnes y no sentir el mucho trabajo que padece el cuerpo trabajando, la
cual toman seca, molida y mojada y envuelta con una poca de cal en la
boca, puesta entre el labio y las encias, tanta cantidad como cabr4 en una
avellana, al tiempo que se van 4 dormir 6 a trabajar; aunque muy pocos
de los indios que se crian con espanoles usan de ella, ni aun de la gente
politica y ciudadana, sino hombres rtisticos y trabajadores. Tambi^n
toman de esta yerba por humo en canutos de cana, envuelta con liquid-
dmbar, porque atestados de ella los encienden por el un cabo, y por el otro
lo chupan, con que dicen que enjugan el cerebro y purgan las reumas por
la boca; y est 4 ya tan admitido de los espanoles que padecen estas enfer-
medades, que la usan para su remedio, y se hallan muy bien con ellos; y
tambien usan de ella para ciciones, tercianas y cuartanas, tomdndolo por
via de calilla, porque les hace purgar. Asimismo las hojas tostadas y
puestas en la hijada, cuando hay dolor se quita con ellas," J. B. Pomar y
A. de Zurita, Relacion de Tezcoco, in Nueva coleccion de documentos para la
historia de Mexico, Mexico 1891, vol. Ill, p. 64 f.
144 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
In a XVII. century pictorial account of Michuacan^
the caciques are represented as smoking a long pipe, of
which the bowl ends at the bottom in two mastaria.^
The pipes have an amazing resemblance to the Roman
pipes, except that instead of one nipple there are two.
This type of pipe is widely distributed through
America. **The remaining pipe of the seven belongs
to a type before referred to by us as common on St.
Francis river, and figured by Holmes as coming from
Arkansas, on which two feet, or supports, project for-
ward from the base of the bowl to enable the pipe to
maintain an erect position when placed on a level sur-
face. It is interesting to note that pipes are on sale at
the present day, having precisely similar supports in-
tended for the same purpose. The pipe here shown by
us has these supports well defined which display flat-
tening on the under surface as if through wear. Some
Arkansas pipes of this type, however, show the projec-
tions as mere knobs, as if conventionalizing had begun."'
Holmes^ reports a number of pipes from the Eastern
part of the United States with *'a flattening of the base
as though to permit the bowl to rest steadily on the
ground while the smoking was going on, probably
through a long tube or stem. This flattening is in many
cases accompanied by an expansion at the margins, as
in plate XXXIII a, 6, or by a flattish projection beyond
the elbow. ''^ As the knob in many of these pipes is
beyond the lower surface, it could not represent a sur-
face to rest upon. Indeed, it would not be possible to
* E. Seler, Die alien Bewohner der Landschaft Michuacan, in Gesammelte

Ahhandlungen zur amerikanischen Sprach- und Alterthumskunde, Berlin

1908, vol. Ill, p. 33 flf.
2 Ibid., pp. 63, 102.

' C. B. Moore, Antiquities

of the St. Francis, White, and Black Rivers,
Arkansas, Philadelphia 1910, p. 278 f.
* Aboriginal Pottery of the Eastern United States, in Twentieth Annual
Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian
Institution 1898-99, Washington 1903, part II.
5 Ibid., p. 99.
 )

r!i..n.r ra!.;ik|.r.'ilVii ;iu< M„h.',i.

II.

., i.^ Ml Na.iATKil a. M.\i.:...

M.I n fiir V..lk.-1-kuh.l.'. H.rli!

K-„.i-i.

^^ 1,

ra!a>ki>.liP Ii,-.lif..^i.tli';:f-
Abb. \-l.
Siimmluii^'
Hana-chrif'lichM Hlatt nioinLT

From E. Seler's Gesammelte Abhandlemgen, vol. III.

 M.HliMl. F

From C. B. Moore's Antiquities of the St. Francis, White, and Black Rivers, Arkansas.
 THE SOVEREIGN REMEDY OF THE INDIANS 145

insert a straight reed in such a way as to smoke out

of the pipe. The reverse is true, the flat surface being
a development of the original knob, which universally
appears in old European pipes.
Although the fame of the tobacco plant had been
slowly reaching Europe, and Nicot's experiments with
the tobacco for medical purposes had been going on for
some time, the real sensation was produced only in 1571
when Monardes published the second part of his work
dealing with the medicinal plants of the New World.
In Mexico the interest in the native plants had been
fostered chiefly by Fray Bernardino de Sahagun, who,
since 1536, had off and on been connected with the Col-
lege at Tlatelulco, where he instructed promising young
Indians in Latin and European learning.^ The pro-
gress which they made was phenomenal, and many of
them entered the learned professions. Here at Tlate-
lulco he got his information about Mexican plants and
medicine from old, illiterate physicians: "This above
account of the medicinal plants and other objects men-
tioned was given by the doctors of Tlatelulco, old men,
and very experienced in matters of medicine, since they
all cure publicly. Their names and that of the notary
who wrote it are as follows, and since they cannot write
they asked the notary to put down their names:
Gaspar Matias, resident of Concepci6n; Pedro Des-
trago, resident of Santa In^s; Francisco Simon and
Miguel Damian, residents of Santo Toribio; Felipe
Hernandez, resident of Santa Anna; Pedro de Requena,
resident of Concepcion; Miguel Garcia, resident of
Santo Toribio; Miguel Motilinia, resident of Santa
Ines."2

* B. de Sahagun, Historia general de las cosas de Nueva Espafia, in Bib-

lioieca Mexicana, Mexico 1896, lib. X, cap. 27 (p. 307).
* Ibid., lib. XI, cap. 7, §5 (p. 146).
146 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
Icazbalceta^ says that the ignorance of reading makes
it believe that the physicians were not of those who had
studied medicine in the college, but natives of the pre-
Columbian kind. But it is not even certain that all the
physicians were Indians. A. de Remesal tells of a
quack in Santiago of Guatemala who in the year 1541
had killed many people by his ignorance, and yet, in
*
less than a year, the cabildo of the city 'passed an
ordinance that, considering that the city has at present
no physician who can read and knows medicine, said
N. may do as his conscience of a good Christian prompts
him, to the best of his knowledge and belief and if any-;

one called him to cure him, and some trouble should be-
fall him from such a cure, it should be at the risk of the
person who thus called him, and he should from now on
be relieved of the fine."^ In the city of Mexico condi-
tions were probably better, but the small towns where
**the doctors of Tlatelulco" practised were lucky
enough to have quacks of the Santiago type, if they had
any smattering of medicine. The college of Tlatelulco,
where medicine was taught to the Indians, was in very
bad shape between 1546 and 1566, when the school was
left entirely in the hands of the Indians,^ and in 1572
its rector was an Indian, Martin Jacobita.* ''The doc-
tors of Tlatelulco" can only mean "those who had
studied at Tlatelulco," where they were put through
their paces on a minimum of information, apparently
by a viva voce instruction. What "the doctors" learned
there, was a medley of European medicine and native
practices, which Sahagun gave out as the Nahuatl art
of medicine.

1 J. Garcia Icazbalceta, Bibliografia mexicana del siglo XVI, Mexico

1886, vol. I, p. 160.
2 Ibid., p. 163.
»
Ibid., p. 259.
*Ibid.
 THE SOVEREIGN REMEDY OF THE INDIANS 147

In 1595 a pestilence broke out among the Indians of

Tezcuco, and this is the way it was handled by the
Spaniards: "The Father Superior of this monastery,
Fray Juan Baptista, in the beginning of this pestilence
(which had raged for the space of two months) pro-
vided himself with such medicines and provisions as
seemed proper to him. And when the Indians came
to confession (because the moment they fall sick they
immediately rush to confession on foot, or carried on
their relatives' shoulders, or on stretchers, or the best
way they can), he had in readiness barbers who, when
they confessed, immediately bled them at the portals
of the monastery, and there they remained for a while,
and then they were given syrups of cassia and warm
water, and soothing syrups, if they coughed a great
deal. And of this syrup as much as four large jars or
vats each day were used, for there were days when as
many as three hundred sick, and usually two hundred
to two hundred and fifty, were treated. Pregnant
women, who could not be bled, had cups placed on their
shoulders, and they received the specific of their disease,
which in the language of Mexico is called cohuanenepilli,
in hot wine manufactured by the Indians, and this cured
them. The children had their cuppings on the legs,
and they, too, got cohuanenepilli. All the sick in gen-
eral received a purging with a peculiar root called matla-
litzic, which is far betterthan the one of Michuacan, or
with another root called ytztic tlanoquiloni, while others
received cassia, whatever each needed, because the best
doctor of the village each time attended to it and ordered it.
These purging medicines were given to them to take
home, and they were instructed how to use them. The
most needy persons received from the Father Superior
quince jam or some other preserve or dainty, which he
had ordered in quantity from Mexico. Just think
what were in those days the portals and court of the
148 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

Tezcuco Monastery, full of so many sick people, some

being confessed, others being bled, others syrupped,
and others again attended to and consoled! What
angels walked in the exercise of this ministry! Other-
wise, what number of men would have been sufficient
to attend to so many diverse needs, especially since
some of the clerics had themselves fallen ill ? Besides
this,those who were well went out to attend upon In-
dians from a distance, who could not come to the Mon-
astery, and there were many of them, and they took with
them barbers and purges and everything else needed,
and at first they confessed them and then they treated
them as in the monastery. And for many who suffered
from diarrhoea they used other native medicines, such
as would cure them fastest. This care and extreme
diligence, applied more than ever before, was the second
cause why not so many were endangered or died, as in
other plagues."^
From this account it follows clearly that the village
doctors, whether they were Indians or Spaniards, used
an eclectic system of medicine from the European and
Nahuatl pharmacopoeia. Again and again we hear of
the extraordinary capacity for European learning in the
Indians, and, on the other hand, Sahagun was so fasci-
nated by the Nahuatl that he not only composed ser-
mons in that language, but also wrote his great history
of Mexico in the same, and only later translated it into
Spanish. When the protomedic Hernandez about the
same time composed his work on Mexican plants, he
wrote in Latin, but had it translated into Nahuatl by
it
an Indian, who also was to make a Spanish translation
of it.^ It is, therefore, not safe in any particular case
to ascribe to a Nahuatl source what was accepted by
Sahagun as of such an origin. I have already shown
1G. de Mendieta, Historia eclesidstica Indiana, Mexico 1870, p. 516 f.
2 N. Leon, Cuatro libros de la naturaleza, extracto de las obras del Dr.
Francisco Herndndez, Morelia 1888, p. XIV.
 THE SOVEREIGN REMEDY OF THE INDIANS 149

that his chapopotli is described in identical terms as the

pissasphaltum of Belon.^ Hernandez, too, used the
same terms. Hence it follows that the passage from
Belon had passed through a Nahuatl source at the Tlate-
lulco Medical School.
Similarly, the European medical practice of smoking,
however with a substitution of the newer, and, there-
fore, reputed better tobacco, was applied by the Mexi-
cans in precisely those cures in which henbane and its
substitutes had been used in Europe. Sahagun wrote:
"Against continued headache we shall use the following
remedies: smell a certain herb called ecuxo, or the
picietl, when it is green tie the head with a kerchief and
;

take some smoke. "^ *'For a cold in the head or catarrh

take the herb called in Mexican yecuxoton, or picietl, and
smell it while it is green, and crush it and rub it with the
finger inside of the mouth, in order to expel the
humors."^
Unfortunately Hernandez has come down to us only
in Ximenez' annotated edition of 1615^ and the still later
Latin edition of Recchi,^ but Ximenez' text is, in all
probability, not far distant from that of Hernandez,
and, besides, the forty years intervening cannot have
made much of a change in the medical concepts of the
City of Mexico. In Ximenez' edition we read: "Of
the tauacosy which they use in Hispaniola, which the
Mexicans call picietl. In Hispaniola they call tauacos
certain hollow pieces of cane, one and a half palms in
length, which are outside smeared over with coal dust,
and inside are full of tauaco, liquid amber (or xochi
ocotzotl), and also of some other hot and fragrant ma-
terials, which, being lighted on the side where the filling
1 See vol. I, p. 181 flf.

2 Op. ciL, lib. X, cap. 28, § 1 (p. 313).

' Ibid., (p. 317).
* Leon, op. cit.
5 N. A. Recchi, Nova plantarvm, animalivrrif et mineralivm mexicanorvm
historia, Romae 1651.
150 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
is, emit the smoke through the other end, and which,

swallowed through the mouth, gently sooth the senses

and all labor and fatigue, and, besides, this remedy re-
moves all pains, especially of the head, and the phlegm
from the chest, which causes asthma, is rejected, and it
comforts the stomach, but its abundant use should be
avoided, because it greatly disturbs the liver, charging
it with too much heat, which is the cause of cachexy, an
ill habit of the body, and other incurable diseases.'*^

This passage shows that only the curative properties

of the tobacco, which corresponded to those of henbane,
etc., were recognized, and smoking as a pleasure was
still considered to be injurious. In another part of his
work Hernandez has a much longer and more circum-
stantial account of tobacco, and makes it clear that he
got his story out of Estienne and Liebaut, whose work
appeared in 1570, that is, one year earlier than the
story of tobacco as given by Monardes. Hence it will
be best to consider the matter in the chronological order
in which the tobacco and its properties became known.
1 Op. ciL, p. 245 f.
 e

CHAPTER V.

The Rediscovery of Tobacco.

In 1557 Thevet had brought some tobacco seeds to
France, where no doubt it was grown in gardens, but
it did not attract any attention. In 1560 Jean Nicot
was the French ambassador in Portugal. On April 26
of that year he wrote to the Cardinal of Lorraine: *'I
have acquired an herb of India, of marvellous and ap-
proved property against the Noli me tangere (certain
cancerous ulcers) and fistulas, declared incurable by
the physicians and of prompt and certain cure among
the Moors. As soon as it has produced its seed, I will
send it to your gardener, at Marmoustier, and the
plant itself in a barrel with the instruction for trans-
planting and caring for it."^ Nicot obviously knew
that the Moors, that is, the Negroes or Arabs, were
using the tobacco in medicine. The Papal Nunzio at
Lisbon during the same year was Cardinal Santa- Croce,
and he is said to have sent the tobacco seed to Rome.
In any case, from Italy a specimen of what seems to
be Nicotiana rustica was about this time sent to Mat-
thioli in Austria, and he identified the plant with hen-
bane.^
Nicot's plant produced a tremendous sensation in
France. His name was permanently attached to it,
and Dr. Liebaut in 1570^ extolled its properties to the
^ E. FalgairoUe, Jean Nicot, Ambassadeur de France en Portugal au XV I
siicle,Paris 1897, pp. 50 and XC.
2 Petri Andreae Matthioli senensis medici, Commentarii in sex libros Pedacii

Dioscoridis Anazarbei de medica materia, Venetiis 1565, p. 1063 f.

3 J. Liebaut, Uagriculture et maison rustique de M. Charles Estienne
docieur en medecine, Paris 1570.
152 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
sky. Liebaut's U
agriculture et maison rustique was
frequently reprinted, and it was translated into several
languages. We shall give here his chapter on the to-
bacco from the English translation of 1596:^ ''Nico-
tianey although it bee not long since it hath been known
in Fraunce, notwithstanding deserueth palme and
pryce: and among all other medicinall hearbs, it de-
serueth to stande in the firste rancke, by reason of his
singuler vertues, and as it were almost to bee had in
admyration as hereafter you shall vnderstand. And
for that none such as of auncient tyme, or of late dayes
haue written the nature of plantes, did neuer make
mention thereof, I haue therfore learned the whole
historic touching the same, which I learned of a gentle-
man my very friend, ye first author, inuenter, and bring-
er of this herb into France: wherfore I thought good
to publish it in writing for their sakes, that haue so
often heard speaking of this saide hearbe, and yet
neyther knewe the hearbe not the effects thereof.
**Thys hearbe is called Nicotiane, of the name of him
that gaue the firste intelligence thereof vnto this
Realme, as many other plantes haue taken their names
of certeyne Greekes and Romaines, who hauying beene
in straunge Countries (for seruice of their common
Weales) haue brought into their countries many plants,
which were before vnknowne. Some haue called thys
Hearbe the Queenes Hearbe, because it was firste sent
vnto her, as heerafter shalbe declared by the Gentle-
man, that was the first inuenter of it, and since was by
her giuen to diuers for to sow, whereby it may be
planted in this lande. Others haue named it the great
Priors hearbe, for that he caused it to multiply in
Fraunce, more than any other, for the great reuerence
that he bare to this hearb, for the diuine effectes there-
N. Monardes, Joyfull Newes out of the Newfound Worlde, London 1596,
1

fol.42 flf.It is already contained in the edition of 1580, but the Harvard
University copy is imperfect.
 THE REDISCOVERY OF TOBACCO 153

in contayned. Many have giuen the name, Petum,

which is indeede the proper name of the Hearbe, as
they which haue trauelled that Countrie can tell. Not-
withstanding, it is better to name it Nicotiane, by the
name of him that sent it into Fraunce first, to the ende
that he may haue the honour thereof, according to his
desert, for that hee hath enriched our Countrie, with
so singular an Hearbe. Thus much for the name, and
now hearken for the whole Historic.
**Maister John Nicot, Counsellor to the King being
Embassadour for his Maiestie in Portugall, in the yeere
of our Lorde 1559.60.61. went one day to see the
Prysons of the King of Portugall: and a Gentleman
being the keeper of the said Prisons presented him with
this hearb, as a strange plant brought from Florida.
The same Maister Nicot, hauing caused the said hearb
to be set in his Garden, where it grewe and multiplyed
maruellously, was vpon a tyme aduertised by one of
his Pages, that a yong man, of kinne to that Page
made a say of that hearbe, brused both the hearbe and
the Juyce together, vpon an vlcer, which he had vpon
his cheeke neere vnto his nose, comming of a Noli me
tangere, which began to take roote already at the
gristles of the Nose, wherewith he founde himselfe
maruellously eased. Therefore the saide Maister Nicot
caused the sick young man to bee brought before him,
and causing the said hearb to be continued to the sore
eight or ten dales, this saide Noli me tangere was utterly
extinguished and healed and he had sent it, while this
:

cure was a woorking to a certeyne Phisition of the

King of Portugall one of the greatest fame to examine
the further working and effect of ye said Nicotiane, and
sending for the same young man at the end of ten dayes,
the sayde Phisition seeing the visage of the said sicke
young man, certified that the saide Noli me tangere was
vtterly extinguished, as indeed he neuer felt it since.
154 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
*' Within a while after, one of the Cookes of the sayde
Embassadour hauing almost cutte of his thombe, with
a greate Chopping knyfe, the Steward of the house of
the sayde Gentleman ran to the saide Nicotiane, and
dressed him therewith fine or sixe tymes, and so in the
ende thereof hee was healed from that tyme f orwarde
:

this hearb began to bee famous throughout Lisheborn,

where the court of the king of Portugall was at that
present, and the vertue of this saide hearbe was extolled,
and the people began to name it the Ambassadours
hearbe. Wherefore there came certeine dayes after, a
Gentleman of the Countrie, Father to one of the Pages
of the Ambassadour, who was troubled with an vlcer
in his Legge, hauing had the same twoo yeares, and de-
maunded of the sayde Embassadour for his hearbe, and
vsing the same in such order as is before written, at the
end of ten or twelve dales he was healed. From that
tyme forth the fame of that same hearbe increased in
such sort, that many came from al places to haue
some of it. Among al others there was a woman that
had her face couered with a Ringworme rooted, as
though she had a visour on her face, to whome the
saide L. Embassadour caused the hearb to be given,
and told how she should use it, and at the ende of eight
or ten daies, this woman was thoroughly healed, who
came and presented her selfe to the Embassadour,
shewing him of her healing.
** After there came a Captayne to present his sonne

sicke of the kinges euill to the saide L. Embassadour,

for to send him into Fraunce, vnto whome there was a
saye made of the sayde hearbe, which in fewe dayes
did begin to shewe great signes of healing: and finally
he was altogether healed therby of the kinges evill.
**The L. Embassadour seeing so great effectes pro-
ceding of this hearbe, and hauing heard say that the
Lady Montigue that was, died at Saint Germans, of an
 :

THE REDISCOVERY OF TOBACCO 155

vlcer bred in her brest, that did turne to a Noli me tan-

gere, forthe which there coulde neuer remedy be found
and lykewise that the Countesse of Ruffe, had sought
for al the famous Phisitions of that Realme, for to
heale her face, vnto whom they could giue no remedy:
he thought it good to communicate the same into
France, and did sende it to king Frauncis the seconde,
and to the Queene Mother, and to many other Lords
of the Court, with the maner of ministring the same,
and how to apply it vnto the said diseases, euen as he
had found it by experience, and chiefly to the Lorde of
larnac, Gouernour of Rogel, with whom the said Lorde
Embassadour had great amity for the seruice of the
king. The which Lord of larnac told one day at the
Queenes table, y he had caused the saide Nicotiane to
be distilled, and the water to be drunke, mingled with
water of Euphrasie, otherwise called eiebright, to one
that was short breathed, who was therewith healed.
**This hearbe hath the stalke greate, bearded and
slimie, the leafe largeand long bearded slimye, it grow-
eth in branches halfe foote to halfe foote, and is very
ful of leaues, and groweth in height foure or flue foot.
In hot countries it is nyne or tenne monethes in the
yeere laden, in one selfe tyme, with leaues, flowers and
Coddes, ful of rype graynes, which is when they are
waxed blacke and to be ripe, which is when they are
yet greene. It sproutes foorth neere the roote muche,
and reuyueth by a great quantitie of buddes, notwith-
standing the graine is the least seede in the worlde, and
the rootes be like small threeds.
''Nicotiane doth require a fat grounde finely digged,
and in colde Countreyes very well dunged, that is to
saye, a grounde in the which the dung must be so wel
mingled and incorporated, that it be altogether
turned into earth, and that there appeare no more
dung.
156 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
"It require th the south Sunne, and to be planted by
a wal, which may defende it against the North winde
recouering the heat of the Sunne against it, being a
warrant vnto the said hearbe against the tossing up of
the winde, because of the weaknes and highnes thereof.
**It groweth the better being often watered, and re-
uiueth it selfe by reason of the water in time of droughts.
It hateth the colde, therefore to preserue if from dying
in the Winter time, it must be either kept in caues
made of purpose within the said gardens, or els couered
with a double matte, and a Penthouse of Reede made
on the Wall ouer the hearbe, and when the South Sunne
shineth, the dore of the place must be opened where the
hearbe is on the Southside.
"For to sowe it, there must bee made a hole in the
ground with your finger, as deepe as your finger can
reache, then cast into that hole 40. or 50. graines of the
sayde Seede together, stopping againe your hole, for it
is so small a Seede, that if there bee put in the hole but
three or four graynes thereof, the earth would choke
them, and if the weather be drye, the place must be
watered lightly during the time of fifteene dayes after
the sowing thereof: it may also be sowen like vnto
Lettis and other such hearbes.
"And when the hearbe is out of the ground, for so
muche as euerie graine thereof will bring foorth his
Twigge, and that the little threeds of the Roote are
the one within the other, you must make with a great
knife a greate compasse within the earth rounde about
the sayde place, and lift up the earth together with
the Seede, and cast it into a payle of water, so that the
earth be separated, and that the little twigges may
swimme about the water, then shal you take them
without breaking, the one after the other, and you shal
plant each of them again by themselves, with the selfe
same earth, and shall set them three foote from the
 THE REDISCOVERY OF TOBACCO 157

wall, leauing foure foote space from one Twigge to

another, and if the earth which is neere vnto the wall,
be not so good as it ought to bee, you shall prepare and
amende it as aforesaide, helping the sayd Twigges so
remoued by often watering.
"The time to sowe it is in the middest of April, or at
the beginning: As touching the vertues, it will heale
Noli me tangere, all olde Sores and cankered Vlcers,
hurts, Ringwormes, great Scabbes, what euill soeuer
be in them, in stamping the leaues of the said hearbe
in a cleane Morter, and applying the hearbe and the
Juyce together vppon the griefe, and the parties must
abstaine from meate that is salt, sower, and spiced,
and from strong wine, except that it be well watered.
*'The leafe of this hearbe being dried in the shadow,
and hanged vp in the house, so that there come neither
Sunne, winde, nor fire therunto, and being cast on a
Chaffyng dish of Coales to bee burned, taking the
smoke thereof at your mouth through a f onnel or cane
your head being wel couered, causeth to auoide at the
mouth great quantitie of slimy and flegmatike water,
wherby the body will be extenuated and weakened, as
though one had long fasted, thereby it is thought by
some, that the dropsie not hauing taken roote, will be
healed by this Perfume.
''Moreouer the inhabitantes of Florida doe nourish
themselues certaine times, with the smoke of this
Hearbe, which they receiue at the mouth through
certayne coffins, such as the Grocers doe vse to put in
their spices. There be other oyntmentes prepared of
the saide hearbe, with other simples, but for a truth
this only simple hearbe, taken and applyed as afore-
saide, is of greater efficacie, notwithstanding one may
make therof an oyntment, which is singular, to cleanse,
incarnate, and knit together all manner of woundes:
the making of the sayde Oyntmentes, is thus. Take a
158 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
pounde of the freshe Leaues of the sayde Hearbe,
stampe them, and mingle them with newe Ware, Rosine,
common oyle, of each three ounces, let them boyle alto-
gether, vntill the Juice of Nicotiane be consumed, then
adde therto three ounces of Venise Turpentine, straine
the same through a Linen cloth, and keepe it in Pottes
to your vse.
**Loe, here you haue the true Historic of Nicotiane,
of the which the sayde Lorde Nicot, one of the Kinges
Counsellers first founder out of this hearbe, hath made
mee priuie aswel by woorde as by writing, to make thee
(friendly Reader) partaker thereof, to whome I require
thee to yeeld as harty thankes as I acknowledge myself
bound vnto him for this benefite receiued."
Monardes had twice brought out a book on the plants
coming from the West Indies, namely in 1565 and
1569, but tobacco was not among them. In 1571 he
published a second part, chiefly on tobacco and sassa-
fras, and in the introduction to this work he said:
** These dayes past I wrote a booke of all thinges which

come from your Occidentall Indias, seruing for the vse

of Medicine, and surely it hath beene taken in that esti-
mation, that the thinges which in it are intreated of
doe deserue. And seeing the profite that it hath done,
and how manny haue beene remedyed and healed with
those remedies, I dyd determine to proceede forwardes,
and to write of the thinges, which after that the first
part was written, haue come from those countries of
the which I haue vnderstood, that no lesse vtilitie &
profite shal come, then of those which are past, for
there shalbe discouered newe thinges and secrets, which
will bring admiration, neuer to this day scene nor
knowne before. And seeing that these medicinall
thinges which we doe treate of, and the Realmes, and
countries from whence they come, belong vnto your
Maiestie, and he also that writeth of them, is your
 THE REDISCOVERY OF TOBACCO 159

Maiesties subject: I doe desire your Maiestie, to re-

ceiue this trauell into your protection, and that the
rewarde may be such, as for the like works dedicated
to your Maiestie is accustomed to be given. "^ As
tobacco was unquestionably known in Spain in 1569,
as it was in Portugal, Monardes can only mean that
the attention to tobacco was directed to him by the
very Liebaut in his famous work which is always quoted
by the name La maison rustique, that is, it was only
Nicot's published experiments that made it necessary
to emphasize the marvellous qualities which of right
should be claimed for a plant from the Spanish colonies.
His account of the tobacco in the English translation
of 1596 runs as follows "Of the Tabaco, and of his
:

great vertues. —
This Hearbe which commonly is called
Tabaco, is an Hearbe of much antiquitie, and knowen
amongst the Indians, and inespecially among them of
the newe Spaine, and after that those Countries were
gotten by our Spaniards, being taught of the Indians,
they did profite themselues with those thinges, in the
woundes which they received in their Warres, healing
themselves therewith to their great benefite.
''Within these few yeeres there hath beene brought
into Spayne of it more to adornate Gardens with the
fairenesse thereof, and too giue a pleasaunt sight, than
that it was thought to haue the meruelous medicinable
vertues which it hath, but nowe we doe vse it more for
his vertues, than for his fairenesse. For surely they
are such which doe bring admiration.
"It is growing in many partes of the Indias, but ordi-
narilie inmoyst and shadowie places, and it is neede-
fuU that the grounde where it is sowne, be well tilled,
and that it be a fruiteful grounde and at all times it is
sowen, in the hot Countries. But in the colde Coun-

1 Ibid., fol. 33a.

160 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
tries it must bee sowen in the Moneth of Marche, for
that is maydefende it selfe from the frost.
**The proper name of it amongst the Indians is
Picielt. For the name of Tahaco is giuen to it by our
Spaniards, by reason of an Island that is named Tahaco.
"It is an hearbe that dooth growe and come to bee
very greate: many times too bee greater then a Lem-
mon tree. It casteth f oorth one steame from the roote
which groweth vpright, without declining to any parte,
it sendeth f oorth many Bowes, straight, that well neere
they bee equal with the principall steame of the tree:
his Leafe is wel neere like to the Leafe of a Citron tree,
they come to bee verie great, and be of colour greene,
the Plant it heauie, they be in the Garden as Cytrons
and Orenges are, for all the yeere they are greene, and
haue leaues, and if any whyther they be those that are
lowest. In the highest parte of all the Plante, there
doth growe out the flower, the which is after the man-
ner of white Campanillia, and in the middest of Carna-
tion colour: it hath a good shew when it is drie, it is
like to blacke Poppie seede, and in it is shut vp: the
seede is very small, and of the colour of a dark Tawny.
*'The Roote is great, conformable to the greatness of
the Plante, deuided into many partes, and it is like to
wood in substaunce, the which being parted, it hath
the hearte within, like vnto the colour of Saffron, and
beeying tosted, it hath some bitterness with it. The
Rinde cometh away easilie, we knowe not that the
roote hath any vertue at all: Of the Leaues onely we
know the vertues, which we will speake of, although
that I belieeve that the roote hath medicinall vertues
enough, the which time shall discouer. And some will
say that it hath the vertue of Ruibarbe, but I haue not
experimented it as yet, they doo keepe the leaues after
they be drie in the shadow, for the effects that we wil
speak of, and they be made into pouder, to be vsed of
 THE REDISCOVERY OF TOBACCO 161

them in place of the Leaues, for it is not in all partes.

The one and the other is to bee kept a great time, with-
out corrupting. The complexion thereof is hot and
drie in the second degree, it hath vertue to heate and
to dissolue, with some bynding and comforting, it glew-
eth together and sodereth the fresh wounds and healeth
them: the filthy wounds and sores it doth cleanse and
reduce to a perfect health, as it shal be spoken of here-
after,and so likewise wee will speake of the vertues of
these hearbes, and of the thinges that they are good
for euery one perticulerly.
**This hearbe Tahaco, hath perticuler vertue to heale
griefes of theheade and in especially comming of colde
causes, and so it cureth the headake when it commeth
of a cold humor, or of a windy cause. The leaues must
be laid hotte to the griefe, and multiplying them the
tyme that is nedeful vntill the griefe be taken away.
Some there be that doo annoynt them with the Oyle
of Orenges, and so they performe a verie good woorke.
"If any manner of griefe that is in the body or any
other part thereof it helpeth, proceeding of a cold
cause, and applyed thereunto, it taketh it away, not
without great admiration.
**In griefes of the brest it worketh a maruellous effect
and inespecially in those that doo cast out matter and
rottenness at the mouth, and in them that are short
breathed, and in anie other olde euilles making of the
hearbe a decoction, or with Sugar a Syrope, and being
taken in little quantity, it doth expel the Matters, and
rottenness of the brest maruellously, and the smoke
being taken in at the mouth, doth cause that the matter
be expelled out of the brest of them that doo fetch
their breath short.
"In the griefe of the stomack, caused of colde, or
winde, the leaues being put very hot, it dooth take it
away, and dissolueth it by multiplying the vse, vntil it
 e

162 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

be taken away. And it is to be noted, that the leaues
are to be warmed better than any other, amongst Ashes
or Embers very hotte, thrusting the hearbes into them,
and so to warme them wel, and although they be layde
to with some ashes, they make the worke better, and
of more strong effectes.
*'In epilations of the stomacke, and of the inner
partes principally, this hearbe is a great remedie: for
that it dooth dissolue, and consume them, and this
same it dooth in any other manner of Opilations or
hardness that are in the belly, the cause being of a colde
humor, or of windiness.
"They must take the hearbe greene, and stampe it,
and with those stamped leaues rubbe the hardness a
good while, and at the tyme as the hearbe is in the
Morter a stamping, let there be put to it a f ewe droppes
of Vinegar, that hys worke may be made the better:
and after the place is rubbed where the paine is, then
lay vpon it one leafe or two leaues of the Tohaco being
hotte, and so let it alone til the next day, and then do
the like againe, or in place of the leaves vse a Linnen
cloth wet in the hotte iuice. Some there bee, that after
they haue rubbed it with the stamped leaues, do an-
noint it with oyntments, made for the like euils, and
vpon it they lay the leaves for the iuyce of the Tahaco.
And surely with this cure they haue desolued great and
hard opilations, and very old swellings. In the grief
of the stone of the kidneies and Reines, this hearbe
woorketh great effects, by putting the Leaues into
Ashes, or Embers, hotte, that they may warme wel,
and then being laid vpon the griefe, multiplying the
vse of it as often as it is needfull. It is necessarie in
the seethinges that are vsed to bee made for Glisters to
put into them with the other things, the Leaues of this
hearbe, for that they shal profit much and likewise for
:

Fomentations and Plaisters, that they shall make.

 THE REDISCOVERY OF TOBACCO 163

*'In grief es of windes they woorke the like effect,

taking away the paines that come of the windinesse,
applying the leaues after the same sort as is aboue saide.
"In the grief e of women, which is called the euill of
the Mother, laying too one leafe of this hearbe Tohaco
very hotte, in the manner as it is saide, it dooth mani-
festly profit and it must be layde vppon the Nauell.
And vnder it some do vse it first of all, thinges of good
smell vppon the Nauel, and then vpon that they lay
the leafe. In that which they finde most profite, is to
lay the Tacamahaca, or the oyle of liquid Amber, and
Balsamo, and Caranna, or any of those vnto the Nauel,
and to keep it to it continually, that it may cleane
vnto it, and this worketh manifest profit in griefes of
the Mother.
*'In one thing, the women that dwel in the Indias do
celebrate this hearbe, that is, in the euil breathing at
ye mouth of children, when they are ouer filled with
meat, and also of olde people, anoynting their bellies
with lampe oyle, and laying some of those leaues in
ashes hotte to their bellies, and also to their shoulders,
for it doth take away their naughtie breathing, and
maketh them go to the stoole, applying it vnto the
fundement at what time it is needfull, and if the leaves
be ashed it is the better.
**Wormes, of all kindes of them, it killeth, and expel-
leth them maruellously, the seething of the hearbe
made into a Syrope delicately, being taken in very lit-
tle quantitie, and the iuyce thereof put on the nauel.
It is needful after this be done to giue a Glister, that
may auoide them, and expell them out of the guttes.
*'In griefes of the Joyntes comming of a colde cause
it maketh a maruellous worke, the Leaues of this
Tabaco being laid hotte vpon the griefe the like doth
the Juyce layd vpon a little cloth hotte, for that it
doeth dissolue the humor, and taketh away the paines
164 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
therof. If it come of a hot cause it doth hurt, sauing
when the huimor hath bene hot, and the subtill part is
dissolued, and the grosse remaineth, then it doeth
profite as of the cause were colde, and it is to be vnder-
stood, that the leaues being layde, where as is griefe of
the sayde cause, in any part of the bodie, it profiteth
much.
"In swellings or in cold Impostumes, it doth dis-
solue and vndoe them, washing them with the hot
Juyce, and laying the beaten leaues, after they be
stampt, or the leaues being whole of the said Tabaco,
vpon it.
**In the Toothache, when the griefe commeth of a
colde cause or of a colde Rumes, putting to it a little
ball made of the leafe of the Tahaco, washing first the
tooth with a smal cloth wet in the Juyce, it taketh
away the paine, and stayeth it, that the putrification
goe not f orwarde in hot causes it doth not profite, and
:

this remedie is so common that it healeth euerie one.

*'This hearbe doth meruellously heale Chilblaines,
rubbing them with the stamped leaues, and after put-
ting the hands and Feete in hot water, with Salt, and
keping them warme: this is done with great exper-
ience in many.
*'In venom and venomous wounds our Tabaco hath
great commendation, which hath beene knowne but a
short time since: for when the wilde people of the
Indias, which eate mans fleshe doe shoote their Arrowes,
they annointe them with an hearb or Composition made
of many poysons, with the which they shoote at al
things that they would kill, and this venom is so strong
and pernicious, that it killeth without remedie, and they
that bee hurte die with great paines and accidents, and
with madnes, vnless that there be found remedy for so
great an euill. A fewe yeeres past they laid to their
wounds Sublimatum, and so were remedied, and surely
 THE REDISCOVERY OF TOBACCO 165

in those partes they haue suffered much with this

vexation of poyson.
**A little whiles past, certain wilde people going in
their Bootes to S. John De puerto Rico, to shoote at
Indians, or Spaniards (if that they might find them)
came to a place and killed certain Indians and Span-
iards, and did hurt many, and as by chaunce there was
no Sublimatum at that place to heale them, they re-
membered to lay vpon the wounds the Juice of the
TabacOy and the leaues stamped. And God would, that
laying it vpon the hurts, the griefs, madnes, and acci-
dents wherewith they died, were mittigated, and in
such sorte they were deliuered of that euill, that the
strength of the Venom was taken away, and the wounds
were healed, of the which there was greate admiration.
Which thing being known to them of the Ilande, they
vse it also on other hurtes and woundes, which they
take when they fight with the wilde people, now they
stand in no feare of them, by reason they haue founde
so great a remedie, in case so desperate.
**This Hearbe hath also vertue against the hearbe
called of the Crosseboweshooter, which our hunters doe
vse to kill the wilde beastes withall, which hearbe is
Venom most strong, and doth kill without remedie,
which the Kinges pleasure was to proue, and com-
maunded to make experience therof and they wounded
,

a little dogge in the throate, and put forthwith into the

wound the hearbe of the Crosseboweshooter, and after
a little whyle they powred into the selfe same wound
that they had annointed with the Crosseboweshooters
hearbe, a good quantitie of the Juice of Tahaco, and lay-
de the stamped leauves vpon it, and they tied vp the
dogge and he escaped, not without great admiration
of all men that saw him. Of the which, the excellent
Phisition of the Chamber of his Maiestie, Doctor
Barnarde in the margent of this booke, that saw it, by
166 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
the commaundement of his Maiestie, writeth these
wordes :I made this experience by the commaundment
of the kinges Maiestie. I wounded the dogge with a
knife, and after I put the Crosseboweshooters hearbe
into the wound, and the hearbe was chosen, and the
dogge was taken of the hearbe, and the Tabaco and his
Juyce being put into the wounde, the dogge escaped
and remained whole.
**In the venomous Carbuncles, the Tahaco being ap-
plied in manner as is aforesaid doth extinguish ye malice
of the venom, and doth that which all the workes of
Surgerie can doe, vntill it be whole. The same effect
it worketh in bytings of venomous beastes, for it killeth
and extinguisheth the malice of the venom and healeth
them.
"In woundes newely hurt, and cuttes strokes prickes,
or any other manner of wounde, our Tahaco worketh
maruellous effectes, for that it doeth heale them and
maketh them sound. The wound must be washed with
wine, and procure to annoynt the sides of it, taking
away that which is superfluous, and then powre into
itthe Juice of this hearbe, and lay vpon it the stamped
leaues, and being wel bound it shall continue on vntill
the next day that thou shalt return to dresse it. After
the same fashion the pacientes shall keepe good order
in their meate, vsing the diet necessary, and if it be
needful of any euacuation by stoole, the cause being
greate, let be done what shall be conuenient. And
with this order they shalbe healed without any need
of any more Surgerie then this hearbe only. Here in
this Country, and in this City they know not what
other to doe, hauing cut or hurt themselues, but to
runne to the Tahaco, as to a most ready remedie. It
doth meruellous workes, without any need of other
Surgery, but this only hearbe. In restraining the fluxe
of blood of the wounds it procureth most maruellous
 THE REDISCOVERY OF TOBACCO 167

workes, for that the Juyce and the Leaues being

stamped, are sufficient to restraine any fluxe of blood.
**In olde it is maruellous the woorkes and the
Sores
hearbe doeth, for it healeth them won-
effects that this
derfully, making cleane and mundifying them of all
humors that are superfluous, and of the rottennes, that
they haue, and bringeth vp the flesh, reducing them to
perfite health, the which is so common in this Citie,
that euery man doeth knowe it and I hauing ministred
:

it to many people as well men as women, in greate

number, and being grieved often, and of twentieyeeres,
haue healed olde rotten sores in legges, and other partes
of the body, with this remedy only to the great admira-
tion of all men.
*'The order of the cure that is to bee wrought with
thys hearbe is this following. For the old rotten sores
although they may be cankered, let the sicke man bee
purged with the counsell of a Phisition, and let him
blood if it bee needefull and then take this hearbe and
pounde it in a Morter, and wring out the Juyce, and
pur it into the sore, and then after the manner of a
playster lay the stamped leaues vpon it, which are the
Leaues that the Juyce is taken out of, and this doe
once euerie day eating good Meates, and not exceeding
in any disorder, for other wise it will not profit. And
doing this it wil make cleane the euil flesh that is rot-
ten, and superfluous, vntil it come to the whole flesh,
and it is not to be maruelled at, if the wounde be made
very great. For the euil must be eaten vp, vntil it
come to the good, and in the same cure putting in lesse
quantitie of iuyce, it wil incarnate, and reduce it to
perfit health, in such sort, that it accomplisheth all the
workes of Surgery, that all the Medicines of the world
are able to doo, without hauing neede of any other
manner of Medicine.
168 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
"This worke dooth cure old Sores, with very great
admiration and not only in men but in bruite beastes
:

also. As at this day

in all partes of the Indias, where
there are any hauing wounds or gaules and the
eattell :

countrey being hotte and moyst ouer muche, dooth

soone rotte them, an very quickly they come to bee
cankered, and for this cause many great cattel doo die:
To remedy this and the wormes that doo increase in
the sores, they had for remedy to put into the sores
Sublimatum, for that in this remedy they dyd finde
more benefite then in any other, that they had vsed.
And for that the Sublimatum beares there so high a
price, manytimes it was more worth then the eattell
that it healed. For this cause and for hauing founde
in the Tahaco, so muche vertue too heale newe woundes
and rotten, they did accorde and agree togeather to vse
the Tahaco, in the healing of beastes, as they had done
in the cure and remedy of men, po wring the Juyce of
the Tahaco into the wounds, and washing them there-
with, and laying vpon them the stamped leaues of the
Tahaco, after that the Juyce is taken from them. And
it is of so great efficacie and vertue, that it killeth the
wormes, and maketh cleane the sore, eating away the
euill fleshe, and ingendering newe vntill it be whole, as
in the other thinges which we haue spoken of. The
like it doth in the gaules of the beasts of Cariege, the
iuice being powred in, and the beaten leaues wherout
the iuice commeth of the Tahaco as it is sayde although
:

they may be cankered it doth make them cleane and

incarnate them, and cureth and helpeth them. And
so the Indians doo carrie it, when they iourney, for this
purpose and effect, and it procure th the profite that
the iuyce doeth.
"I sawe a man that had certeyne old sores in his nose,
wherby he did from him much matter, which
cast out
dayly did rotte and canker inwarde, and I caused him
 THE REDISCOVERY OF TOBACCO 169

to take at his nose the iuyce of this Tabaco, and so he

did: and at the seconde tyme, he caste out from him,
more than twenty little wormes, and afterwards a fewe
more, vntyl that he remained cleane of them, and vsing
it so certeyne dayes, hee was healed of the sore, that
he had in the inner part of his nose and if he had tar-
:

ried any longer, I thinke that there had remained

nothing of his nose, but all had been eaten away, as it
happeneth to many, which we see without them. And
beeing wryting of this, a daughter of a Gentleman of
this Cittie, had many yeares a certeyne kinde of skabbes,
or wel neere skuruie in her head. I had her in cure and
did vnto her many benifits vniuersal, and perticuler:
and also Maisters of Surgerie had done their diligence,
and all did not profite. And a Gentlewoman, which
had the charge of her, as shee heard mee speake one
day much good of the Tabaco, that it was good and
profitable, for so many infirmities, she sent for it, and
did rubbe hard the disease that the wench had, and
that day she was very euill as though shee had beene
foolishe: and ye gentle woman did not let (in seing
her after that sort) to rubbe her harder, and then the
wench did not feele so muche griefe, but the dry
skabbes began to fall, and the white scurffe of her head
in such sorte, that it made cleane and healed her head,
with dooing so certeyne dayes, so that shee was healed
of her skuruie disease very well, without knowing what
she did.
"One of the meruelles of this hearbe, and that whiche
bringeth most admiration, is, the maner howe the
Priests of the Indias did vse it, which was in this man-
ner: when there was amongst the Indians any manner
of businesse, of greate importaunce, in which the
chiefe Gentlemen called Casiques or any of the princi-
pall people of the Countrey, had necessitie to consult
with their Priests in any businesse of importance:
170 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
then they went and propounded their matter to their
chiefe Priest, foorthwith in their presence, he tooke
eerteyne leaues of the Tahaco and cast them into ye
fire, and did receiue the smoke of them at his mouth,
and at his nose with a Cane, and in taking of it, he fell
downe vpon the ground, as a Dead man, and remayn-
yng so according to the quantity of the smoke that he
had taken when the hearbe had done his worke he did
reuiue and awake, and gaue them their aunsweares
according to the visions, and illusions which he sawe,
whiles hee was rapte in the same manner, and he did
interprete to them, as to him seemed best, or as the
Diuell had counselled him giuing them continually
doubtful aunswers, in such sorte, that howsoeuer it
fell out, they might say that it was the same, which was
declared, and the answere that he made.
**In like sort the rest of the Indians for their pastime,
do take the smoke of the Tahaco, to make themselues
drunke withall, and to see the visions, and things that
represent vnto them, that wherein they do delight: and
other times they take it to know their businesse, and
successe, because conformable to that which they haue
scene, being drunke therwith, euen so they iudge of
heir businesse. And as the deuil is a deceiuer, and
hath the knowledge of the vertue of hearbs, so he did
shew the vertue of this Hearb, that by the meanes
thereof, they might see their imaginations, and visions,
that he hath represented vnto them, and by that
meanes deceiue them.
**To haue hearbes that haue the like vertue, is a com-
mon thing, and in the booke of the Phisition, Dioscor-
ides dooth say, that one Dramme of the roote of Solatro,
beeyng taken in wine, which roote is very straunge and
furious, prouoketh sleepe greatlie, and maketh him
that taketh it, to dreame of thinges variable, and dooth
represent vnto hym terrible imaginations, and visions.
 THE REDISCOVERY OF TOBACCO 171

Others doe giue delectation and pleasure. Of the Anis

seed they say, being eaten at the houre, when that any
shal sleep, it maketh a pleasant, and delectable dreame.
The Radish doth make them greeuous and very heauie,
and so likewise of many other hearbs, which would be
ouer large to speake of, as of this matter, the auncient
writers report.
**
Diego Gratia de Guerta, in the booke that hee wryt-
eth of the Spicerie and drugs of the Orientall Indias,
reporteth that in those parts there is an hearbe, which
is called Bague, which being mingled with thinges of
sweet smell, there is made of it a confection of excellent
smell and taste: and when the Indians of those parts,
will depriue themselves of iudgement, and see visions
that giue them pleasure, then they take a certayne
quantitie of this confection, and in taking of it, they
remaine depriued of all iudgement, and while the ver-
tue of theyr Medicine dooth endure, they receiue muche
delight, and see thinges, whereby they receive pleasure,
and be glad of them. There was a mightie Emperor,
being Lorde of many Realmes, sayde vnto Martine
Alfonso de Sosa, who was the vice Roy of the East
India, that when he woulde see Realmes, and Cities,
and other thinges, of the which he did receiue pleasure,
that hee should then take the Bague, made in a cer-
teyne confection, and that in dooing so, he did receiue
pleasure. The vse of this confection is very common,
and very muche vsed amongst the Indians of those
parts, and they do sel it in the publice market, for that
purpose.
"The Indians of our Occidentall Indias, doo vse the
Tahaco to take away wearinesse, and for to make light-
somnesse in their Labour, for in their daunces they bee
so much wearied, and they remaine so wearie, that they
can scarcely stirre: and because that they may labour
the next day, and returne to that foolish exercise, they
172 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
receiue at ye mouth and nose, the smoke of the Tabaco,
and remain as dead people: and being so, they be
eased in such sorte, that when they be awakened out
of their sleepe, they remain without wearinesse, and
may returne to their labour as much as before, and so
they doe alwaies, when they haue need of it: for with
that sleepe, they receiue their strength, and be much
the lustier.
"The blacke people that haue gone from these partes
to the Indias, haue practised the same manner and vse
of the Tobaco, that ye Indians haue, for when they see
themselues weary, they take it at the nose, and mouth,
and it happeneth vnto them, as vnto our Indians, lying
as though they were dead three of foure houres, and
after they remayne lightened, without wearinesse, for
to labour againe and they do this with great pleasure,
:

that although they bee not weary yet they are verie
desirous to doe it: and the things is come to suche
effecte, that their Masters chasten them for it, and doe
burne the Tahaco, because they shoulde not vse it:
whervppon they goe to the desertes, and
secrete places
to doe it, because they may not be permitted, to drinke
themselues drunke with Wine, and therfore they are
gladde to make themselves drunken with the smoke of
TahacOy I haue seen them doe it here, and it happened
to them as is saide. And they say, that when they
come out of the same traunce or dream they finde
themselues very lusty, and they reioyce to haue beene
after the same sort and manner, seeing that therby they
doe receiue no hurt.
''Thees barbarous people do vse ye like things to take
away weariness; and not only this custom is vsed in
our Occidental Indias, but it is also a common thing in
the Oriental Indias. And also in the Portugall Indias,
for this effecte, they doe sell the Opio in their Shoppes,.
euen as they sell Conserua, with the which the Indians
 THE REDISCOVERY OF TOBACCO 173

vse to ease themselves, of their labour that they take,

and to be merrie, and not to feele paines of any greate
labour of the bodie, or mynde that may come vnto
them, and they call it there amongst themselves
Aphion. This Aphion the Turkes doe vse for this
effecte. The Souldiers and Captaines that goe to
Warres, when they labour muche, after the time that
they be lodged, that they may take their rest, they
receiue Aphion, and sleepe with it, and remaine
lightened of their labour. The most principall people
take Bague, and it hath a better taste, and a better
smel, for there is put to it much Amber, and Muske and
Clones, and other spices. And surely it is a thing of
admiration, to see howe these Barbarous people doe
take such Medicines, and how many of them doe take
them, and that they doe not kill them, but rather they
take them for health and remedie for their necessities,
**I sawe an Indian of those partes, that in my presence
did aske an Apothecarie for a quart of Opio, and I de-
manded of him wherfore he would haue it: and he told
me that he tooke it to put away weariness, when he felt
himself ouer much grieued, and afflicted with labour,
and he tooke the halfe of that which he caried, for the
Apothecary gaue hym more then a pint for twelue
pence, and therewith he slept so soundly, that when he
awoke from sleepe, hee founde himselfe verie much
eased of his wearinesse, in suche sorte, that he might
continue his labour. I meruelled at it, and it seemed
to me a thing of Mockerie, seeing that fine or sixe
graines, bee the most that wee can giue to a sicke Person
howe stronge sooner hee bee, which beeing very well
prepared, doeth cause many times Accidentes of Death.
And many yeeres after standing in the Shoppe of an
other Apothecary of this Citie, there came an other
Indian, of the same Orientall Indias, and he asked of
the Apothecarie for some Opio called Aphion, the which
174 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
Apothecarie vnderstoode him not. And I remembring
my selfe of the other Indian, caused him to shewe vnto
the Indian Opio, and in shewing it to him, hee said that
is was that which he asked for, and he bought a quarter
of a Pinte of it, and I asked of the Indian, wherefore
he would haue it, and he tolde me the same that the
other Indian did, that it was because he might labour:
and ease himselfe of his wearinesse, for that hee did
beare burdens, and should helpe to discharge a shipper
wherefore he sayde hee would take the one halfe, that
he might therwith labour, and the other halfe after he
had laboured, that therwith he might take ease, and
rest. Then I gave him credite to the first Indian, of
that he sayd vnto me, and since I haue beleeued that
which I haue seene and read, in those partes to bee a
thing in common vse, for the like effectes. And truely
it is a thing worthy of greate consideration, that fine
graines of Opio do kill vs, and threescore doe giue them
health and rest.
"The Indians doe vse the Tahaco, for to suffer drieth,
and also to suffer hunger, and to passe dales without
hauing neede to eate or drinke, when they shal trauel
by any desert or dispeopled countrie, where they shal
finde neither water, nor meate. They receiue thereof
little balles, which they make of the Tahaco. For they
take the leaues of it, and chew them, and as they goe
chewing of them, they goe mingling with them cer-
taine pouder, made of the shelles of Cockels burned, and
they mingle it in the mouth altogether vntil they make
it like dowe, of the which they frame certaine little
Balles, little greater then Peason, and lay them to drie
in the shadow, and after they keep them, and vse them
in this forme following.
"When they vse to trauel by the wayes, where they
finde no water nor meate, they take a little ball of these,
and out it betweene the lower lippe and the teeth, and
 THE REDISCOVERY OF TOBACCO 175

goe chewing it all the time that they trauell, and that
which they chew, they swallow downe, and in this sort
they journey three or foure dayes, without hauing
neede of meate, or drinke, for they feel no hunger,
drieth nor weaknesse, nor their trauel doth trouble
them. I thinke that to iourney after this sort, is the
cause they goe chewing continually the little balles:
for they bring Fleume into the mouth, and swallow it
into the stomacke, the which doth retaine the naturall
heate, which it doth consume, and so they maintain
themselues therby, the like wherefor wee see to happen
in many beastes, for that a great part of the winter,
they be shut vp in their Caues, and hollows places of
the earth, and passe their time there without any meate,
for that they haue to consume the naturall heate, of
the fatnes, which they had gotten in the Summer.
The beare being a great and fierce beast, much time in
the Winter remaineth in his Caue, and liueth without
meate or drink, with onely chewing his pawes, which
perhaps he doeth for the sayd cause. This is the sub-
stance which I haue gathered of this hearb, so cele-
brated and called Tahaco for that surely it is an hearb
of great estimation, for the excellent vertues that it
hath, as wee haue sayde."^
Monardes' discussion of tobacco consists of two
parts. The account of the use of tobacco by the
Indians and Negroes is taken out from Peter Martyr,
Oviedo, and other contemporary writers, but even here
we have a touch of personal experience, when Monardes
says that he saw the Negroes in Spain use tobacco for
the same purposes. The rest of the story is dealing
with experiments in the application to diseases, and
here we get the whole list of virtues, anciently applied
to viscous substances, by Ibn-al-Baitar specifically re-
ferred to tuhhdq in Syria, Egypt, and Africa. But the
1 Ibid., fol. 33b to 41b.
 176 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
chief virtue, according to Monardes, is in the healing
of cankerous sores, that is, of the very noli me tangere,
to which Nicot directed the attention, and which was
the subject of Liebaut's discussion. If Monardes did
not get this suggestion directly from Nicot or Liebaut,
they must all have received it from the same source, to
which Nicot refers, namely the Negroes.
From Oviedo we learned that tobacco was raised by
Negroes in the Spanish plantations for the trade with
the Indians. We also know that early in the XVI.
century Arawaks from the West Indies crossed over to
Florida, hence a relation must have subsisted between
the two countries. Jacques Cartier tells us of the
travels of Indians from the Great Lakes somewhere to
the Gulf of Mexico, ostensibly in order to meet
European traders, and I have already suggested that
the mounds of the Mound-builders were constructed by
the Indians or the traders as fortifications, to secure
the trade. It will now be shown that tobacco was
one of the articles which was carried along these routes
by persons who were acquainted with the African
stockade posts.
De Soto distinctly refers to the mounds as built for
defence: "The Chief's house stood near the beach,
upon a very high mount made by hand for defence."^
Biedma tells the same: "It is the custom of the Caci-
ques to have near their houses a high hill, made by hand,
some having the houses placed thereon."^ Just such a
hill is described by Marees, who says that here they
gather on Tuesdays, which is their Sunday, for religious
services,^ and a comparison of the Peul African stockade^
with Le Moyne's drawing of a Florida stockade, made

1 B. Smith, Narratives of the Career of Hernando de Soto in the Conquest

of Florida, New York 1866, p. 23.
2 Ibid., p. 251.
3 P. de Marees, op. cit., p. 67.
* F. Moore, Travels into the Inland Parts of Africa, London 1738, p. 35.
AFRICAN STOCKADE, from F. Moore's Travels into the Inland Parts of Africa.
b
m
 THE REDISCOVERY OF TOBACCO 177

in 1564,^ is most striking. Both are circular, built of

heavy upright posts, have a similar gate entrance, con-
tain rows of circular huts, and within the stockade
there are two fields.
Cabeza de Vaca, who traversed North America from
1528-1536, found tobacco already in use among the
Indians: "In this whole country they make them-
selves drunk by a certain smoke for which they give
all they have."^ In Le Moyne's illustration the smoke
is taken both in the form of fumigation or through a
pipe,^ but in either case it is merely as a medical prac-
tice, and not as a universal habit. The very fact that,
according to Cabeza de Vaca, the Indians gave their
all for a smoke shows that tobacco was hard to obtain
and expensive. When Hariot, in 1587,* described the
tobacco of Virginia, he not only mentioned it as culti-
vated, but finished his account with the words, **and
these are all the commodities for sustenance of life that
I know and can remember vse to husband: all else
that folio we are found growing naturally or wilde," by
which he showed that tobacco was not known to him
as growing wild. Again, Strachey, in the beginning of
the XVII. century,^ remarked that tobacco was taken
in proportion to the number of wives a man had, that
is, according to his wealth, which once more shows that
smoking was an expensive luxury still. Even as late
as the year 1600 Champlain thought of St. Domingo,
that is, Hispaniola, as the great exporting place of

1 Th. de Bry, Admiranda narratis fida tamen, de commodis et incolarum

ad Moenum 1590.
ritibus Virginiae, Francofurti
2 F. Bandelier, The Journey of Alvar Nuflez Cabeza de Vaca, New York
1905, p. 124.
3 De Bry, op. cit
* See vol. I, p. 141 ff.

6 Ibid., p. 143.
178 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
tobacco.^ Champlain only once mentions tobacco as
in use in Canada, when at a tahagie, or festive occas-
ion, the Great Sagamo exchanged a smoke with Sieur
du Pont-Grau^ of Saint Malo and himself,^ that is, to-
bacco was used, as in Mexico, Nicaragua, Darien, only
by the rich who could afford it. Nowhere, except near
Spanish plantations, where Negroes raised the tobacco,
do we hear of the generality of Indians as smoking.
The further we go away from this, the more solemn is
the occasion at which tobacco is smoked. It took a
whole century for tobacco to become popular and uni-
versal, and then, after Nicot and Monardes had raised
it to the dignity of a sovereign remedy, the English and
Dutch, at the end of the XVI. century, began a furious
rivalry to spread the precious product of Virginia and
Guiana to all the corners of the earth. Only then did
people begin to take notice of the smoking, which before
was not even referred to, except in America, because
by Peter Martyr and Oviedo.
of the notoriety given to it
must be remarked that Champlain's tahagie has
It
nothing whatsoever to do with ''tobacco" and is an ad-
ditional proof of the African influence upon Indian
matters. Lescarbot devotes a whole chapter to the
Indian tahagie,^ but all we learn from him is that tahagie,
Indian tahaguia, is "a banquet." No Indian language
seems to have the word, but it is found everywhere in
Guinea, where the French writers got it. Alvares d'
Almada says that the great feast among the Wolofs is
called tahasquio} Indeed, the Wolof dictionary re-
1 "II faut que ie dye encore qu'a coste dudict canal de Bahan, au sudsuest,
Ton voict I'isle St Domingue, dont i'ay parle cy dessus, qui est fort bonne
& marchande en cuirs, gingembre & casse, tahac, que Ton nomme autrement
petung, ou herbe a la Royne, que Ton faict seicher, puis Ton en faict des
petits tourteaux. Les mariniers, mesme les Anglois, & autres personnes en
vsent & prennent la fumee d'iceluy a I'imitation des sauuaiges," C.-H.
Laverdiere, Oeuvres de Champlain, Quebec 1870, p. 50 f.
2 Ibid., p. 71.
3 Op. cit., vol. Ill, chap. XIV.
4 Op. cit., p. 19.
 THE REDISCOVERY OF TOBACCO 179

cords tabaskia **the December feast," and we have

Mandingo tahaski, Peul tahaske, taaske, taske "feast of
the sacrifices/' from Berber tafaske, tafeske "feast of the
sacrifices." It is only accidental that in French to-
bacco was connected with tahaquia, leading to tabagie
"a place where tobacco is smoked."
 CHAPTER VI.

Tobacco and the Sciences.

We can now summarize the history of tobacco smok-

ing from its inception to the end of the XVI. century.
Smoking for medicinal purposes is very old, and goes
back at least to Greek medicine. A large number of
viscous substances, especially henbane and bitumen,
were employed in fumigation and taken through the
mouth, sometimes through the nose, for certain diseases,
especially catarrh, toothache, and pulmonary troubles.
This fumigation took place through a funnel which
very much resembles a modern pipe, but by its knob-
like end at the bottom of the bowl shows its deriva-
tion from the distilling cap of the alchemist's retort.
The large number of pipes found in Roman or early
mediaeval graves show by the lids on the bowls that
the distilling cap was employed, as today, by inverting
its position on the alchemist's retort.
The Arabic sources make it clear that in Persia and
Syria a substance, tuhbdq, obviously the tobacco of our
day, was employed for the same purpose for which the
henbane and bitumen were used in the Graeco-Roman
medicine, and that in Africa another plant of the same
kind was in use by the Arabic physicians. These two
plants are unquestionably the Nicotiana tabacum and
Nicotiana rustica. Among the Negroes the narcotic
quality of the tobacco also led to a sacerdotal use of the
same, and this will be discussed in full in my next
volume. From Africa the tobacco found its way into
America, half a century, possibly a century, before the
so-called discovery, chiefly in its sacerdotal significance.
 TOBACCO AND THE SCIENCES 181

As a vice, smoking was in America for a long time and

everywhere confined at first to caciques and the rich,
and in North America tobacco could be obtained only
at great cost.
Although smoking among Indians and Negroes is
recorded in America from the beginning of the XVI.
century, it is clear, from the statements made by
Oviedo, that the white planters of Hispaniola and,
later, of Venezuela, encouraged their Negro slaves to
raise tobacco, to be used in the barter trade with the
Indians, and that nearly a century passed before the
habit of smoking became universal among the Indians
and Europeans. In Mexico, where tobacco was, in the
middle of the XVI. century, included in the Nahuatl
pharmacopoeia, the whole medical science was a crea-
tion of the Aztecophile Spaniards in the College of
Tlatelulco.
In 1557 Europe for the first time became acquainted
with tobacco, through Thevet's importation, though,
no doubt, locally it may have been known earlier. Ni-
cot, who learned of its medicinal properties at Lisbon,
specifically tells us that the Moors, that is, the Arabs
or Mohammedan Negroes, employed this weed in their
therapeutics, which once more confirms the fact that,
although tobacco was reimported from America, it had
its origin in Arabic medicine. The experiments, car-
ried on by Nicot, received full publicity in Liebaut's
La maison rustique, in 1570, and only next year, Mon-
ardes, influenced by the prevailing notion in Mexico
that the College of Tlatelulco taught a native medical
science, perpetuated the error, which from then on
became universal, that America was the original home
of smoking. From that time on the dozen or more
editions of La maison rustique and a host of newer works
set the pace for the popularity of tobacco, especially
that from Virginia, where, we are definitely informed.
182 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
it did not grow wild. Since then the accumulated
errors of Peter Martyr, Oviedo, Sahagun, Monardes, as
to the American origin of tobacco smoking, have be-
come so firmly embedded in the belief of philologists,
botanists, and archaeologists, that they are blinded to
the obvious proof to the contrary. It, therefore, be-
comes necessary to pass in review these indurated
errors, and point out their obvious fallacies.
One of the commonest philological arguments re-
sorted to by botanists and archaeologists, to prove the
origin of a plant in the Old or New World, is to point to
the universality of a word as a sign of importation, and
to a diversity of names for a particular plant as a sign
of its native origin. No experienced philologist would
for a moment countenance such a procedure, because
he knows that while the distribution of the same root
word does point to a common origin, the absence of
such a common word is proof of nothing whatsoever.
The use of the word automobile over a vast territory is
a prima facie evidence that it spread from some focus
into all directions, but the fact that there is no common
word for potai^ or buckwheat in the European lang-
uages is not a proof of their nativity in Europe. The
potato, which is known in England from the Spanish
name for "sweet potato," in Germany as Kartoffel, from
the French name for 'truffles,** in French as pomme
*

de terre and, in the culinary language, simply as pomme,

in Yiddish as bulbe, in Polish as ziemniak, etc., etc., is
none the less not a native of Europe. Buckwheat, in
French known as sarassin, that is, ''the Saracen plant,**
in Russian as grecikhay "the Greek plant,** was imported
into Europe by the Arabs, and "maize,** in spite of its
name of kukuruza in Russian, and similar divergen-
names in the other languages, comes from America.
On the other hand the appearance of a common root,
even in isolated locations, speaks volumes for the relat
 TOBACCO AND THE SCIENCES 183

tionship of the idea or object, at least in these isolated

positions. The Japanese hargande, for 'sales," from
*

the English "bargain day," is clear evidence of the

derivation of the Japanese idea from England or Ameri-
ca, even though no other language possesses this term.
Not a thousand quotations from other languages, where
no such term exists, even distantly affects the conclu-
sion from the Japanese and English. Meringer has
clearly shown the absurdity of any generalization from
the absence of common terms in the Indo-European
vernaculars as to the existence of the object or idea in
the original language, from which these vernaculars are
derived. He pointed out the highly amusing result
from such type of philology that the Indo-European
ancestors must have possessed feet but not legs, hands
but not arms, fathers but not sons, and so on.
When two civilizations come into contact, a number
of things may happen philologically. In the first im-
pact of such a conflict, the lower civilization may ac-
cept without hesitancy any foreign term for any object
that even in a slight degree differs from the native state,
hence, while the Anglo-Saxons had pigs, sheep, and
cows, they, during the Norman invasion, adopted
**pork," 'mutton," and ''beef" as terms for the same as
*

transformed by the foreign culinary art. For the same

reason, words, literally by the thousand, have been
transferred from Greek and Latin into the European
languages, for the new religious, scientific, political
terms, forced upon them by the superior culture.
But soon the lower type of civilization accomodates
itself to the level of the higher, and it borrows the ideas
without taking over the words. Thus the German
Erziehung and Begriff are clearly transferences of Latin
educatio and comprehensio into the German vernacular.
At this stage the ascertainment of the cultural borrow-
ing becomes increasingly more difficult, although the
184 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
borrowing is just as obvious, when the proper precau-
tions have been observed. Now, this accomodation
of the lower civilization to the level of the higher in
many cases begins amazingly early after the first
impact.
Some native languages are, by their peculiar struc-
ture, very resistent to mere borrowings, and employ
various means to disguise them. The Chinese, on
account of its monosyllabic structure, changes foreign
polysyllabic words into a semblance of native mono-
syllabic compounds, where popular etymology and
native sounds play frightful havoc with the foreign
words. Something similar may be observed in the case
of the almost monosyllabic Otomi in Mexico and, to
some extent, in the Maya languages, while the highly
analytical Nahuatl generally scorns borrowings and
disguises the foreign idea so completely that it may be
taken for a native from the start. Only a very few
years after the conquest of Mexico, the Nahuatl used
pesouia for "to measure, weigh,'' etc., although it is
obviously a borrowing from the Spanish peso.
The universality of a term depends entirely upon the
impact of its introduction. "Automobile, telephone,
aviation" have come too fast, to show many variations.
Similarly, as Oviedo has shown, the banana spread with
tremendous rapidity over Central and South America,
hence the word is well-nigh universal, although fre-
quently much corrupted, over an enormous territory.
Wherever the white man came in contact with the
Indian, the horse and cow were at once made familiar
to the natives, hence Spanish cahallo and vaca lie at the
base of the peripheral contact of the two races, but in
the interior, where the horse and cow were not received
by the first impact, the terms are generally of native
origin, generally borrowings, with proper variations,
from native names for supposedly similar animals, the
 TOBACCO AND THE SCIENCES 185

riverhorse and stag. From this it follows that the

philology of the periphery is frequently different from
the philology of the interior, and this must constantly
be kept in mind, if errors are not to be perpetuated.
Even thus, the mere philological data are insuf-
ficient to establish the relationship of words, because
of the possibility of accidental resemblance, and be-
cause, in the case of plants, names have a tendency to
shift from one to another. For this reason, I long ago
wrote: "Phonetic studies are not the end of etymolo-
gical investigation of these words but merely an assistance
in the chronological data of sources. Loan-words must
mainly be studied historically."^ And again: "Philo-
logy cannot dissociate itself from the history of civiliza-
tion in the treatment of the origin of words, for words
are carried along roads of communication with the
things which they represent, and it is idle to speculate
on any prehistoric history until all the roads of com-
munication have been traced and mapped out. These
prehistoric histories base their conclusions on the
universality of certain words in a linguistic group, but
this is no more indicative of the presence of the things
represented by these words in the original stock from
which the group is derived than the universal use of the
word 'automobile' is indicative that the aborigines of
Europe had invented this machine, just as the absence
of a common word for 'hand' cannot lead to the con-
clusion that the Indo-Germanic primitive man had
not yet emerged from the quadruped stage. "^
We shall soon see that neither botany nor archaeo-
logy possesses a decisive method for the solution of the
history of cultivated plants, hence their ultima ratio is
invariably philology. Thus de Candolle tried to settle
the American origin of tobacco by philological con-

1 Modern Language Notes, vol. X, No. 1, col. 10 ff.

2 The Quarterly Journal oj Economics, vol. XXV, p. 241.
186 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
siderations: **The common names of tobacco confirm
its American origin. had been any indigenous
If there
species in the old world there would be a great number
of different names; but, on the contrary, the Chinese,
Japanese, Javanese, Indian, Persian, etc., names are
derived from the American names, petum, or tahak,
tahokj tamboc, slightly modified. It is true that Pid-
dington gives Sanskrit names, dhumrapatra and tamra-
kouta, but Adolphe Pictet informs me that the first of
these names, which is not in Wilson's dictionary, means
only leaf for smoking, and appears to be of modern
composition; while the second is probably no older,
and seems to be a modern modification of the American
names. The Arabic word docchan simply means
smoke. "^
De Candolle is right in assuming that the wide dis-
tribution of petum and tabak words in the Old World
indicated a borrowing from a common source, but the
same wide distribution of petum words in Brazil, Chile,
and CaUc^da, and of tahak words along the periphery,
where Europeans first came in contact in America with
the Indians, similarly proves that the Indian words
are not of native origin. I have shown by historical
and documentary proof that Latin bitumen and Arabic
tuhhdq were the medical terms for the sovereign remedy
taken through a pipe in the form of smoke, hence the
petum and tahak words, whether in America, Africa, or
Europe, go back to the Graeco-Arabic medicine, no
matter at what time, whether at the discovery of Amer-
ica or earlier, such habit was introduced by Negroes
under Arabic influence.
Schweinfurth, whose standing as a botanist cannot be
denied, draws the conclusion from the same philologi-
cal data: **0f all the plants which are cultivated by
these wild people, none raises a greater interest than
* A. de Candolle, Origin of Cultivated Plants, New York 1885, p. 144.
 TOBACCO AND THE SCIENCES 187

tobacco, none exhibits a more curious conformity of

habit amongst peoples far remote. The same two
kinds which are cultivated amongst ourselves have
become most generally recognized. These kinds are
the Virginian tobacco {Nicotiana tahacum) and the
common tobacco {N, rustica). It is little short of a cer-
tainty that the Virginian tobacco has only made its
way into the Old World within the few centuries since
the discovery of America. No production more than
this has trampled over every obstacle to its propaga-
tion, so that it has been kept to no limits; and it must
be matter of surprise that even Africa (notorious as
it has ever been for excluding every sort of novelty in
the way of cultivation) should have allowed the Vir-
ginian tobacco to penetrate to its very centre.
''It is a great indication of the foreign origin of this
plant that there is not a tribe from the Niger to the
Nile which has a native word of their own to denote it.
Throughout all the districts over which I travelled,
the Niam-niam formed the solitary exception to this
by naming the Virginian tobacco 'gundeh;' but the
Monbuttoo, who grow only this one kind and are as
little familiar with N. rustica as the Niam-niam, call it
'Eh-tobboo.' The rest of the people ring every kind
of change upon the root word, and call it 'tabj tabba,
tabdeet,' or 'torn.' The plant is remarkable here for
only attaining a height of about eighteen inches, for
its leaves being nearly as long as one could span, and for
its blossoms being invariably white.
**
Quite an open question I think it is, whether the
N, rustica is of American origin. Several of the tribes
had their own names for it. Here amongst the Bongo,
in distinction from the Habba,' it was known as 'ma-
sheer,' The growth it makes is less than in Europe, but
it is distinguished by the extreme strength and by the
intense narcotic qualities which it possesses. It is dif-
188 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
ferent in this respect from what is grown in Persia,
where it is used for the narghileh or water-pipes, and
whence there is a large export of it, because of its mild-
ness and aromatic qualities. Barth has given his
opinion that the tobacco is a native of Logane (Mos-
goo.) At all events, the people of Africa have far sur-
passed every other people in inventing various contriv-
ances for smoking, rising from the very simplest ap-
paratus to the most elaborate; and thus the conjec-
ture is tenable, that they probably favoured the propa-
gation of the foreign growth, because smoking, either
of the common tobacco {N. rustica) or of some other
aromatic weed, had in some way already been a prac-
tice amongst them. To such a hypothesis might be
opposed the important fact that on all the monuments
of the ancient Egyptians that afford us so clear an in-
sight into the details of their domestic life, there has
never been found a written inscription or pictorial
representation that could possibly afford a proof that
such a custom was known to exist. In conclusion, it
deserves to be mentioned that the pagan negroes, as
far as they have remained uninfluenced by Islamism,
smoke the tobacco, whilst those who have embraced
Mohammedanism prefer the chewing of the leaf to the
enjoyment of a pipe."^
Schweinfurth correctly assumes, like de Candolle,
that the wide distribution of tabha words in Africa indi-
cates that it proceeds from some common source. His
mistake in placing it in America is due to the accepted
theory that it was first used there, but my investigation
of the medical method of fumigation makes it certain,
beyond any dispute, that the tubhdq of the Arabs
spread throughout Africa without any reference to
America. Schweinfurth's argument that the Nicotiana
rustica may be native in Africa, because of the variety
1 G. Schweinfurth, The HeaH of Africa, New York 1874, vol. I, p. 254 f.
 TOBACCO AND THE SCIENCES 189

of names for of course, inconclusive, for the same

it, is,

variety of tobacco names in the many American families

of languages has with similar logic and inconclusive-
ness been used to prove that native origin of tobacco
in America.^ We have already seen from the state-
ments of the Arabs that in Africa a different plant was
used for the tuhhdq of the Arabic pharmacopoeia;
hence there was no restraining principle in the preser-
vation of native names or the formation of native
words for a foreign plant, but the variety of names
does not permit of any solution whether the Nicotiana
rustica was originally native in Africa or not, though it
most likely was. But the definite use of tuhhdq for the
sovereign remedy, recorded not only in Ibn-al-Baitar,
but also specifically referred to by Nicot as of Moorish
origin, leaves no doubt behind that the Nicotiana
tahacum was introduced in Africa either by the Arabs
or natives and was popularized by a common name
through the Arabic medical science, which substituted
the viscous plant for the bitumen, henbane, or other
viscous plants of the Graeco-Roman pharmacopoeia.
Engler says: **It is amazing how rapidly tobacco
spread in the interior of Africa, that is, if one accepts
the very likely justified assumption (falls man der
wohl sicher berechtigten Ansicht beipflichtet), that at
least the Virginian tobacco reached the Old World only
after the discovery of America."^ "Since this Nico-
tiana rustica nearly always has varying native names,
while the Virginian tobacco is designated by deriva-
tives from tumhaco, the assumption is satisfied that the
latter plant is a new introduction, while the Nicotiana
rustica has been at home there for a long time. The
hypothesis established by some that the plant was na-
tive in Africa before the discovery of America, might
* The American Anthropologist, vol. XXIII, p. 19 ff.
2 Die Pflanzenwelt Ost-Afrikas und der Naehbargebieie, Theil B., Berlin
1895, p. 255.
190 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
be going too far, if it were based only on the variant
names (dtirfte wohl, wenn
einzig auf die verschiedenen
Namen etwas zu weit gehen), since other plants,
basirt,
unquestionably introduced at a later time, as, for ex-
ample, maize, have assumed different names in the
African Babel of languages.''^
Engler, one of the great authorities in botany, has
only philological arguments for the antiquity of to-
bacco in America, but is more cautious than either de
Candolle or Schweinfurth, from whom he gets the phil-
ological data. He is not at all certain that Nicotiana
rustica is not a native of Africa, although he is inclined
to believe that it was introduced into Africa from
America as late as the undoubtedly American maize.
But here his philology goes astray. In what way does
a later introduction produce a variety of names when
an earlier introduction did not do so? No such cri-
terion is of the slightest value, since length of time has
nothing whatsoever to do with the various treatment
of the two species. Not a thousand years could have
changed matters. If a late introduction of maize
could bring about a multiplicity of names, then there
must have been a corresponding period when the N,
tabacum had variant names. When and how were they
all of a sudden abandoned for the one name? Engler
obviously felt uncomfortable with his modified view
of de Candolle's and Schweinfurth's opinion, and so
expressed himself in the hypothetical forms which
nullify his conclusions.
We turn to the botanical methods of ascertaining the
original home of tobacco, and here again we
find that
botany can approach this only hypothet-
question
ically. The limitations imposed by climate and soil
conditions may help somewhat in narrowing down the
possible early habitat of a plant, so that one could not
»
Ihid,, p. 261.
 TOBACCO AND THE SCIENCES 191

look for palms in the temperate zone. But the reverse

process of migration from the temperate zone to the
tropical regions is by far a more difficult proposition:
**It can not be said that the vegetation of the principal
land areas shows that the movements of species are
chiefly from colder to warmer regions, yet it is obvious
that in any series of experiments species from cool re-
gions may be more easily established in warm places
than the reverse, and montane plants may come to the
seashore more easily than the plants of maritime zones
may spread over a mountain. Disseminational move-
ments are seen to be freer when they are from regions
presenting climatic extremes to more equable climates,
as amply illustrated by the success of so many species
from the Atlantic states and Arizona highlands on the
Pacific seashore. Possibly the occurrence of the suc-
culent Opuntia in Saskatchewan may be considered as
an example of this as the predominant feature in dis-
semination."^ Where plants, either naturally or by
main action, are transferred from one habitat to another,
variations, sometimes of startling character, may spring
up immediately, and the new favorable environment
generally causes a multiplication of the species un-
known in its original habitat: *'The experiments
again make it plain that the habitat in which a plant
may be found, or in which it may have originated, may
not furnish the most favorable environmental complex,
as amply illustrated by the behavior of species that
have become weeds. In other words the fitness of a
species for its native habitat may not be so close as its
fitness for other, as yet untried conditions."^ "The
nuts from trees at the lower and higher levels taken to
the Coastal plantation develop into trees easily separ-

* D. T. MacDougal, The Reactions of Plants to New Habitats, in Ecology,

vol. II, (1921), p. 19.
2 Ibid., p. 20.
192 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
able as to form and behavior."^ **The transferrals
resulted in a development of rootstocks, shoots and
flowers which in some cases were notably different from
that exhibited by the species in their native habitats.
The behavior and formation of an extra leaflet by
Arisaema has been mentioned above. Frag aria Cali-
fornia taken to the warmer and more arid climate of
Tucson developed one or two extra leaflets. F. ovalis
from the Montane region showed a similar departure
both at Tucson and at the Coastal plantation. F.
virginiana did not make extra leaflets at the Montane
plantation, but did so under the stimulating environ-
ment at the coast, also showing some ascidial leaves.
F, California from the coastal region likewise formed
ascidial leaves when under the influence of unaccus-
tomed conditions, including high temperatures and
aridity, at the Desert Laboratory."^ "The plants
transferred developed in some cases rootstocks, shoots,
and flowers notably different from those of their native
habitats.''^ When, therefore, the same or closely al-
lied species are found in two continents, say in Africa
and South America, we have but the slimmest chance
of determining the original home by "botanical'* means.
Did we not otherwise know that the cardoon and milk
thistle are of European origin, the interminable tangles
which these weeds form in some spots in South America
would lead to the supposition that they started here.
Hence a botanist can only cautiously refer to the di-
rection of migration or may entirely refrain from sug-
gesting it. Engler has pointed out the identity or
close relationship of nearly two hundred species or
even families in Africa and America. Of these some
are ascribed to a conscious introduction into Africa

1 Ihid., p. 17.
2 lUd.y p. 11.
3 Ihid., p. 20.
 ;

TOBACCO AND THE SCIENCES 193

from America,^ but the majority are supposed to have

been carried in the ooze of the bottoms or in some other
way, and the direction is not indicated.
The rapidity with which new varieties and species
arise in new surroundings, by climatic or soil influences,
has already been pointed out. To this must be added
the endless and striking possibility of hybridization
which takes place, not only under cultivation but natur-
ally in new circumstances. This has been demonstra-
ted by Focke^ and others, who have given long lists of
new varieties and species, many of which have retained
permanent characteristics. No plant has in this re-
spect yielded such remarkable results as the genus
Nicotiana: ''The genus Nicotiana has become especially
important for the knowledge of the plant bastards. It
formed the point of issue for the epochal investigations
of Kolreuter, and has later held the attention of the
investigators of hybrids, because its varieties enter
into combinations with each other with astounding
ease. Plant forms which are so unlike to each other
that ordinarily one could hardly think of a possibility of
their crossing, in the genus Nicotiana often produce bas-
tards without any difficulty."^ Focke classes all the
species of tobacco under three heads. The varieties and
species which contain in their midst N. rustica he denom-
inates as Chlorotabacum, those that contain N. tabacum
as Eutahacum, and those which contain N
suaveolens.

of New Holland Petuniopsis. Focke remarks that

N, suaveolens **is the only New Holland species which
in its native home is unusually rich in form and variety
the authors of the Flora Australis know of no signifi-
cant difference between it and the American Nicotiana
1 Ueber florisiische Verwandtschaft zwischen dem tropischen Afrika und

Amerika, in Siizungsberichte der Koniglich Preussischen Akademie der

Wissemchaften, Berlin 1905, p. 225.
2 W. O. Focke, Die Pflanzen-Mischlinge, ein Beitrag zur Biologic der
GewdchsCt Berlin 1881.
3 Ibid., p. 271.
194 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
acuminata, while the forms of both cultivated in
Europe considerably/'^
differ There is no way of
determining whether the Nicotiana suaveolens is a very
old plant in Australia or a late sport from an American
or African variety. A vast number of crosses have
been produced by botanists and gardeners, many of
which have developed permanent characteristics.
Every once in a while a new variety springs up, of whose
pedigree nothing is known. Thus, in 1905, a beautiful
garden plant, Nicotiana forgetiana, was brought out of
Brazil, and a hybrid from this, Nicotiana Sanderae,
was advertized by a gardening firm.^ A Nicotiana
torreyana was in 1916 announced from Montana, the
Yellowstone and Wyoming.^ The number of varieties
in America is very large, but of their antecedents next
to nothing is known. We shall confine ourselves to
one of them, Nicotiana glauca, found in Brazil, Argen-
tine, Chile, Mexico, Texas, and California. Kuntze
records it growing wild in the whole Mediterranean
region, in Granda, Monaco, Alexandria, Tripolis,
Greece, Morocco, Sicily, Sardinia, in the Canary and
Cape Verde Islands, and in the Herero country.^ His
preconceived notion that it must originate from America
leadshim to state that it apparently spread in late times,
but of this there naturally is no certainty. We have
already seen that both Nicotiana tahacum and rustica

1 Ihid., p. 286.
2 Curtis's Botanical Magazine, London 1905, No. 8006.
' Botanical Gazette, vol. LXI, p. 43 f.
* ''Nicotiana glauca. Diese hochstrauchige amerikanische Art hat sich
anscheinend erst in neuerer Zeit im ganzen Mittelmeergebiet (ich fand sie
bei Granda und Monaco eigeburgert, habe sie von Alexandrien (Schwein-
furth), Tripolis (Ruhmer) gesehen, nach gefl. Mittheilungen des Herrn
jProf.Knecht kommt sie in Griechenland vor, nach Herrn Rector Rensch
in Marocco, nach Borzi in Sicilien, nach Ascheron in Sardinien) verbreitet,
nach Christ wachst sie auf den Canaren, nach Urban auf den Capverdischen
Inseln (leg. Kurtz) und jetzt ist sie auch aus Siidwestafrika bekannt,"
Kuntze, Plantae Pechuelianae Hereroenses, in Jahrhuch des Koniglichen
Botanischen Gartens, Berlin 1886, p. 268. See also his Revisio generum
plantarum, Leipzig 1891, pars II, p. 451.
 TOBACCO AND THE SCIENCES 195

have been found growing wild in Africa, and they are

mentioned by H. Pobeguin as indigenous in French
Guinea.^
It is clear from the botanical data that the original
home cannot be ascertained otherwise than
of tobacco
historically and philologically, as the botanical data
prove nothing and are correct either way. But some
archaeologists reck neither philology, history, nor
botany, and boldly proclaim the antiquity of tobacco and
the pipe in America on the basis of archaeological data.
In the chapter on cotton I show how insecure and
absolutely wrong the data derived from archaeology
may be. The guano test has completely collapsed
under close scrutiny, and chronology is in consequence
demoralized. Some American archaeologists make the
inexcusable blunder of generalizing archaeological data
arrived at in Egypt, Babylonia, or Greece, to condi-
tions in America. In the first place, Egyptian and
Babylonian chronology has been shifted by centuries
and even milleniums, even though we have document-
ary and inscriptional evidence for a large number of
data. In America we have, with a few insignificant
exceptions, no written documents for pre-Columbian
times. Besides, the stratifications formed in the soil
of Egypt or Babylonia lead to no result whatsoever, if
applied to Peru, Mexico, or Arizona. We see, in the
chapter on cotton, how burials and reburials completely
upset the orderly geological formations, and how the
guano deposits show no tendency whatsoever for regu-
lar average increments. Long and painful studies in
soil changes in Arizona may some day determine
whether anything like a regular increment of soil de-
posits is formed there. The chances are against it,
for in the region of the sandstorms one season may
transform a region as much as decades and centuries.
1 Cote occidentale d'Afriqw, Paris 1906, p. 332.
196 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
Suppose that here successive layers of various cul-
tures are found. No matter how different these may
be, we have not even distantly any criterion for the
length of each cultural period, which may count by
milleniums, centuries, or decades. The fact that a lay-
er of Basket-makers' culture is found beneath a layer
of cotton textile culture helps us little, since even the
stone age is found side by side with the copper and iron
age. The vagaries of special cultural ages are very
puzzling and disconcerting, and unless chronological
data are obtained independently from archaeology the
latter becomes the most elusive and dangerous of all
the sciences. Suppose a tobacco pipe filled with the
substance smoked is found twenty or forty feet below
the ground, in what is supposed to be a layer of Basket-
makers' culture. Let us assume that the contents of
the pipe are analyzed chemically and no trace of nico-
tine is found in it. This does not prove that tobacco
was not smoked at that period. Let us assume that
nicotine is found in it. This would show that tobacco
was smoked then, but we should still have to ascertain
the date of the Basket-makers' culture, and here we
would be let loose in a sea of uncertainty, without
even a distant chance of solution. The twenty or
forty feet of soil above the pipe may have originated in
a vast number of ways, as, indeed, we have found buri-
als in Peru in deep wells and in guano, where the depth
may be of human formation. It would take a great
deal more than the word of an explorer to ascertain the
position of an object in situ before the exploration, and
thus the whole archaeological argument disappears as
before.
Only when archaeological data are checked by his-
toricaland philological considerations is there the least
chance of arriving at the truth. Where these fail us,
archaeology is nothing more than guesswork, and the
 TOBACCO AND THE SCIENCES 197

conclusions drawn from it are not worth the paper they

are written on. In the case of tobacco, not a single
authenticated archaeological datum has been brought
forward in America to prove that in which even botany
falters, while philology and history alone furnish us the
unmistakable data for smoking and pipes in Europe,
centuries and, possibly, milleniums before the discovery
of America.
The hypothetical case of the Basket-maker culture
was based on the vagaries of an archaeologist. Since
writing it there have come to my notice two works
bearing on the subject.^ The authors in an elaborate
and, on the whole, satisfactory manner have investi-
gated the Basket-maker caves in Arizona, and we shall
here analyze the references to tobacco pipes.
*
In the earlier expedition 'pipes of stone were found
at Sayodneechee (two examples), and in Cave I (one
example). One of the Sayodneechee pipes is of very
soft, red sandstone and is in fragmentary condition
(A-1911). The shape is very squat and the walls thick;
what is left of the bowl is lined with a heavy 'crust'
deposited by the smoke. The stem hole, very small in
proportion to the size of the bowl, holds the rotted
remains of a wooden mouthpiece. The other Sayod-
neechee pipe (fig. 94, h) and the one from Kinboko
(fig. 94, a) are much alike in size, shape, and material.
The bowls are made of fine-grained limestone, banded
horizontally and darkened by long use. The outer sur-
faces are polished, but not highly enough to obliterate
entirely the marks of the pecking tool with which they
were originally roughed out. The rims are thick, in
one case flat, in the other rounded. The bowl of each
1 A. V. Kidder and S. J. Guernsey, Archeological Explorations in North-

eastern Arizona, in Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology,

Washington 1919, Bulletin 65; and S. J. Guernsey and A. V. Kidder,
Basket-Maker Caves of Northeastern Arizona, Report on the Explorations,
1916-17, in Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and
Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge 1921, vol. VIII, No. 2.
198 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
is heavily encrusted with the carbonized remains of the
smoking mixture. The relative size and shape of bowl
and stem hole is best shown in the illustration. In the
stem hole of the Kinboko specimen may be seen rem-
nants of the gum that once fastened the stem in place,
and the same material was used to mend an incipient
crack in the bowl. The dimensions of this example are:
Length, iVie inches; greatest diameter, 1^/4 inches;
thickness of rim, three-sixteenths inch; diameter of stem
hole, one-eighth inch.
*'Two pipes of clay may perhaps best be described
here. They were the only pottery objects found by
us that are surely identifiable as Basket Maker prod-
ucts. One (fig. 94, d, Cave I) is crudely modeled from
a bit of dark-gray clay the surface is lumpy and care-
;

lessly finished. The second (A-1967, Sayodneechee) is

also very poorly made and the surface is irregular.
While both these specimens are longer and slimmer
than the stone pipes, they are, nevertheless, much
squatter than the long, tubular cliff-dwelling type;
they differ from it also in having a distinct bowl much
larger than the orifice which receives the stem. Al-
though we recovered no example with the mouth-
piece preserved, its nature illustrated by a pipe in
is
the Deseret Museum, Salt Lake City, probably from
Cottonwood Canyon, Utah, which has a short, straight
stem made from a 2-inch section of hollow bird bone.
The bowl is of horizontally banded limestone, heavy,
squat, and flat-lipped; in every way similar to our
specimens. A Basket-maker pipe with wooden stem
is figured by Montgomery in Moorehead's Stone Age *

in North America,' vol. II, p. 38, fig. 436."^ One

stone pipe and part of a clay pipe come from Cist E,
of which the authors say: *'Cist E, a circular slab

^ Kidder and Guernsey, Archeological Explorations in Northeastern

Arizona, p. 187 f.
 .

TOBACCO AND THE SCIENCES 199

inclosure, had evidently been plundered; there re-

mained in however, a stone pipe, part of a clay
it,

pipe .
/'^. Plundered graves cannot form the
starting point for any chronology or the ascertainment
of culture to which the objects belong, since these pipes
may have gotten much later into the opened graves.
Besides, as, by the authors' own statement, pottery has
not been definitely ascribed to the Basket-makers,^ no
clay pipe can be definitely ascribed to them. Again,
since **a (tubular) clay pipe was found on the surface
of a small ruin on the top of the mesa at the mouth of
Sagi Canyon,"^ which they do not ascribe to the Basket-
makers, there is no reason to give another chronology
for the first clay pipe. One stone pipe was found in
Cist B at Sayodneechee where skeletons of nineteen
persons were packed together, and the origin or fate
of this cist was a puzzle to the authors.^ I cannot lo-
cate in the book the remaining stone pipe, but as it is
identical in shape with others, nothing new is learned
from it. In their later work the authors asserted that
*'no specimens of true pottery, either vessel or sherd,
have yet been found by us under circumstances indi-
cating that it was a Basket-maker product. All but
one of the several jars discovered came from the sur-
face sand overlying the Basket-maker deposits; they
are of common cliff-house ware, and were undoubtedly
cached in the caves at a comparatively late date.
The exception is a pot found in Sunflower Cave in 1915,
lying below a cliff-house floor. This was figured in
our previous report and referred to as possibly of
Basket-maker origin. It is of plain black ware, un-
corrugated; in shape it is almost spherical. No
further evidence that the Basket-makers produced ves-
1 Ibid., p. 82.
2 Ibid., p. 208 f.
3 Ibid., p. 144.
' lUd., p. 29 f
200 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
sels of this type has since come to light, and we are
inclined to consider it early Puebloan."^ This once
more excludes the clay pipe, and, indeed, **no pipes
were found in 1916-1917."2 *'The Casa Grande people
used in smoking perforated tubes of clay or stone re-
sembling pipes. The cane cigarette also was common-
ly used as shown by rejected canes found in great
abundance in some of the rooms of Compound A. A
large number of these canes are found also in shrines
or other sacred places of the Hohokam, where they were
placed by the ancients.
'*A broken pipe made of clay was excavated at Casa
Grande and another was found on the ground. The
former object has a slight enlargement of the perfora-
tion at one end. Although much of the stem is missing,
there is no doubt that this pipe belongs to the type
called the straight-tube variety, which is considered by
the best authorities to be the prehistoric form in the
Southwest."^ We
have here, in the same region, but
not in Basket-maker territory, the same tubular pipe,
obviously a development of the Mexican yetecomatl,
when tobacco became common in Mexico. From here
the specifically Mexican tubular pipe spread to the
North-west. It is found abundantly in British Col-
umbia, where **as late as 1891 there were Indians who
still used the straight tubular pipe."* With these facts
before us, the proof of the antiquity of tobacco smoking
in North America turns out to be of a piece with the
proof of the antiquity of cotton in South America, as
based on the guano deposits.
* Guernsey and Kidder, Basket-Maker Caves of Northeastern Arizona,
p. 98.
2 Ibid., p. 95.

' Twenty-eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to

the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, (1906-1907), Washington 1912,
p. 135 f.
^ H. I. Smith, The Archaeological Collection from the Southern Interior of
British Columbia, Ottawa 1913, p. 33.
PART III: BEAD MONEY.
 CHAPTER I.

The Cowries.

The 154th Chinese radical is ^ pei, which, in the

older rounded form, is ^: **A cowrie, a small shell
used for money in China in early feudal times. They
were current together with the coppers invented later
on, till under the Ch'in Dynasty (3rd Century B. C);
then the cowries were left out. The character repre-
sents the shell, and the feelers with which it moves. It
is the 154th radical of characters relating to values
and trade. "^ The very large number of derivatives
from this character relating to barter, and the presence
of these derivatives in the ancient classics make it
certain that the shell of certain marine animals was
employed more than a millenium before the Christian
era as currency. Indeed, it is already mentioned under
the Hia dynasty (2000-1550 B. C.),^ and in the Pen-
tsao the compounds pei-tze, pei-tcKi are used for the
cowries of the Eastern Sea, that is, south-east of the
Shantung peninsula,^ but the modern ho-pei^ also goes
back to an earlier form, as we shall later see. In the
second century B. C. there are also references to tze-pei
''purple shell, "^ which was two or three inches long and
"was formerly found on the shores of the prefecture

* L. Wieger, Chinese Characters, trans, by L. Davrout, Ho-kien-fu 1915,

vol. I, p. 323.
2 S. Lane-Poole, Coins and Medals, London 1894, p. 192.
3 Ibid., p. 194.
* The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland,
London 1888, vol. XX, p. 432.
^ Lane-Poole, op. cit., p. 194.
204 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
of Teng-tchou, north of the Shantung peninsula.*'^ In
mediaeval Chinese works dealing with the trade in the
East Indies, the cowries are mentioned as pel, pei-tze,
and tze-pei.
The
earliest European account of Chinese cowries
is contained in Marco Polo, where their use as cur-
rency is mentioned in the province of Carajan: *' Their
money is such as I will tell you. They use for the
purpose certain white porcelain shells that are found
in the sea, such as are sometimes put on dogs' collars;
and 80 of these porcelain shells pass for a single weight
of silver, equivalent to two Venice groats, i. e. 24 pic-
coli. Also eight such weights of silver count equal to
one such weight of gold."^ The Italian version^ has
''porcellane bianche" for ** white porcelain shells." The
French version has for it ''pourcelaines blanches,"* but
the old Spanish translation writes **lur moneda es
porgellas qui se troban en la mar et LXXX
daquellas
porcellanas valen un peso."^ From these it is clear
that Marco Polo's porcellanas was understood in the
XIV. century as being in some way derived from porco
**pig." This is also brought out in the Genoese inven-
tories of 1389 and 1390, where there is reference to
**conchetta una nigra purzelette, couchette due de
porcelleta, conchete quatuor porcellete,''^ where, what-
ever the word may have been, it is freely derived from
porcellana, just as in the case of the Span, porcella,
Marco Polo asserted that these porcellane were not
native to Carajan, but were brought from India.^

1 Ibid., p. 193.
2 H. Yule, The Book of Marco Polo, London 1871, vol. II, p. 39.
G. B. Baldelli-Boni, II Milione di Marco Polo, Firenze 1827, vol. I,
3

p. 110 f.
* M. G. Pauthier, Le livre de Marco Polo, Paris 1865, p. 389.

^ H. Knust, El libro de Marco Polo, ed. by R. Stuebe, Leipzig 1902, p. 44.

" Atti della Societd Ligure di Storia P atria, Genoa 1866, vol. IV, p. 184.

7 Yule, op. ciL, vol. II, p. 45.

 THE COWRIES 205

Marco Polo also mentions the manufacture of por-

celain at Tyunju in China, using the same word for it
as for the cowrie shell: "Let me tell you also that in
this province there is a town called Tyunju, where
they make vessels of porcelain of all sizes, the finest
that can be imagined. They make it nowhere but in
that city, and thence it is exported all over the world.
Here abundant and very cheap, insomuch that for
it is
a Venice groat you can buy three dishes so fine that
you could not imagine better/'^ A later edition of
the Italian text has an amplification of the story, ac-
cording to which the porcelain is found in a mine, from
which it is brought out into the open, to weather for
forty years, in order to refine it. Consequently the
porcelain is gathered up so that only the children or
grandchildren are benefited by it.^ The confusion be-
tween 'cowrie shell'' and **porcelain'' in Marco Polo
*

is due to a double popular etymology, one Chinese, the

other Italian. Marco Polo heard in southern China
the common diminutive pei tsz, where it sounds puitsz
which reminded him of Ital. porce. At
**cowrie shell,"
*
the same time the 'white porcelain,'' which is called
pai ts'z, in Canton pak ts'z, at Fu-Kien, where
he saw the porcelain, was pronounced almost as the
word for the "cowrie shell. "^ Marco Polo also knew
that Ital. porcellano was used for puzzolana, as at
1 Ibid., p. 186.
2 "E dove si
parte dall' alveo maestro vi e la citta di Tingui. Delia quale
non si ha da non che in quella si fanno le scodelle e piadene di
dir altro, se
porcellane in questo modo, secondo che li fu detto. Raccolgono una certa
terra come di una miniera, e ne fanno monti grandi, e lascianli al vento,
alia pioggia e al sole, per trenta, e quaranta anni, che non li muovono. E in
questo spazio di tempo la detta terra si affina, che poi si puo far dette
scodelle, alle quali danno disopra li colori che vogliono, e poi le cuocono
nella fomace. E sempre quelli, che raccolgono detta terra, la raccolgono per
suoi figliuoli, o nepoti. Vi e in detta citta a gran mercato, di sortechd per
un grosso veneziano si avera otto scodelle," Baldelli-Boni, op. cit., vol. II,
p. 354 f.
"Selon la Geographic imperiale, on y fabriquait anciennement des
3

'vases en porcelaine blanche' (pS-tsi-kH) ; quand la blancheur en etait pure,

sans tache, ils etaient tres-recherches," Pauthier, op. cit, p. 532.
206 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
Genoa/ and since to him porcelain was some kind of
cement, and the shells had a glaze similar to that of
porcelain, he with easy conscience chose porcellana to
express both ideas.
The confusion of the Italian editor of Marco Polo,
who told of the long time it took for the mined porce-
lain to weather, is due to an exaggeration of the Arabic
account of Ibn-Batutah, according to whom the ma-
terial which was mined in a mountain had to be burnt
and weathered for a month, in order to produce the
whitest of porcelain.^ This apocryphal story took
possession of the authors who had read Marco Polo,
and, from the latter 's use of porcellana both for "cowrie*'
*
and 'porcelain," arose the story of the manufacture of
porcelain from cowrie shells. Damiano a Goes, at
the end of the XV. century, wrote, ''scutellae mira arte
ex calce concharum fictae, quas porcellanas vocant."^
**Barbosa wrote about 1516, *They make in this coun-
try a great quantity of porcelains of different sorts,
very fine and good, which form for them a great article
of trade for all parts, and they make them in this way.
They take the shells of sea-snails, and egg-shells, and
pound them, and with other ingredients make a paste,
which they put underground to refine for the space of
^ We have also Catalan porcellana "puzzolana, cement."
2 "On ne fabrique pas en Chine la porcelaine, si ce n'est dans les villes de
Zeitodn et de Sln-calSn. EUe est faite au moyen d'une terre tir^e des
montagnes qui se trouvent dans ces districts, laquelle terre prend feu comme
du charbon, ainsi que nous le dirons plus tard. Les potiers y ajoutent une
certaine pierre qui se trouve dans le pays; ils la font briiler pendant trois
jours, puis versent I'eau par-dessus, et le tout devient comme une poussiere
ou une terre qu'ils font fermenter. Celle dont la fermentation a dur6 un
mois entier, mais pas plus, donne la meilleure porcelaine; celle qui n'a
ferments que pendant six jours, en donne une de quality inf^rieure a la
pr^^ente. La porcelaine en Chine vaut le m§me prix que la poterie chez
nous, ou encore moins. On Texporte dans I'lnde et les autres contr6es,
jusqu'a ce qu'elle arrive dans la nStre, le Maghreb. C'est I'espece la plus
belle de toutes les poteries," C. Defremery and B. R. Sanguinetti, Voyages
d'Ibn Batoutah, Paris 1879, vol. IV, p. 256.
3 W. Heyd, Histoire du commerce du Levant au moyen-dge, Leipzig 1886,

vol. II, p. 678.

 THE COWRIES 207

eighty or a hundred years, and this mass of paste they

leave as a fortune to their children/ In 1615, Bacon
said, 'If we had in England beds of porcelain such as
they have in China, which porcelain is a kind of plaster
buried in the earth and by length of time congealed and
glazed into that substance; this were an artificial mine,
and part of that substance.* Sir Thomas Browne, in
his Vulgar Errors asserted, *We are not thoroughly
y

resolved concerning Porcellane or China dishes, that

according to common belief they are made of earth,
which Heth in preparation about an hundred years
underground; for the relations thereof are not only
divers but contrary; and Authors agree not herein.*
These fables were refuted at the end of the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries by travellers who had occa-
sion to make observations on the spot. Juan Gonzalez
de Mendoza, who wrote in 1585, reiterated Barbosa's
story, and (in the early English translation) called its
validity into doubt; for, if it were true, the Chinese,
in his opinion, could not turn out so great a number of
porcelains as is made in that kingdom and exported to
Portugal, Peru, New Spain, and other parts of the
world. J. Neuhof, who accompanied the embassy of
the East India Company of the Netherlands to China
from 1655 to 1657, scorns the 'foolish fabulists of whom
there are not a few still nowadays who made people
believe that porcelain is baked from egg-shells pounded
and kneaded into a paste with the white of an egg^ or
from shells and snail-shells, after such a paste has been
prepared by nature itself in the ground for some hun-
dred years.* The Jesuit, L. Le Compte, rectified this
error by saying that 'it is a mistake to think that there
is requisite one or two hundred years to the preparing
of the matter for the porcelain, and that its composi-
tion is so very difficult; if that were so, it would be
neither so common, nor so cheap.* These two authors
208 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
were seconded by E. Ysbrants Ides. The analogy of
the beliefs in the origin of murrines and porcelain is
striking; and this fancy has doubtless taken its root in
the Orient, whence crafty dealers propagated it in the
interest of their business."^
From the IX. century on we have many references
in the Arabic authors to the cowries in Asia and Africa.
Suleiman says: "Their (the Maldivians') money con-
sists of cowries {(i^J wada'). The queen stores these
cowries in her treasuries. " * *
The cowries come up to the
surface of the water, and contain a living creature a coco- ;

tree branch is thrown into the water, and the cowries

attach themselves to it. The cowry is called kahath.'"^
The foreign name is a transcription of Sinhalese kava-
diya or Malayalam kavadi. Mas'tidi tells very nearly
the same story: ''The queen has no other money but
cowries, which are a kind of molluscs. When she sees
her treasure diminishing, she orders her islanders to
cut coco-branches with their leaves, and to throw them
upon the surface of the water. To these the creatures
attach themselves, and are then collected and spread
upon the sandy beach, where the sun rots them, and
leaves only the empty shells, which are then carried to
the treasury."^ Albiruni (A. D. 1030) calls the islands
Divah Kauzah (or Kavzah or Kuzah) "the island of
cowries, because there they gather cowries from the
branches of the coco-nut palms, which they plant in
the sea."^ Edrisi (1099-1186) writes: "Commerce is
carried on by means of shells. They are distant from
one another about six miles. Their king preserves

* B. Laufer, The Beginnings

of Porcelain in China, in Field Museum of
Natural History, Publication 192 (Anthropological Series), vol. XV, No. 2,
p. 135 f.
2 A. Gray and H. C. P. Bell, The Voyage
of Franqois Pyrard (The Hakluyt
Society), London 1890, vol. II^, p. 429.
3 Ibid., p. 430.
< Ibid., p. 431.
 THE COWRIES 209

these shells in his treasury, and he possesses the greater

portion of them .They say that the shells
which compose the royal treasure are found on the sur-
face of the water in calm weather. They throw into
the sea pieces of coco-wood, and the shell-fish attach
themselves thereto.'*^ They are called ^, obviously
a mispointed kavadi, as before.
Ibn Batutah (c. 1350) is of especial interest in con-
nection with the cowries, because of his reference to their
use as ballast and sale in Africa. **The money of the
islanders consist of wada\ This is the name of a mol-
lusc, collected in the sea and placed in pits dug out on
the beach. Its flesh decays and only the white shell
remains. A hundred of them is called siya, and 700
fal; 12,000 are called kotta, and 100,000 bostti. Bar-
gains are struck through the medium of these shells,
at the rate of four bostti to a dinjir of gold. Often they
are of less value, such as twelve bostti to a din^r. The
islanders sell them for rice to the people of Bengal,
where also they are used for money. They are sold in
the same way to the people of Yemen, who use them
for ballast in their ships in place of sand. These shells
serve also as a medium of exchange with the negroes
in their native country. I have seen them sold, at
Mali and at Jtijti, at the rate of 1,150 to a dinar."^ In-
deed, Joao de Barros, in the beginning of the XVI.
century, confirms the earlier Arabic accounts of the
cowries in the Maldive Islands and their export to
Africa, and adds the important item that the cowries
were exported from Asia to Portugal, and from there only
to Guinea: ''There is also a kind of shellfish, as small
as a snail, but differently shaped, with a hard, white,
lustrous shell, some of them, however, being so highly
coloured and lustrous that, when made into buttons
and set in gold, they look like enamel. With these shells
1 lUd., p. 432. 2 lUd., p. 444.
210 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
many ships are laden for Bengal and Siam,
for ballast
where they are used for money, just as we use small
copper money for buying things of little value. And
even to this kingdom of Portugal, in some years as
much as two or three thousand quintals are brought
by way of ballast; they are then exported to Guinea,
and the kingdoms of Benin and Congo, where also they
are used for money, the Gentiles of the interior in those
parts making their treasure of it. Now the manner in
which the islanders gather these shells is this: they —
make large bushes of palm leaves tied together so as
not to break, which they cast into the sea. To these
the shellfish attach themselves in quest of food; and
when the bushes are all covered with them, they are
hauled ashore and the creatures collected. All are
then buried in the earth till the fish within have rotted
away. The shells (buzios as we, and Igovos as the
negroes, call them) are then washed in the sea, be-
coming quite white, and so dirtying the hands less than
copper money. In this kingdom (Portugal) a quintal
of them is worth from three to ten cruzados, according
as the supply from India is large or small. "^
Cowries were still in use in the Sahara oases in the
XIX. century: 'Small wares are sold by the wadah,
*

which are the currency of the Sudan, while those of a

greater value are bartered for gold dust. The wadah
of the Christian countries are not the only ones which
are current they fish for some in the Niger by throwing
;

in the skins of freshly flayed cattle and taking them

out the next day, when they remove the shells caught
in the night. "^ Daumas pronounces the word uda, and
Cherbonneau ude.^
1 484 f.
Ibid., p.
2 E. Daumas, Le Sahara algerien, Paris 1845, p. 300.
' "Oude, coquillage de mer bigarr6, en forme de grain de caf6 et fendu par
le milieu (porcelaine de mer)," Definition lexigraphique de plusieurs mots
usites dans le langage de VAfrique septentrionale, in Journal asiatique, ser.
IV, vol. XIII, p. 70.
 THE COWRIES 211

In the beginning of the XVI. century, Pacheco

Pereira told of the use of cowries as currency in South
Africa: *'In the Goat Islands the Negroes gather cer-
tain small snails (huzios), which are not larger than
pine-nuts with their shells and which they call zimbos.
These pass in Manicongo for money, and fifty of them
they give for a chicken, and three hundred are the
price of one goat, and similarly other things; and when
Manicongo wants to do a favor to some of his noble-
men or to pay for a service done him, he orders a cer-
tain number of these zimhos to be given him, in the
same manner as our princes give a money favor in our
Kingdom to him who deserves it, and many times to
him who does not deserve it; and in the land of Beny
they use snails for money, which are somewhat larger
then the zimhos of Manicongo and which they call in
Beny iguou.''^
Pigafetta, at the end of the XVI. century, described
the same sea-shells in Congo: ''This island (Loanda)
furnishes the money used by the King of Congo and the
neighbouring people; for along its shores women dive
under water, a depth of two yards and more, and, filling
their baskets with sand, they sift out certain small
shell-fish called Lumache, and then separate the male

1 "Duas ilhas pequenas, baixas e rrasas, de pouco aruoredo, que chamam

as ilhas das Cabras, e estas estam muito perto de terra e sam pouoradas dos
negros do senhorio de Maniconguo; e ainda vay adiante a terra de Conguo;
e nestas ilhas apanham os ditos negros huus huzios pequenos, que nam sam
maiores que pinhoees com sua casca, a que elles chamam 'zinhos\ os quaes em
terra de Maniconguo correm por moeda, e sincoenta d'elles dam por hua
galinha, e trezentos valem hua cabra, e asy as outras cousas segundo sam;
e quando Manicongo quer fazer merg§ a alguus seus fidalguos ou paguar
alguu servigo que Ihe fazem, manda-lhe dar certo numero d'estes zimbos
pello modo que os nossos principes fazem merc§ da moeda d'estes Reynos a
quem Iha merece, e muitas vezes a quem Iha nam merece; e na terra do
Beny, de que ja he escrito no quarto item do setimo capitolo do segundo
liuro, husam huus huzios por moeda, hum pouco mayores que estes zimhos
de Maniconguo, aos quaes buzios no Beny chamam Hguou', e todalas cousas
por elles compram, e quem mays d'elles tem, mais rico he," Esmeraldo de
situ orbis, in Boletim da Sociedade de geographia de Lisboa, Lisboa 1904, 22*.
ser., p. 346 f.
212 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
from the female, the latter being most prized for its
colour and brightness. These Lumache are found
along all the coasts of Congo, but those of Loanda are
finest, being transparent, and in colour somewhat like
the chrysolite, with other kinds, not as greatly valued.
It must be remembered that gold, silver, and other
metals are not valued, nor used as money in these coun-
tries; and so it happens that with gold and silver in
abundance, either in mass or in coin, yet nothing can
be bought except with Lumache. In this island are
seven or eight towns, known in the language of the
country as Libata. The principal one, called il Santo
Spirito, is where the Governor resides, who is sent from
Congo to administer justice, and amasses riches from
these Lumache.''^ Nearly a century later Dapper gave
their Bantu name as cimho, which appears in Ogilby's
translation as ''simho, or little horn-shell." "They have
two sorts of Simho'Sj which serve in lieu of Money,
viz. pure Simho's, taken under the Island of Lovando,
and used for Trade in Punto; and impure, or Brazile,
brought from Rio de Janero, and used in Songo and
Pinda, and in the Countreys of Anna Xinga, beyond
Massingam, and among the Jages. The Simho's of
Lovando are also of two sorts, a finer and a courser,
separated by Sifting, the latter they name Simhos Sis-
ado's; the other; Fonda and Bomha. Both these they
send to Congo, being carried thither upon the Heads of
the Blacks, in Sacks made of Straw, every Sack weigh-
ing two Aroba's, that is, threescore and four Pound. "^
**They have no Coyn'd Money, either of Gold, Silver,
or Copper; but, as we have often mention'd, make all
their Markets with little Shells, call'd Simhoes, which
1 M. Hutchinson, A Report of the Kingdom of Congo, and of the Surround-
ing Countries; Dravm out of the Writings and Discourses of the Portuguese,
Duurte Lopez, by Filippo Pigafetta, in Rome, 1591, London 1881, p. 18 f.
2 J. Ogilby, Africa: Being an Accurate Description of the Regions of
Aegypt, Barbary, Lybia, and Billedulgerid, the Land of Negroes, Guinee,
Aethiopia, and the Abyssines, London 1670, p. 561.
 THE COWRIES 213

pass here as Current, but in other Countreys of no es-

teem or value: And the Portuguese use them in their
Passage, when they or their Pomberoes, that is Slaves,
are sent with Merchandise to Pombo, and other Places
lying up the Countrey, out of Angola, Lovando, Sante
Paulo, through Congo. "^ Cavazzi says that the zimhi,
as he calls them, were taken out of the sea at Benguela,^
as well as at Loanda, where the *'lumachette" or
*
**chiocciolette," that is, 'little snails," were more dim
in color and so more esteemed;^ but the most precious
came from Cabocco.* In Kimbundu, of Angola, njim-
bu still has the meaning of ''conch, shell, "^ but in
Kongo, njimhu means "beads, money, blue currency,''®
in a dialect of this language, Kikongo, nzimhu "currency,,
blue beads, "^ in Fiote, nzimhu "necklace of beads. "^
According to Knivet, the native money was {gull)
ginho "a shell of a fish that they find by the shore-side;
and from Brazil the Portugals do carry great store of
them to Angola."^ In 1782 one hundred thousand of
1 Ibid., p. 536.
2 "AUe spiaggie si pescano i Zimbi, de' quali, dicemmo valersi la gente in
vece di moneta, spenden doli a numero, & a misura," Istorica descrizione de*
tre' regni, Congo, Matamba, et Angola, Bologna 1687, p. 11 (I. 20).
3 "Dirimpetto alia Citta distante un quarto di miglio stendesi nel Mare

un* Isola lunga cinque leghe, e larga, al piu, un miglio scarso: qid pescansi
lumachette, d chiocciolette, che per essere di colore piu oscuro, liscie, et sottili,
sono in maggiore stima, e corrono fra Neri in vece di moneta ne loro con-
tratti," ibid., p. 17 (I. 32).
* "In Cabocco, Terra dell' istessa Prouincia, trouansi Lumachette di gran

prezzo appresso la. gente del Congo, ascendendo il valore di una collana di
queste al cambio di uno Schiauo; se ne seruono le Persone di condizione,
e singolarmente le femmine per ornamento, cingendosene tutto il corpo;
& h mercanzia, dalla quale gli habitatori cauano considerabile emolumento,"
ibid., p. 19 (I. 37).
6 J. D. Cordeiro da Matta, Ensaio de diccionario kimbundu-portugiiez,
Lisboa 1893.
^ W. H. Bentley, Dictionary and Grammar of the Kongo Language, London
1887, 1895.
' R. Butaye, Dictionnaire kikongo-frangais, frangais-kikongo, Roulers
[1909].
8 A. Visseq, Dictionnaire fiot-frangais, Paris 1890.
» E. G. Ravenstein, The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell of Leigh,
in Angola and the Adjoining Regions (The Hakluyt Society), London 1901,
p. 96.
214 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
these nzimbu formed a cofo, that is, "box," but the term
cofo was already employed in 1516.^ In the XVII.
century the nzimbu, like the nsanga, was the common
coin in Congo: *'There are Shells they call Zimbi
which come from Congo, for which all things are to be
bought as if they were Mony; two thousand of them
are worth a Maccute. The People of Congo value
these Shells, tho they are of no use to them, but only
to trade with other Africans who adore the Sea, and
call these Shells which their Country does not afford,
God's Children: For which reason they look upon
them as a Treasure, and take them in exchange for any
sort of Goods they have. Among them he is richest
and happiest who has most of them.*'^
The Chinese Cypraea moneta **was derived chiefly
from the Pescadores Islands, between Formosa Sea and
the mainland," from which region not less than 44
species of cowries are recorded.^ But it is clear, not
only from the Chinese sources, but also from Dap-
per, Cavazzi, and others, that the darker kind was
more highly valued in Africa, which is merely a preser-
vation of the relative values of the Chinese tsze-pei and
* *
peiy the 'purple shell" and the ordinary 'shell," as
existing for milleniums. It is not easy to determine
the original pronunciation of Chinese pei, but since the
pearl oyster was in Athenaeus given as (38q68QI, in
Mas'tidi as halbal,^ while in the Maldives the name of
the Cypraea moneta still is boli or boli, the original form
of pei was, in all probability, par or per. Pyrard de
Laval has the following references to the word: "At

* L. Cordeiro, Memorias do Ultramar. Viagens, exploragoes e conquistas

dos Portuguezes, Lisboa 1881, p. 8.
2 J. Churchill, A
Collection of Voyages and Travels, London 1704, vol. I,
p. 620.
3 Terrien de Lacouperie, The Metallic Cowries
of Ancient China, in The
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, London 1888, vol. XX, p. 439.
* C. B. de Meynard and P. de Courteille, Les prairies d'or, Paris 1861-77,

p. 328 f.
 THE COWRIES 215

first,when our people came there, a Portuguese ship

of 400 tons was at anchor in the roads, having come
from Cochin with a full cargo of rice, to take away
holys, or shells, to Bengal, where they are in great
demand."^ "From the house to the place of burial
they scatter over the road holys (which are little shells,
of which I shall speak in their place), to the end that the
poor may collect them and make a profit."^ ''There
is another kind of wealth at the Maldives, viz., certain
little shellscontaining a little animal, large as the tip of
the and quite white, polished, and bright:
little finger,
they are fished twice a month, three days before and
three days after the new moon, as well as at the full,
and none would be got at any other season. The
women gather them on the sands and in the shallows
of the sea, standing in the water up to their waists.
They called them Boly, and export to all parts an
infinite quantity, in such wise that in one year I have
seen thirty or forty whole ships loaded with them with-
out other cargo. All go to Bengal, for there only is
there a demand for a large quantity at high prices. The
people of Bengal use them for ordinary money, al-
though they have gold and silver and plenty of other
metals; and, what is more strange, kings and great
lords have houses built expressly to store these shells,
and treat them as part of their treasure. All the
merchants from other places in India take a large quan-
tity to carry to Bengal, where they are always in de-
mand; for they are produced nowhere but at the Mal-
dives, on which account they serve as petty cash, as I
have said. When I came to Mal^ for the first time,
there was a vessel at anchor from Cochin, a town of the
Portuguese, of 400 tons burthen; the captain and
merchants were Mestifs, the others Christianised
^ Gray, op. cit.t vol. I, p. 78.
2 Ibid., p. 157.
216 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
Indians, habited in the Portuguese fashion, and they
all
had come solely to load with these shells for the Bengal
market. They give 20 coquetees [?kegs] of rice for a
parcel of shells for all these Bolys are put in parcels of
:

12,000, in little baskets of coco leaves of open work,

lined inside with cloth of the same coco tree, to prevent
the shells falling out. These parcels or baskets of
12,000 are negotiated there as bags of silver are here,
which between merchants are taken as counted, but
not by others: for they are so clever at counting, that
in less than no time they will take tally of a whole par-
cel. Also in Cambaye and elsewhere in India they
set the prettiest of these shells in articles of furniture,
as if they were marbles or precious stones."^ *'The next
greatest trade is carried on with Bengal, and the mer-
chandise carried there most frequently is the little
shells of the Maldives, wherewith every year many
vessels are laden. The Maldive people call them
Boly, but the other Indians call them Caury: in these
they make a marvellous profit all over India. "^ To
this must be added the Malay hey a, hiya 'cowrie shell,
*

duties, toll, taxes," which is also found in Sundanese

and other Malay languages. This is ejther a deriva-
tive from the Sinhalese hella or the Chin. pei. The
latter is more likely, however, since we have also Siam-
In any case, the 'cowrie" words in
*
ese hia **cowrie.''
Asia so far discussed are all derived from one source.
Samuel Braun, in the beginning of the XVII. century,
says that the Dutch bought accary, precious beads, at
Benin and Amboy, giving in exchange "little white
horns and snails with which horse bridles are adorned,"
and which the natives call ahuy} Nearly a century
1 Ihid., p. 236 fif.
2 Ibid., p. 438.
3 G. Hennitig, Samuel Braun, der erste deutsche unssenschaftliche Afrika-
reisende, Beitrag zur Erforschungsgeschichte von WeskLfrika, Basel 1900,
p. 60.
 THE COWRIES 217

later Barbot gives an English word hoejies, which, he

says, has the same sound in Wolof and Peul, and at the
Gold Coast. ^ The absence of the word in the modern
Negro languages shows that it was not of native origin
and did not succeed in maintaining itself. The history
of the ahuy words is best studied in their chronological
order.
We have already met with the Portuguese term
buzio for "cowrie." Ramusio quotes a Portuguese
pilot in 1520 to the effect that in Ethiopia, that is, in
the interior of Africa, money was represented by the
shells which in Italy were called porcellette, in Portugal
huzios} Two years earlier Barbosa told of the small
huzios of the Maldive Islands, which were current in
Cambay and Bengal and were cleaner than copper
coin.^ Another Portuguese account, of about the same
time, found its way into Ramusio. Here we have a
very detailed statement as to the Maldive shell cur-
rency of India.^

1 cit., vol. V, p. 417.

Churchill, op.
* G. B. Ramusio, Delle navigationi et viaggi, Venetia 1588, vol. I, fol. 117a.
3 "Daquy leuaom tambem huus bu^os pequengs, que he grande merca-

doria pera ho regno de Cambaia e Bengala, honde corem por moeda baixa,
e hamna por mais limpa e melhor que ha do cobre," Livro de Duarte Barbosa,
in Collecqao de noticias para a historia e geografia das naqoes tUtramarinas,
Lisboa 1867, vol. II, p. 348.
* "Ciascuno pou vale 80, buzios, cio e porcellette, di sorte che ciascuno

caho vale 1280. porcellette, vale ciascuno Tamcat 9870. porcellette d Buzios;
& un Calaim e 458. che e il prezzo, per il quale danno una gallina buona.
& per questo si potra sapere quello che potranno comprare per quelle,
chiamansi li Buzios in Bengala Curi. questi Buzios corrono per moneta in
Orixa, & in tutto il Regno di Bengala, & in Arquam, & in Martabane, &
per tutto il regno di Pegu, li Buzios di Bengala sono maggiori, & tengono
un segno giallo per il mezzo, li quali vagliono per tutta la terra di Bengala,
li pigliano in gran quantita di mercantie cosi come oro, & in Orixanon

vagliono tanto come in altre parti sono apprezzati, massimamente in questi

duoi luoghi di Pegu, & Araquam. gli eletti & migliori vengono portati dalle
isole di Diua in gran quantita," op. cit., vol. I, fol. 334a. "La moneta
piccola di pegu sono Buzios piccoli bianchi: generalmente vagliono in
Martabane quindicimila una viza, che sono x. catais, quando e buon mercato
sedecimila, quado sono molto cari quattordicimila, il generale quattor-
dicimila, vale in calain millecinquecento Buzios, & per quattrocento 5
cinquecento danno una gallina: (che viene al modo di Venetia un marchetto;)
218 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
In the XVII. century Dapper referred to hoesjes as
used instead of money at Benin,^ and Ogilby, who
borrowed his material chiefly out of Dapper, spoke
soon after of ''East-India little horns, or Shells, which
they use in stead of Money. "^ Still later Barbot called
these shells in English hoesjes, housies, hoejies, and in
French houges: *'Two Bousies, or Cauries, East-India
shells, which serve for ornaments in necklaces, and go
for money at Fida and Ardra.*'^ ''At the common
price of three Boesjes (or Cauris) a sort of little white
shells, of the Maldivy islands in the East-Indies, which
are there the current money, and those three Cauris
may perhaps cost us about a farthing."^ "For an in-
stance of their great dexterity herein, tho' some factors
have their Boejies, in small barrels, sewed up in sacks,
the Blacks, as they carry them along the way, cut the
sacks, and dig out the Boejies, at the chinks of the bar-
rel, with an iron chissel."^ "Besides which, there is a
crown, or five shillings a head duty for every slave that
is sold for goods; but the collectors of it, cheat their
prince considerably, by agreeing underhand with those
who sell these slaves, so that a small matter comes into
the treasury, only for such as are sold for Boejies: this
being the money of the land, it is always paid in the
king's presence, and out of that, he takes three crowns
for every slave; and yet, some are so sly, as to fetch
the Boejies from us in the nighttime, or at some other
unseasonable hours, to cheat the prince of his customs."^

& per questo prezzo danno le cose a queste simiglianti, & per questa maniera
corre in Araquem. vengono questi BiCzios dairisole di Diua, doue fanno li
mantili fortilissimi in gran copia: & similmente dell' isole di Bandam &
di Burnei le portano a Malaca, & di li sono portati a Pegu," ibid., fol. 335a.
* **Boesjes, of Oostindische horentjes, die by hen in stede van gelt gebruikt

worden," op. cit., part 2, fol. 126; see also fols. 218 and 139.
2 Op. cit., p. 474.

3 Churchill, op. cit., vol. V,

p. 264.
* Ibid., p. 247.
' Ibid., p. 332.
«
Ibid., p. 335.
 THE COWRIES 219

*'The Boejies or Cauris, which the French call Bouges,

are small milk-white shells, commonly as big as small
olives, and are produced and gathered among the
shoals and rocks of the Maldivy islands, near the
coast of Malabar in the East-Indies; and thence trans-
ported as ballast to Goa, Cochin, and other ports in the
East-Indies, by the natives of those numerous islands:
and from the above-named places, are dispersed to the
Dutch and English factories in India; then brought
over to Europe, more especially by the Dutch, who
make a great advantage of them, according to the oc-
casion the several trading nations of Europe have for
this trash, to carry on their traffick at the coast of
Guinea, and of Angola; to purchase slaves or other
goods of Africa, and are only proper for that trade no
;

other people in the universe putting such a value on

them as the Guineans; and more especially those of
Fida and Ardra have long done, and still do to this very
day. And so, proportionably to the occasion the
European Guinea adventurers have for those Cauris,
and the quantity or scarcity there happens to be of them,
either in England or Holland, their price by the hundred
weight is higher or lower. I can give no reason why
they are usually sold by weight, and not by measure.
** These Cauris are of many different sizes, the small-
est hardly larger than a common pea; and the largest,
as an ordinary walnut, longish like an olive; but of such
great ones there is no considerable quantity in propor-
tion to the inferior sizes; and are all intermixt, great
and small. They are commonly brought over from
the East-Indies, in packs or bundles, well wrapped, and
put into small barrels in England or Holland, for the
better conveniency of the Guinea trade.
'*
Having given this account of the nature of these
Boejies, it remains to observe the use made thereof, by
the Guineans.
220 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
**At Fida and Ardra, where, as I have hinted before,
they are most fond of them, they either serve to adorn
their bodies, or as current coin. At Fida the natives
bore a little hole through each Boejie, with an iron tool
made for that purpose, and thread them, forty Boejies
in a string, which they call Toques in Portuguese; and
in their natural language Genre.
*'Five such strings, or Genres, of forty Boejies each,
make a certain small measure, called a Galinha, and in
their own language a Fore. Two hundred Cauris, and
fifty such Fores, make an Alcove, or a Guinbotton, in
their language; the word Alcove being Portuguese, as
well as that of Galinha, but as frequently used by the
Blacks, as the other names of Fore and Guinbotton, of
their own language. This Alcove measure weighs, as
I have before observed, about sixty pounds, and con-
tains four thousand Boejies.
*'With these strings, or Toques, or Genres, of forty
Boejies, they buy and sell all sorts of goods among them-
selves, as if they were silver or gold money; and are so
very much taken with them, as to tell us they are pre-
ferable to gold, both for ornament and traffick; inso-
much, that a handful of them is better for those pur-
poses, than an ounce of fine gold: and it is a general
rule there, to reckon a man's wealth by the number of
the Alcoves of Boejies, and the quantity of slaves he
possesses."^
Wefind in Pyrard de Laval the Maldive name of
the cowries as holi, holli. This is given by Christopher^
holij holi 'shell, in the general, also the name of the
*

money cowry." The first I is pronounced "as in Eng-

lish, sometimes it is liquid, as in million," while the
second is pronounced "with the tongue reverting to
the palate." The first would, therefore, appear to an
1 338 f.
Ihid., p.
2 Vocabulary of the Maldivian Language, in The Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society of Greai Britain and Ireland, vol. VI (1841), p. 66.
 THE COWRIES 221

Italian like bogli,and this we shall meet later; while

the second would be heard with a soft rasping sound,
leading to Port, huzio, Fr. houge, or would have the I
entirely omitted as in Dutch hoejie, which is mentioned
as ahuy in Africa. While the latter has not survived in
Wolof or Peul, it appears in Benin, according to Duarte
Pacheco, as iguou, and, according to Barros, as igovo.
Modern Yoruba owo. Ewe agaga, possibly Neule neghie,
Dahome akwe '^cowrie, money" indicate that the Benin
word was approximately igwo. In Dahome akwe has
received the largest development, for here we find
akweho ''value," akwejo "tribute," akweno "rich," etc.
As 6 is a rare sound in Dahome and gh is generally sub-
stituted for it,^ the original abuy for "cowrie" would
appear in Dahome as agbwy, which at once explains
Dahome akwe and the other related forms. Thus we
are still under the influence of the Maldivian word, due
to the importation of the Maldivian cowries into Africa,
as mentioned by the Arabic writers.
The Bantu zimbo, nzimbo is clearly a Bantuized
plural form of the same abuy. There is in Bantu a
class of nouns which has in, n, i, in the singular, and zin,
jin, sin, in the plural. "The classifier in or n may
originally have been no other than the indefinite adjec-
tive -mue 'one, another, some.' "^ We
actually have
Kongo mbiya "a single bead," which unquestionably
belongs here. But single cowries were never in use,
although forming the lowest unit of the currency, and
only the plural of an original imbuy, namely zimbuy,
could survive. This zimbuy, as we have seen, is dis-
tributed south of the Gold Coast over a wide territory.
In some regions it has assumed the meaning "iron"
in a peculiar way. In Kaffir we have in-tsimbi "beads,
a bell, iron in bars," in Zulu in-simbi "metal, iron,
1 M.Delafosse, Maniiel dahomeen, Paris 1894.
' J. Torrend, A
Comparative Grammar of the South-African Bantu Lan-
guages, London 1891, p. 86.
222 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
appearance." The word is the same as Luganda en-
simhiy Nyamwesi lu-simhi and the "cowrie" words in
the other Bantu languages. The change of meaning
is due to the fact that iron bars were introduced by the
Europeans as currency among the Negroes, especially
to the south of the Gold Coast. Dapper speaks of
'^staven yzer, tot de lengte van een, twee, en drie voe-
ten,"^ ''staven yzers van acht-en-twintigh en dertigh
staven in het duizent pont,"^ which Ogilby translates
'Hron bars of one, two, or three foot long,"^ *'bars of
iron, of which eight and twenty or thirty make a
thousand Weight."* Although the Bantu word for
the cowrie seems to be a pluralized form of original
Chinese pei, it is more likely, since in the Bantu langua-
ges the word generally means **blue currency, blue
beads," that it represents Chinese tsze-pei **purple
shell," as introduced by Arab or Portuguese traders.
The Chinese ho-pei for "cowrie" was originally pro-
nounced something like ka-par, and this is, no doubt, the
origin of the Sanskrit kaparda "a small shell or cowrie,
used as a coin and a die in gambling, Cypraea moneta.''
This produced Hindustani kauri, kaudi, Marathi
kauda, kaudl, Guzerati kodd, etc., and in the Dravidian
languages Kannada kavadi, kavade, Tulu koudi, etc.
We have already met with the "cowrie" words in
Arabic, but d^J wada is more likely the Dravidian
woda "shell," than a corruption of kavadi, although the
African languages, which have borrowed the term from
the Arabic, frequently have the shorter and the longer
term side by side. We meet it first in Zanzibar, where
we have kauri "cowrie," and in Madagascar, where we
get Hova akorany, Betsileo akorane, Taukarana ankaora,

* Op. city part 1, fol. 419.

2 lUd., fol. 411, and again, part 2, pp. 10, 118.
3 Ot).
Ov. ciL, p.
/??'<.. n. 357.
Sf;7
* Ibid,, p. 350.
 THE COWRIES 223

Taimarona akord} The Hausas, who are the great mer-

cantile people of the Sahara, have wuri, plural kurdl,
kudi, kawara, al-kawara ''cowrie, money, price.'' The
first is, no doubt, a form Arabic £,-5J 'ude, while the
of
rest are all Arabic forms or adaptions of Arabic forms
for the Hindustani kauri. We find also the Arabic
word in Wolof khorre "cowrie," Bambara, Dyula wari,
Malinke wori **money." But we have also Malinke
kurun, Bambara kuro "cowrie." Thus it is clear that
while the abuy words for "cowrie" came up with the
ocean traders from the Maldive Islands, the kauri words
are chiefly due to an overland trade connecting Zanzi-
bar with the north of Africa and the Western Sudan.

* A. Jully, Manuel des dialectes malgaches, Paris 1901.

 .

CHAPTER II.

The Onyx.

In the Arabic apocryphal stories about Solomon

there is frequently reference to the onyx which he
caused to be strung by a white worm.^ For this rea-
son the mottled onyx, a variety of the carnelian, is
known among Mohammedan nations as "Solomon's
stone," and is accredited with certain magical quali-
ties. He who carries an onyx remains calm during a
dispute or laughter; it whitens teeth, sweetens the
breath, etc. Mohammed was supposed to have said:
"He who carries a carnelian seal in his ring is constantly
blessed and fortunate.''^ No wonder, then, that it
formed as important an amulet as the cowries, which
were known under the name of t^J wada\ *_>=r gaz\ JJ-
haraz, and with which the ancient Arabs used to adorn
their idols, even as is the case with the Mohammedan
Negroes.^ It is significant that gaz' is also the current
name for the onyx, but the onyx is usually classed with
the carnelians as an (3^*^ 'aqlq.
In Persian the onyx is known as sang-i-sulaimdm,
literally "stone of Solomon," although the Persian
dictionary^ says: "An onyx, agate imported from
Sulaimaniya, whence the name, and used for amulets;"
but neither Yakut nor Al-Bakri records such a place
name. The anomalous sulaimdnl for sulaiman is due to
^ M. Griinbaum, Neue Beitrdge zur semitischen Sagenkunde, Leiden 1893,
p. 218.
2 E. Doutt^, Magie et religion dans I'Afrique du Nord, Alger 1909, p. 83 f.
»
Ibid., p. 82.
* F. Steingass, A Comprehensive PersiarirEnglish Dictionary, London [ 1892]
 THE ONYX 225

the Arabic adjective ^'^^ sulaimdnl, for ^^^^ 3^

*
'
aqiq sulaimdnl 'Solomon's carnelian," that is, ''onyx."
The Persian word is found also in Hindustani, where we
get sulaimdnl, or sulaimdnl patthar "onyx," literally
"Solomon's stone," sang-e'Sulaimdni "agate, onyx."
Toward the west, Pers. sang became generalized as "gem,
bead" in general, since the chief purpose of the sang-i-
sulaimdnl was to furnish beads. But in Arabic it pro-
duced a number of words, in which the original meaning
of "stone" can be discovered only by a careful analysis.

We have here *^^«^ ^^^ sangah, ^angah "scale for weigh-

ing." We shall later see that small onyx balls were actu-
ally used as weights, hence the Persian name for "stone
(of Solomon)" received the meaning "scale for weigh-
ing." But we have also several times '^^^ san^ah used
as "small metal ball, a small ball dropped hourly by
a clock," where the reference to the onyx weights is
stillmore obvious. Again, Arab. -^^^ sungah means
"blackness mixed with speckles of white, and of red,
and of yellow in an animal," which is the description
of the color of the onyx. But there is also an Arab.
Cr^ sanlh "pearls, the string upon which they are to
be strung, ornaments of a woman, of moulded metal,
stones, gold, silver, or jewels, or gems," which, in all
probability, is a derivative from the same Persian
word.
The Persian word found its way into Africa, from
Zanzibar or further down the coast. We have, in
Zanzibar, Swahili ushanga (plural shanga, mashanga)
"a bead; beads are sold in the interior, being imported
in large variety of shape and color to suit the peculiar
tasteand demand of different localities."^ Among the
Warundi, on the opposite shore, a string of beads used
* A. C. Madan, Swahili-English Dictionary, Oxford 1903.
226 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
as a monetary unit is known as urusanga. The Swa-
hili ushanga was carried down the coast into Portu-
guese territory, when we get Inhambane uranga, Sofala
vusanga, Tette usanga, Sena usanga, Quellimane nsanga,
Cape Delgado usanga 'beads," and, since the favorite
*

bead was blue, we get Quellimane a-misanga "blue-

glazed,"^ from the plural for bead, which also pro-
duced Port, missanga ** glass bead, string of glass
beads, trifle." In Kongo we get nsanga '^string of
beads, a string of 100 blue beads of the currency,"^ in
Fiote m'sanga, pi. misanga, "small pearl. "^ Kongo
nsungu "cowrie shell" is unquestionably related to
these words. As we get away from the direct influence
of the traders, the original sanga gets more and more
corrupted. Thus we have Bemba uhulungu,^ where
the relation to sanga, through the form uranga, as in
Inhambane, and Kongo nsungu, is still obvious. The
same is true of Lala-Lamba uulunguf" but in Sindebele
ulu-cu "a string (of beads) "^ the first syllable has itself
become a class prefix, leaving cu, from the original
sanga, to do the work of the Persian word.
In the very beginning of the XVI. century beads
were imported into Africa from Cambay in India, by
the way of Mozambique: "There went also in the
little ship some honourable merchants of Mozambique,
who carried with them cloth of Cambaya and red
beads, these being the principal articles used in that
trade. Sancho de Toar took also for the king a present
of pieces of crimson silk, mirrors, caps, trappings for
hawks, little bells from Flanders, small transparent
* W. H. J. Bleek, The Languages of Mozambique, London 1856.

2 W. H. Bentley, op, cit.

3 Dictionnaire francais-fiote, dialecte du Kakongo, Paris 1890.
* W. G. Robertson, An Introductory Handbook to the Language of the
Bemba-People, London 1904.
5 A. C. Madan, Lala-Lamba-Wisa and English, English and Lala-Lamba-

Wisa Dictionary, Oxford 1913.

8 W. A. Elliott, Notes for a Sindebele Dictionary and Grammar, Bristol

[19 -].
 THE ONYX 227

glass beads, and other things to be had in that country,

and which delight the people of Sofala."^ Duarte
Barbosa, who described Africa and Asia in 1518, fre-
quently refers to Cambay and the beads manufactured
there. At Sofala he met Moors who brought beads
from the east coast, whither they were carried from
Cambay: "And the manner of their traffic was this:
they came in small vessels named zambucos from the
kingdoms of Quiloa, Mombaga, and Melynde, bring-
ing many cotton cloths, some spotted and others white
and blue, also some of silk, and many small beads, grey,
red, and yellow, which things come to the said kingdoms
from the great kingdom of Cambaya in other greater
ships. And these wares the said Moors who came
from Melynde and Mombaga [purchased from others
who bring them hither and] paid for in gold at such a
price that those merchants departed well pleased;
which gold they gave by weight."^ "The road thereto
[Zimbaoche] goes inland from Qofala towards the
Cape of Good Hope. In this town of Benametapa is
the King's most usual abode, in a very large building,
and thence the traders carry the inland gold to Qofala
and give it unweighed to the Moors for coloured cloths
and beads, which are greatly esteemed among them;
which beads come from Cambaya."^ "Further on,
leaving this Cuama, a hundred and forty leagues from
it, skirting the coast, is a very great town of Moors

called Angoya [which has its own king]. In it dwell

many merchants who deal in gold, ivory, silk and
cotton cloths and Cambay beads as those of Cofala
were wont to do."^ The Melinde, Zanzibar, and Maga-
doxo Moors carried on an active trade with Cambay:
1 Theal, op. cit., vol. II, p. 26.
2 M. L. Dames, The Book of Duarte Barbosa (The Hakluyt Society),
London 1918, vol. I, p. 6 ff.
^ Ibid., p. 11 f.
* Ibid., p. 14 f.
228 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
**They are great barterers, and deal in cloth, gold, ivory,
and divers other wares with the Moors and Heathen
of the great kingdom of Cambaya; and to their haven
come every year many ships with cargoes of merchan-
dize, from which they get great store of gold, ivory
and wax. In this traffic the Cambay merchants make
great profits, and thus, on one side and the other, they
earn much money. "^ **The kings of these isles [Zan-
zibar] live in great luxury; they are clad in very fine
silk and cotton garments, which they purchase at
Mombaga from the Cambaya merchants. The women
of these Moors go bravely decked, they wear many
jewels of fine Qoisilsi gold, silver too in plenty, earrings,
necklaces, bangles and bracelets, and they go clad in
good silk garments."^ *'The place [Magadoxo] has
much trade in divers kinds, by reason whereof many
ships come hither from the great kingdom of Cambaya,
bringing great plenty of cloths of many sorts, and
divers other wares, also spices: and in the same way
they come from Adem. And they carry away much
gold, ivory, wax and many other things, whereby they
make exceeding great profits in their dealings.*'*
Apparently Aden Arabs and Jews carried on the most
active trade with Cambay, whence came the alaquecas,
that is, the carnelians: *'To the harbour of this city
come ships from all parts, more especially from the
port of Juda, whence they bring copper, quicksilver,
vermilion, coral and woollen and silken cloths, and
they take thither on their return great store of spices
and drugs, cotton cloths and other wares of the great
kingdom of Cambaya. From Zeila and Barbora too
come many ships with food-stuffs in abundance; [in
return they take back Cambay cloth and beads both
large and small, and all the goods in which they trade
1 Ibid., p. 22 f.
»
Ibid., p. 27 f.
»
Ibid., p. 31.
 THE ONYX 229

for Arabia Felix and Preste Joam's country also come

here, as do the ships of Ormuz and Cambaya] and
those of Cambaya come laden with cloth of many kinds;
so great is the number of them that it seems an aston-
ishing thing! And, as I have already said, they bring
cotton, drugs (great quantity), gems, seed pearl in
abundance, alaquequas, and to the said kingdom of
Cambaya they take back madder, opium, raisins of the
sun, copper, quicksilver, vermilion and great store of
rosewater, which is made here. They also take much
woollen cloth, coloured Meca velvets, gold in ingots,
coined and to be coined (and also some in strings), and
camlets, and it seems an impossible thing that they
should use so much cotton cloth as these ships bring
from Cambaya."^ These carnelians were found be-
yond Cambay, at Limodara: ** Beyond this city of
Cambaya, further inland is a town called Limadura.
Here is found an alaquequa (carnelian) rock, which is a
white, milky or red stone, which is made much redder
in the fire. They extract it in large pieces, and there
are cunning craftsmen here who shape it, bore it and
make it up in divers fashions, that is to say; long,
eight-sided, round and olive-leaf shapes, also rings,
knobs for hilts of short swords and daggers, and other
ways. The dealers come hiJJier from _Cambaya to
buy them, and they [thread them, and] sell them on
the Red Sea coast whence they pass to our lands by way
of Cairo and Alexandria. They take them also to
Arabia and Persia, and to India where our people buy
them to take to Portugal. And here they find great
abundance of hahagoure, which we call calsadonia (chal-
cedony), which are stones with grey and white veins
in them, which they fashion perfectly round, and after
they are bored the Moors wear them on their arms in
such a manner that they touch the skin, saying that
1 lUd., p. 55 f.
 230 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
they are good to preserve chastity: as these stones are
plentiful they are not worth much."^
At about the same time, the factor at Sof ala informed
King Don Manuel of the importation of *'red beads of
Cambaya three and a half quintals nine pounds, which
cost in Diu eight hundred and forty reis the farazola,
which, when they are good, are valued in the factory
at fifty miticals and more."^ Even as late as the mid-
dle of the XVI. century there seemed to be no beads
in South Africa except those which were imported from
India, for the wearing of a bead necklace by a Kaffir
was taken by shipwrecked people as a proof that they
were within the territory frequented by European
traders: ** Among them was one of whom the rest
seemed to make the most account, and he it was who
answered our questions, which he understood as little
as we did his, and though there was no pomp or dignity
about his person, being naked like the rest, yet he was
distinguished from them by wearing a few beads red
in colour, round, and about the same size as coriander
seeds, which we rejoiced to see, it seeming to us that
these beads being in his possession proved that we were
near some river frequented by trading vessels, for they
are only made in the kingdom of Cambaya, and are
brought by the hands of our people to this coast. "^ At
^ the end of the century the red beads were also manu-
factured at Negapatam and imported into South Africa
by the Portuguese: *'The dress of these negroes is
similar to that of the negroes of Tizombe, but they
wear red beads in their ears, which the others do not.
Nuno Yelho asked the Kaffir to whom he gave the lid
where these were obtained, and he saw from their ap-
j
pearance that they came from the land of the Inh^aca,
•
who is king of the people living by the river of Lour-
1 Ibid., p.142 ff.
2 Theal, op. cit., vol. I, p. 104 f.
3 Ibid., p. 225.
 THE ONYX 231

engo Marques. These beads are made of clay of all

colours, of the size of a coriander seed. They are made
in India at Negapatam, whence they are brought to
Mozambique, and thence they reach these negroes
through the Portuguese who exchange them for ivory.' '^
Beads were also imported from Chaul, whence they
came in bars: "Above Sena to the eastward, which
is the other side of the river, along it and in the interior
there is much cotton, and of it the inhabitants weave
the cloth for the machiras, which are very plentiful in
all that province; and that country is called Bororo.
The beads for which these machiras are bartered are
bought in Chaul, generally at fifty pardaos a ba;r,
each bar containing four quintals. This bar, however,
in Sena, with the expenses, may be worth one hundred
cruzados, which is the highest rate at which it can be
estimated. There of one bar of beads they make a
thousand to a thousand four hundred montanas, which
are bundles of strings of beads held together in the
fashion of a horse's tassel. These montanas in Bororo
are worth two machiras each, and thus they make two
thousand four hundred and more from the bar. These
machiras are sold to the negroes on the western bank
of the river, who are called Botongas, at a mitical of
gold apiece, which there is the weight of a cruzado and
a testoon. In this way one hundred cruzados may well
be made to yield three thousand cruzados, if order is
kept, and Portuguese are not allowed to go about
spoiling the trade, as they did on our departure."^
Some beads were made of potter's clay, and at the
end of the XVI. century Kaffir traders, in the employ
of the Portuguese, carried them far inland: "They
also take for this trade some small beads made of
potter's clay, some green and others blue or yellow,

1 lUd., vol. II, p. 303.

2 Ibid., vol. Ill, p. 234.
 232 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
with which the necklets are made that the Kaffir
women wear round their necks, like our rich necklaces.
These beads are threaded on fibres of macosi, which is
like the leaves of the palm, and they make necklets of
ten or twelve rows, each being a palm's length. They
call them me tins, which is a weight in use with them.
Ten of these metins they call a lipate, and twenty a
lipote, which is worth a cruzado and costs in that place
about forty reis. All these things are sold forthwith,
and double or more than double the money is made.'*^
Alaquecas, that Arab. 61^ 'aqlq **agate, onyx,'* are
is,

mentioned on the west coast of Africa even before

Duarte Barbosa,^ but these do not seem to have been
introduced there directly from Cambay or through
Melinde, but indirectly from Europe. There is no
evidence of any trade relation between Cambay and
the west coast of Africa above Angola.
Barbosa distinguishes between the carnelians and
In Cambay
*
hdhdguri, which he calls 'chalcedony."
the Guzerati name for **onyx" is still bawaghori,^ and
the usual Turkish word for "agate, onyx" is hdhdquri.
We do not meet with any earlier references to this word
than in Barbosa, but a Turkish author, Sidi 'Ali Ka-
pudan, mentions it in 1554: *'In this country (Guzerat)
is a profusion of hdhdghurl and carnelians; but the best

1 md„ vol. VI, p. 368.

2 que sam huas pedras a que n6s chamamos de estancar
*'AlaqtLeqvxis,
sangue," D. Pacheco Pereira, Esmeraldo de situ orbis, in Boletim da Sociedade
de Geographia de Lisboa, 22^. serie (1904), p. 88; "em toda esta terra na
costa do mar ha ouro, hainda que he em pouca cantidade, o qual custumamos
resguatar por hcUaquequas e por contas amarellas e verdes," ibid., p. 162;
also pp. 139, 166. See also F. Hummerich, Quellen und Untersuchungen zur
Fahrt der ersten Deutschen nach dem portugiesischenlndien, 1505-6, in Abhand-
lungen der Koniglich Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, philoso-
phisch-philologische und historische Klasse, vol. XXX, part 3, p. 79 flf.
3 "The mora or bawa ghori onyx is of two kinds, one dark with white
j,v

/ veins, the other greyish white with dark veins," Gazetteer of the Bombay
Presidency, vol. VI, p. 199.
 THE ONYX 233

of these last are those coming from Yaman."^ In 1592

grain weights of habdghurl were made in northern India,
to be used in weighing,^ especially of jewels,^ and in
one Persian author the veins of the eye are compared
with hahagurl threads.^
Of the origin of the carnelian manufacture at Cam-
bay little is known. "So far as has been traced, the
Musalman travellers of the ninth and tenth centuries
make no mention of an agate trade at Cambay. Marco
Polo (1290) says nothing of a special agate trade, either
in his description of Cambay or in the notices of the
Arabian and African ports then connected by commerce
with Gujarat. The fifteenth century travellers make
only a casual reference to the agate as one of the pro-
ducts of Cambay. Early in the sixteenth century, the
agate trade seems to have risen to importance. Var- ,

thema (1503-1508) speaks of two mountains, one of •'

carnelians about seventy, the other of diamonds about

one hundred miles, from Cambay. About this time,
according to a tradition of the Cambay agate workers,
an Abyssinian merchant came to Gujardt, and estab-
lished an agate factory at Nandod in Rajpipla. At
first the stones were prepared by Musalmans, but the
Kanbis were not long in learning the craft. The mer-
chant died at Nandod, and his tomb is near the well
known tomb of Bawa Ghor at the ford of that name
across the river Narbada. After some time, according
to the same account, the Kanbi agate workers left
Nfedod and came to settle in Broach, and from Broach
went to Cambay. The Sidi merchant is still remember-
ed by the Hindu agate workers. Each year on the day
of his death Shravan sud purnima (July-August full-
^ H. Yule, Hobson-Jobson, a Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words
and Phrases, new ed._by William Crooke, London 1903.
2 H. Blochmann, Aln i Akbarl, in Bibliotheca Indica, published by the

Asiatic Society of Bengal, new series, No. 149, p. 35.

3 Ibid., p. 615.
* Ibid.
234 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
moon), they and cocoanuts at his tomb.
offer flowers
As it is from Cambay to Bawa Ghor, they have
far to go
in Cambay a cenotaph, takiya, in his honour, and those
of them who are settled in Bombay have brought with
them this memorial of the founder of their craft. The
Cambay agate workers assert that the well known
shrine of B^wa Ghor was raised in honour of their
patron. According to their story, while wandering
from place to place as a religious beggar, the B^wa did
business in precious stones, and, becoming skilled in
agates, set up a factory at Nimodra. Here he pros-
pered and died rich. The local legend of the saint of
Bawa Ghor makes no mention of his success as an
agate dealer."^
*
'About the middle of the fifteenth century (1437),
when the Bahmani dynasty became independent of
Delhi and intercourse with north India ceased, the
fashion arose of bringing to western India large numbers
of Abyssinians and other East Africans. These men,
from the Arab El Habish the people of north-east
Africa, were known as Habshis, or more often as Sidis,
which was originally a term of respect, a corrupt form
of Syed. Though most Habshis came to India as
slaves, their faithfulness, courage, and energy often
raised them to positions of high trust in the Bahmani
court. According to Orme the successful Abyssinians
gathered round them all of their countrymen whom
they could procure either by purchase or invitation,
including Negroes from other parts of Africa, as well as
Abyssinians. From their marriages, first with natives
of India and afterwards among their own families, there
arose a separate community, distinct from other Musal-
mans in figure, colour, and character. As soon as they
were strong enough they formed themselves into an
aristocratic republic, the skill and utility of the lowest
* Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, vol. VI, p. 206.
 THE ONYX 235

orders giving them influence, and influence fostering a

pride in their name which made them among the
most skilful and daring sailors and soldiers in Western
India."^
From these accounts it follows that the modern agate
trade of Cambay was started by Abyssinians, who
derived the name of the mottled onyx or agate from a
patron saint, Bdbdgur, The real onyx, known as
sulaimdnly was brought to Cambay from Jabalpur,^ and
the hdbdgurl was apparently inferior only to the sulai-
mdnly if it was not identical with it. In any case one
would expect the Abyssinians, like the Arabs, to con-
nect the Cambay onyx with their patron saint, King
Solomon, from whom they claimed descent, through
the Queen of Sheba.^ Now, one of the mystic names
of King Solomon is Agur, from Proverbs XXX. 1,
where these proverbs are ascribed to him. The expla-
nation of this name was that he was called so because
he ''gathered," nax, the words of the Law.^ Hence the
Latin Vulgate translates Heb. ^las of Proverbs
XXX. 1 by ''congregans.'' The Syriac version left
Agur untranslated, but Barhebraeus derived the word
from n^X ''he hired out," "Solomo seipsum vocat
Aghur, utpote qui se sapientiae locaverit." It is most
likely, therefore, that the Abyssinians got their story
of "Baba Agur,'' instead of "Baba Salama," from
some Jews, with whom they were associated in Abys-
siniaand at Aden, in order to explain the relation of
King Solomon to the onyx, which he "gathers," as in
the Arabic story.
It is a curious fact that Bdbdgur is not only the
Abyssinian patron saint, but, as Gur-bdbd, is also wor-

1 lUd., vol. XI, p. 433 f.

2 Ibid., vol. VI, p. 199.
3 E. Littmann, Bihliotheca abessinica; The Legend of the Queen of Sheha
in the Tradition of Axum, Leyden, Princeton, N. J. 1904.
* Griinbaum, op. cit., p. 207.
236 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
shipped by the Bhils and other native races in the
neighborhood of Cambay and further away.^ **The
familiar Gor Bdha, a deified ghost of the aboriginal
races, has in many places become a new manifestation
of Siva, as Goreswara,'"^ That this is not a chance
transference is proved by the fact that the milkstone,
or chalcedony, which we have so far found as sulai-
mdnl and habdgurl, is recorded in an XVIII. century
Sanskrit dictionary as Siva-dhdtu, that is, ** Siva's
mineral.'* Of course, the Hindustani gaur, gord, from
Prakrit gor ad, Sanskrit gaura ** white, of fair com-
plexion," which is also an epithet of Siva, caused the
confusion of Bdhdgur with Siva on one hand, and with
the white onyx on the other, even as it led to the popu-
*
lar Gor hdha 'white spectre," but this confusion is of
late origin and would not have taken place so readily,
if it had not been for the importance of the agate bead

and its magical powers. It is even possible that

*
Hindustani guriyd 'glass bead, bead or stones of a
rosary or necklace" owes its form to the same ''agate"
word, instead of being derived from Sanskrit guiikd
"round ball," from which comes Hindustani gofi
"round pebble, bead."
^ Dames, op. cit., p. 144.
' W. Crooke, The Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India,
Westminster 1896, vol. I, p. 84.
 CHAPTER III.

Aggry Beads. ^

Duarte Pacheco, who wrote his Esmeraldo de situ

orbis in 1506, mentions at Elmina blue beads called
coris'? **At Rio dos Forcados, in Benin territory, barter
takes place, chiefly in slaves, cotton cloth, and a few
leopard skins, and palm oil, and certain blue beads
with red lines, which they call coris. These things we
buy for brass and copper armrings, and all this is of
value at the Castle of Jorze da Mina, and our chief's
factor sells it for gold to the Negro merchants."^ A
similar statement was made soon after by a Portuguese
pilot: **In this place (Elmina) a large number of
Negroes congregate with gold found in the river and
the sand, and trade with above mentioned factors, tak-
ing from them all kinds of things, mostly beads made
of glass and another kind of beads made of a blue stone,
I will not say lapis lazuli, but some other mineral,
which our king gets from Manicongo, where this stone
grows and these beads are made in the form of slender
;

pipes and are called coril, and for these they give con-
* For general literature on Aggry Beads see: G. P. Rouffaer, Waar
kwamen de raadselachtige Moetisalah's (Aggri-Kralen) in de Timor-groep
oorspronkelijk van daan?, in Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde
van Nederlandsch-Indie, 's-Gravenhage 1899, vol. VI, pp. 409-675, and
A. W. Nieuwenhuis, Kunstperlen und ihre kulturelle Bedeutung, in Inter-
nationales Archiv fUr Ethnographie, vol. XVI (1904), pp. 136-153.
' "Estes leuam d'esta casa muitas mercadorias asy como lambes, que he

a principal d'ellas, de que j4 no noveno item do quarto capitolo d'este

segundo livro falamos, e pano vermelho e azul e manilhas de latam e lengos
e coraes e huas conchas vermelhas, que antre elles sam muito estimadas,
asy como n6s ca estimamos pedras preciosas; isso mesmo val aquy muito
ho vinho branco e huas contos azues, a que elles chamam 'coris,' e outras
muitas cousas de desvairados modos," op. cit., p. 253.
» Ibid.,
p. 313.
238 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
siderable gold, because they are greatly esteemed by all
the Negroes, who put them into the fire, to see that
they are not counterfeit, since many are imported that
are made of glass, which resemble them greatly, but
will not stand the fire test."^
In Benin the name of these beads is still ''koli, a
kind of precious beads or coloured stones, worn as
ornament by the natives of this coast and paid by the
same weight of gold. It is said, that they are digged
out of the ground all along the Slave-coast and found
in ordered strings, as the bones of a decayed snake or
as if formerly bound together, the string being decayed.
Some suppose that they are of animal origin (such is
the idea of the natives themselves), some that they
were manufactured in Egypt, some thousand years
ago and brought here by the first settlers, and some
that they were formerly manufactured in Venice and
the art lost."^ There is a great diversity of opinion
as to the material from which these beads were made.
**The wearing of coral was a royal privilege, which the
king conferred on his subjects. Where the office of
the holder was not hereditary, as, for instance, with the
fiadors, the bunches of coral had to be returned to the
king on the holder's decease. According to Bold,
coral beads 'are the intrinsic treasures of the rich, being
held in the highest estimation, and from their rarity,
are only in the hands of a few chiefs, whose avidity for
them is immeasurable; the species admired are the
pipe beads of various dimensions, and are valued at
ten large jars of oil an ounce, of the smaller sort, and
so on in proportion for the larger sized.' Mr. Punch
informs me that *as a matter of fact, the King of Benin
had few, if any, of the large coral beads such as Nana,
Dor^, Dudu, and the Jekri chiefs obtained from the
* Ramusio, vol. I, fol. 116a.
2 J. Zimmermann, A Grammatical Sketch of the Akra- or Gd-Language,
Stuttgart 1858, p. 157.
 AGGRY BEADS 239

merchants in Benin River. His coral was insignificant

pipe coral, and was only striking when made up into
vests and hats. The Binis valued more the agate
beads, and especially the dull kind. A necklet of this
dull agate was a king's gift, and no one could wear such
a necklet, unless it were given him by the king. It
was death, in fact, to wear it otherwise. The shiny
chrystalline agate, with white quartz veins, anyone
could use. Such coral as the Binis had was obtained
through Jekri traders, either from the Benin River or
Lagos. The Binis said it was dug up at the ''back of
Benin,'' but everything, in the days I am speaking of,
14-15 years ago, which was at all mysterious came from
the back of Benin.'
"Nyendael describes the coral beads as made of
*pale red coctile earth or stone and very well glazed,'
and says they are very like 'speckled red marble.'
While no doubt the material of which the so-called
coral beads are made varies, all the beads which have
come into my hands are either red coral or agate beads,
the former having the characteristic structure and
composition of coral, while the latter show the concen-
tric zones of chalcedony, some red and some white.
Vast numbers of artificial beads go to the African
market, but the above specimens are all natural. At
the famous agate works at Oberstein in Rhenish
Bavaria, large numbers of trivial ornamental articles
are specially made for the African trade. In Burton's
time the red coral was brought from the Mediterran-
ean."^ But Dapper assumed that akori was a bluish
coral growing in the water: "The Commodities,
which the Europeans and other Whites Trade for in
the River of Benyn, are Cotton-Cloathes, Jasper-Stone,
and Women-Slaves, Leopard-Skins, some Pepper and
1 H. L. Roth, Great Benin, its Customs, Art and Horrors, Halifax 1903,
p. 26 f.
240 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
Akori, which is a certain bluish Coral, growing like a
Tree in the Water. This Akori, carried to the Gold-
Coast, the Women wear for an Ornament in their
Hair/^i
Akori is obviously a generic name for "bead,*' made of
a large variety of material. The word is actually used
in this sense elsewhere, as in Neule gri ''beads," and is
unquestionably identical with the "cowrie" words, which
on the Ivory Coast and among the Mandingos have
assumed the meaning "money." This is made cer-
tain by the fact that Mandingo wari, wort is found in
the Baule country as worye "blue bead."
The common story that these beads were dug up
from ancient graves has led Delafosse to investigate
such a necropolis in the Baule country,^ where these
beads are called worye. Delafosse found these made
of glass, but, as he thought, of a manufacture common
to ancient Eygpt or Assyria. The same deposits of
blue beads are found at Zanzibar. "Besides carnelian
beads, pierced amethysts and garnets and great quanti-
ties of glass beads are also found at certain states of the
tide at the ruined towns in Pemba. They are gener-
ally considered to be of Arabian or Persian manufac-
ture, and to date from the twelfth to the fifteenth cen-
tury; although some specimens may be considerably
older and date from the Ptolemaic period.
"The most common bead found at Ndagoni is a large,
irregularly shaped, bluish-green glass bead of a dis-
tinctive character. After heavy rain they may be
picked up on the sea-beach by hundreds. That they
are of somewhat archaic manufacture is evident from
the irregularity of their shape and size. Many of them
appear to have become distorted in the process of being
made.
* J. Ogilby, op. ciU, p. 473.
2 Sur des traces probables de civilisation Sgyptienne et d'hommes de race
blanche d la Cote d'lvoire, in U
Anthropologic, Paris 1900, vol. XI, p. 677 ff.
 AGGRY BEADS 241

**The question is often asked how the existence of

such quantities of beads in the sea-sands of Pemba can
be accounted for.
"The suggestions generally put forward in reply are:
**1. That they formed a portion of a cargo of a

wrecked ship.
'*2. That they have been washed out of ancient

graves by the encroaching sea.

**3. That they are the remains of some propitia-

tory or thank-offering made by the former inhabitants

of the ruins, to the sea.
**4. That a bead factory or depot existed at the towns

where beads are now found, and that the encroaching

sea has liberated the beads.
**With reference to the above propositions, it will be
realised of course that beads formed until quite recent
— —
times and in fact to some extent form still the chief
currency of native Africa and everything from a tusk
:

of ivory to a cob of Indian corn had to be paid for in

beads, cloth, and in more recent times by brass wire and
gunpowder, so there is nothing inherently extraordinary
that beads should be found at the sites of these ancient
and deserted trading-stations. The only surprising
thing about them is that they should be found concen-
trated in particular spots on the sea-shore.
'*With regard to the above suggestions as to how the
beads came in their present position, all are reasonable
except perhaps the first. It would be too remarkable
a coincidence that ships had run ashore, and been
wrecked exactly opposite most of the towns of Pemba
and Zanzibar. It is, moreover, reasonable to suppose
that had they run ashore as is suggested, the cargo
would have been saved and taken out of them, for all
the sites where beads are found are on the shore of a
harbour, and the sea in these sheltered tropical waters;
is never rough enough to break up a ship. At these
242 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
'bead-sites,' the sea is seldom rougher than the Serpen-
tine.
**The fourth explanation seems the most probable,
and it possesses none of the objections of the previous
ones. It not only accounts for the glass beads, but
also for the glass fragments, some of which, especially
at the Ndagoni ruins, appear to be, not pieces of glass
vessels, but melted fragments and slag from crucibles
used in the manufacture of the blue beads.
*'It is worthy of note that at Mogdishu, in Italian
Somaliland, one of the oldest Persian or Arab settle-
ments on the coast, complete apparatus for the manu-
facture of glass beads, such as crucibles, paste for mak-
ing beads, glass stems, and coloured beads have actually
been discovered.
"If a glass-bead manufactury existed at Mogdishu,
there is no reason why similar establishments should
not have been erected elsewhere although it is as well
:

to restate the fact that while the existence of bead

factories will explain the presence of special varieties
of beads at these old ruins, it must not be concluded
that they account for all such deposits."^
While it may be perfectly true that old graves con-
tained necklaces of precious beads and were actually
dug up for the purpose in the XIX. century, it stands
to reason that if this had been an old practice, not a
necropolis would have yielded any beads for centuries
earlier. Obviously there must be some other explana-
tion to the presence of large bead deposits in the soil at
Benin and in Zanzibar, and the presence of complete
apparatus for the manufacture of glass beads makes it
certain that we are dealing with a commercial practice,
most likely of Arabic origin. We have already seen
that the more precious shell was blue and dates back

1 F. B. Pearce, Zanzibar , the Island Metropolis

of Eastern Africa, London
1920, p, 355 ff.
 AGGRY BEADS 243

to a Chinese commercial custom. With the growth

of the glass industry the great advantage of manufac-
turing blue beads to take the place of the drilled shell
beads must have presented itself to the Chinese mind.
We actually have a documentary proof of the fact. In
1608 John Saris, in a letter from Bantam to the East
India Company, wrote: ''I have many times certified
your worships of the trade the Flemings follow to
Soocadanna (Sukadana) which place yieldeth great
store of diamonds, and of their manner of dealing for
them for gold principally which comes from Benier-
massen (Banjarmasim) and blue glass beads which the
Chinese make and sell 300 for a ps of eight, and they
are there worth a mas a 100 which is 3/. s. and some-
times more sometimes less according as gold doth rise
and fall. I have delivered one of those beads unto
our General to show unto your worships, to the end
that if we shall trade there, we may have the like beads
brought out of England at a cheaper rate."^
But Chinese wares, in enormous quantities, have
been found at Zanzibar and the whole eastern littoral:
"Portions of similar Chinese property belonging to the
Ming dynasty have been found, it is understood, at
Zimbabwe, and certainly along the littoral of East
Africa. The variety of markings and pattern is very
great; and from the quantities which strew the beaches
and ruined sites, the importation of china ware to East
Africa during the later Middle Ages must have been
on an extensive scale.
"Much of the pottery found at various places on the
East African coast, and also at the ruins in Zanzibar and
Pemba, cannot be included with the older and rarer
specimens referred to above. It is of later date, and,
as will be seen from the list of the Victoria and Albert

1 Letters Received by the East India Company from its Servants in the East,
London 1896, vol. I, p. 22.
244 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
Museum, belongs to the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. In some instances this more recent ware
may have come from Persia/'^ There can, therefore,
be no doubt that the glass beads of Zanzibar, hence
ofany other emporium in Africa, are due to the efforts
of the Persiansand Arabians in popularizing Chinese
commercial customs among the savages. But the
Arabs, as well as Marco Polo, were convinced that the
shells and porcelain were in some way related, and that
the porcelain had to weather in the ground for a long
time before it could be utilized.^ From this arose the
custom in Africa of considering glass or porcelain beads
of especial value, if they had weathered in the ground,
hence the preference shown by the Negroes to the
dimmed beads washed out from the soil, and the large
deposits of such beads in Arabic or European empori-
ums in Africa.
Duarte Pacheco does not speak of the Benin beads
as being of glass, but the Portuguese pilot distinctly
says that the aggry beads were not of glass, but of a
certain mineral. In 1624 Braun said that the natives
considered accarey to be a precious stone, but that it
grew in the sea like a coral, and that it was of a sky-
blue color, but transparently sea-green.^ However,
Braun's opinion is merely based on hearsay and does
not tell us anything certain of the material of these
beads. Balthasar Springer, in 1509, told of long blue
crystals which were current as money in West Africa.*
Similarly the Valentin Ferdinand Manuscript speaks of

1 F. B. Pearce, op. ciL, p. 358.

2 See p. 206 ff.
' G. Henning, op. cit., p. 38.
* "Diss volck braucht noch njrmpt bei ynen gantz kein gelt sunder allein
seltzam auenturige Ding als Spigel Messingring lang blawe Cristallein
vnd der geleichen manigerlei was yn seltzam ist vnd ynen do hyn bracht
wirt Do geben sie ware vmb ware vnnd was sie haben vnd bei yn wechst
stuck vor stuck noch yrer Hebe und zymlicher achtung der selben Ding,"
F. Schulze, Balthasar Springers Indienfahrt, 1505-06, Strassburg 1902, p. 37.
 AGGRY BEADS 246

**contas matamungos e christalina.*'^ ** Crystal'* may

refer to glass, but since we know that the Venetians

manufactured rock crystal beads before they took to
those of glass, it is more likely that we are here still in
the presence of stone beads. Matamungo is unques-
tionably of Hindu origin, of which the second part is
Hindustani manka, Guzerati manako **bead, gem," and
the first tells, no doubt, the material of which it was
made. At the end of the XVI. century, beads were
received both from India and Venice, for we read in
Alvares d'Almada^ of ''contaria da India'' and ''contaria,
continha de Veneza.''^ It is, therefore, apparent that
the bead money for Africa originated in Asia, that is,
principally Cambay, whence came the stone beads,
but in the XVI. century soon gave way to the counter-
feit Chinese and Venetian glass beads.
A
study of the bead- trade in the XVI. century re-
veals its enormous importance in Africa. In 1618 the
English factories still used agate and crystal beads,*
by the side of a great quantity of coral beads from the
Red Sea,^ and glass beads are also mentioned.^ Beads
from Cambay were soon dispatched to Surat, as an
experiment in the Madagascar trade."^ Red and white
Cambay beads^ and carnelian beads from the same

* Franz Hiimmerich, Quellen und Untersuchungen zur Fahrt der ersten

Deutschen nach dem portugiesischen Indien, 1505-6, in Abhandlungen der
Kgl. Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, philosophisch-philologische
und historische Klasse, Miinchen 1918, vol. XXX, part 3, p. 82.
2 A. Alvares d'Almada, op. cit.

3 Ibid,, pp. 16, 30.

* "Bloodstones are difficult to get. 'Aggat or babagoria beades' can be
furnished." W. Foster, The English Factories in India, 1618-1621, A
Calendar of Documents in the India Office, British Museum and Public
Record Offix^e, Oxford 1906, p. 52.
5 Ibid., p. 131.
6 Ibid., p. 184.
^ "Send 48 strings (24 corge) of beads suitable for barter in Madagascar,

costing half a rupee per corge. Will procure a further supply if these are
approved," ibid., 1622-23, p. 154.
8 Ibid.,
162U-29, p. 74.
246 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
place^ remained popular, but the Cambay trade de-
teriorated rapidly.^ At the same time the European
beads were becoming more popular. At first much
opposition was met with in Asia against the European
amber beads, ^ while coral became *' *the most staple and
vendible commodity' that Europe produces."* At the
same time the Portuguese made the small European
glass beads popular.^
In Africa Dapper, in the XVII. century, once refers
to rock-crystal (Bergh-Kristael)^ as current on the river
Gambia; occasionally he uses kristal, kristallein^ alone,
which may mean glass or coral, for he once himself adds
the remark that instead of rock-crystal (Bergh-Kristal)
they in his day rather used coral or beads. ^ Somewhat
later, Barbot mentions rock-crystal as imported at
James-Fort^ and crystals at Goeree^^ and crystal beads
at Sierra Leone, ^^ but as in the latter place he also speaks
of all sorts of counterfeit pearls and refers to false crys-
tals imported by the French at Goeree, while elsewhere
glass beads predominate to an overwhelming degree,
we get a definite proof of the tremendous deteriora-
1 Ibid., p. 209. "Have just unexpectedly procured 216,550 red cornelian
beads," ibid.,1630-33, p. 39.
2 "Long Mary for use in the next fleet. A
red cornelian beads sent in the
further supply shall be provided for the Jonas; as for quality, Cambaia,
where they are made, is so miserably decayed in those kind of artificers
that we must take what we can have, if wee will hould ourselves to such a
number as you command," ibid., 163J!t-1636, p. 62 f.
3 Ibid., pp. 131, 144, 173.

^lUd., 1637-16 Ul, p. 208.

^ "Forward a quantity of long beads, round cornelian beads, and 'a

small sort of glasse beads called by the Portugalls contaria.* The two latter
kinds were found by the Francis to be much more desired than the long
beads, 'which are not here (unlesse forebespoake) procurable without much
difficulty, and those scarse worth the buying,* " ibid., p. 289 f. ''Contaria
beads are also popular (at Madagascar), both there and along the coast of
Sofala," ibid., p. 296.
" O. Dapper, op. cit., part 1, fol. 419.

7 Ibid., part 2, fols. 10, 126.

8 Ibid., part 1, fol. 411.

» J. Churchill, op. cit., vol. V, p. 75.

" Ibid., p. 44.

" Ibid., p. 102.
 AGGRY BEADS 247

tion in the bead material which had taken place in two

hundred years in Africa. Barbot, like Dapper, defi-
nitely tells of akori as made at Benin from a blue coral, ^
which again shows a deterioration of the bead material,
already mentioned by Braun, as compared with Duarte
Pacheco's cori, which was still made from some stone.
In the XIV. century crystal jewels were taken from
Italy to China,^ obviously because they were manufac-
tured there for export. In 1493 a Venetian document
still speaks of the manufacture of glass crystal pipes
(cannal vitrorum cristalinorum) at Murano,^ but it is
impossible to determine whether the reference is to
rock-crystal or the glass substitute. In the XVII. c, as
we have seen, we have frequently references to Vene-
tian glass beads, but these are also manufactured in
France,^ especially in Rouen. It was apparently the
Venetians who introduced the long pipes into the
African trade, as the Negroes preferred to cut their
own beads out of them, and the French glass factories
continued this practice^ as appears from philological
considerations. In the Walloon region a pipe is called
hus8 or huzai, and in Old French the word was huse or
huise. The latter produced Dutch beviese ''long Vene-
tian bead.'* Marees tells of the Venetian heviesen,
brought to the Guinea Coast by the Dutch,^ which they
break into four or five pieces and regrind.^ These
^ ** . .Accory, or blue coral
. . . The blue coral grows in branchy
.

bushes, like the red coral, at the bottom of the river and lakes in Benin;
which the natives have a peculiar art to grind or work into beads like olives,"
ibid., p. 361; "the Accory is to be found no where but at Rio del Rey, and
thence along to Camarones River," ibid., p. 384.
2 C. A. Marin, Sioria civile e politica del commercio de' Veneziani, Vinegia

1800, vol. V, p. 261.

3 G. M. Thomas, Capitular des deutschen Hauses in Venedig, Berlin 1874,

p. 270.
* "They use glassbeads (glaze kralen), and other commodities, which the

French bring to them, instead of money," Dapper, op. cit., p. 703; "the
French import false crystal," J. Churchill, op. cit., vol. V, p. 44.
^ "Large beads from Rouen," ibid., p. 349.

« Op. cit., p. 274.

' Ibid.
248 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
long beads were popularized in England at least as
early as 1579, when they were mentioned by Spenser
in his Shepherd's Calendar under the name of bugles.
The word bugle is due to a confusion of the French
term buise with Old French buisine "trumpet, bugle.**
In Cotgrave^ we find ''buisine, buzine, busine a little
pipe, conduct pipe, water pipe, bag pipe," while in Old
French buisine is ** trumpet, flute, pipe** and buse is also
"some kind of trumpet." Hence the name of the
musical instrument bugle was in England transferred
to the Venetian glass-pipe bead.
We thus get a confirmation of the fact that the stone
and coral beads of antiquity reentered commerce in the
Middle Ages as a substitute for money, the supremacy
held by Cambay in the XVI. century passing over to
the countries which manufactured glass counterfeits,
China, Venice, France. In Africa, the old emporiums
in the Benin country preserved a reminiscence of the
early stone-bead money until the XVII. century, but
as early as the XVI. century the glass beads usurped
their place throughout the greater part of Africa, by
the side of the two- valued shell-money.

1 R. Cotgrave, A Didionarie of the French and English Tongues, London

1632.
 CHAPTER IV.

Wampum.^

Jacques Cartier, in 1534, described the shell-money

of Canada as follows: **The most precious thing that
they have in this world is esnogny, the which is white as
snow, and they take it in the same river from the
cornibotz in the manner which follows: When a man
has deserved death, or when they have taken any
enemies in war, they kill them, then cut them upon the
buttocks, thighs, and shoulders with great gashes;
afterward in the places where the said esnogny is they
sink the said body to the bottom of the water, and leave
it ten or twelve hours then draw it up and find within
;

the said gashes and incisions the said cornibotz, of

which they make bead money and use it as we do gold
and silver, and hold it the most precious thing in the
world. It has the virtue of stanching blood from the
nostrils, because we have tried it."^
The French texts write esurgny, esnogny, enogny,
esvogny^ as the name of the shell, and the correct form can
be established from the still existing word in some of the
Algonquin languages. We have Cree soniyaw **silver,"
soniyawikamik **bank," Otchipwejonna* 'money, silver,'*
*
joniians 'shilling," where the meaning "silver" is due
to an association with French ** argent," which means
1 For a full account read W. M. Beauchamp, Wampum and Shell Articles

Used by the New York Indians, in Bulletin of the New York State Museum,
No. 41, vol. 8, p. 327 flf. Here I deal only with origins.
« J. P. Baxter, A Memoir of Jacques Cartier, Sieur de Limoilou, New York
1906, p. 165 f.
' A. d'Avezac, Bref recit et succincte narration de la navigation faite
en MDXXXV MDXXXVI -par
et le capitaine Jacques Cartier aux ties de
Canada, Hochelaga, Saguenay et autres, Paris 1863, p. 58.
250 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
both "silver" and ''money." Micmac sooleawa, Mon-
tagnais shuliau 'money" is most likely a corruption
*

of English "silver," while Abnaki manni "money" is

obviously the corresponding English word. Cree soni-
yaw is found again in Long Island in 1642, when the
Dutch are called by the Indians Swanneke,^ that is, the
"money people."^ This is derived from sewan, zea-
want: "This money consists of zeawant, which is noth-
ing more than the inside little pillars of the conckshells,
which the sea casts up twice a year. These pillars they
polish smooth, drill a hole through the centre, reduce it
to a certain size, and string the pieces on threads. The
strings fill the place of gold, silver and copper coin."^
"Their money is certain shells or horns found at the
seashore, and these horns they rub on a stone as thin
as they wish. Then they drill a hole through them and
string them on a wire, or make of them strings a hand
wide or more, and these they hang around the neck or
body or through holes in their ears, or make caps for
their heads of them, and there are two kinds of them,
the white being the cheaper, the brownish-blue the
better, and they give two white shells for one brown,
and these are called by them zeewan, and they prize
them as much as Christians prize gold, silver, and
pearls."^
From these considerations it follows that suogny is
nearly the form intended by Cartier, and that it has the
general meaning of "money." We have already seen
1 D. P. de Vries, Korte historiael ende journaels aenteyckeninge van ver-
sckeyden voyagiens in de vier deelen des wereldts-ronde, als Europa, Africa^
Asittf ende Amerika gedaen, 's-Gravenhage 1911, p. 250.
2 "Sewan-hacky, the name frequently applied by the Dutch to Long Island,

was compounded from sewan, and the Delaware word hacky, or hacking
*the land,' " J. R. Brodhead, History of the State of New York, New York
1853, vol. I, p. 172.
' Extracts from a work called Breeden Raedi aen de vereenighde Neder-
landsche Provintien, printed in Antwerp in 1649, translated from the Dutch
original by Mr. C. in E. B. O'Callaghan's The Documentary History of the
State of New York, Albany 1851, vol. IV, p. 128.
* De Vries, op. cit., p. 243.
 WAMPUM 251

that Cartier several times referred to BraziP in con-

nection with Canada, hence we may expect him here,
too, to give the name current in Brazil for ''money,"
which, no doubt, had been carried north before him.
Indeed, in the native language of Brazil we have gaang
'*to experiment, prove, try," gaangaha ''token, mold,
picture, signal, figure, form," while the Portuguese itself
has missanga "bead," from the Bantu word for "blue
currency,"^ which shows that the Brazilian word was de-
rived from the transference of the African word to Euro-
pean stamped money. In the other Tupi languages
this gaang was taken to be a compound with the personal
prefix f producing a root aang, haang, and even haa,
,

with nearly the same meaning. We have Guarani

haa, haangaha "signal, picture, image, medal, attempt,
resemblance," which again leads back to a meaning
"token." Cartier calls the mussel from which the shell
is obtained cornibotz. This is a real French name for
the mussel, the modern escargot, for which there are re-
corded escorobot, escarbot, echarbot.^
apparent from the account of the catching of the
It is
mussels that we have here an exaggeration of the
African manner of obtaining them by means of a hide,*
except that a more gruesome practice of killing men
for the purpose is substituted. That the whole story
is of African origin is further proved by the reference
to the stanching of blood with the shell, which is due
to a confusion with the account of the carnelian beads,
which were reputed to stanch the blood. Thus Duarte
Pacheco says that the alaquequas, that is, the agates,
are called estancar sangue "blood stanchers."^

* See Africa and the Discovery of America, vol. I, p. 137.

2 See p. 226.
3 E. RoUand, Faune populaire de la France, Paris 1881, vol. Ill, p. 193.
* See p. 210.
6 Op. ciU, lib. I, cap. XXXI, p. 161, and Ibn-al-Baitar, op. cit, Nos.
1565, 1566.
252 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
In the beginning of the XVII. century we have fuller
accounts of the beads used by the Indians in Canada.
Lescarbot,^ whose work appeared in 1609, that is, a
little over seventy years after Jacques Cartier, shows
what great changes had taken place in the use of beads
among the Indians of Canada: "They are content to
have matachiaz hanging in their ears and about their
necks, bodies, arms, and legs. The Brazilians, Flori-
dians, and Armouchiquois make necklaces and brace-
lets (called hou-re in Brazil and matachiaz by us) from
the shells of the large sea mussels, called vignols and
resembling snails, which they cut and collect in a thou-
sand pieces, then polish them on a sandstone and make
them very small and, piercing them, make of them
rosaries which resemble those that we call ^porcelain.'
In these necklaces they alternate other beads, which
are as black as the others are white, of jet or hard
black wood which resembles it, which they polish and
reduce as they wish, and all this is very gracefully done;
and if things are to be esteemed according to the fashion,
even as we have things done among our merchants,
these necklaces, sashes, and bracelets of vignol or por-
celain are finer than pearls (albeit I shall not be
believed), and they are prized more than pearls, gold
or silver, and what those of the Great River of Canada
in the days of Jacques Cartier called esurgni, a word
which I find it hard to understand and which Belle-
Forest did not understand when he spoke of it. Nowa-
days they do not have them, or have lost the trade, for
they make great use of the matachiaz brought to them
from France. At Port Royal and in the sur-
.

rounding country, and near Terre Neuve and Tadous-

sac, where they have no pearls, nor vignols, the girls
and women make matachiaz from fishbone or porcupine
quills, which they tint black, white and vermilion, as

* M. Lescarbot, op. ciU, vol. Ill, p. 707 ff.

 WAMPUM 253

bright as possible, for our scarlet has nothing like the

luster of their red color. But they prefer the mata-
chiaz which come from the country of the Armouchi-
quois, and buy them at high prices. And since they
get but little of it, on account of the war which the two
constantly wage with each other, they bring to them
from France the matachiaz made from small glass pipes
mixed with tin or lead, which is sold to them by the
fathom, for lack of an ell measure Some of . . .

them have belts made of matachiaz, which they use

only when they want to make a show or appear brave.''
The shell-beads were not entirely abandoned, for
twenty-three years later Sagard-Th^odat found them
still in use among the Hurons, under the name of ono-
coirota,^ the modern onekorha. Sagard's matachiaz is
the French madache, matasse, originally "silk stuff,"
but more commonly used in the sense of "string," that
is, in our case "string of beads," which formed the unit

of money value, in Africa as well as in America. It is

interesting to find in Lescarbot's vocabulary of native
words "needle" translated by mocouschis, "awl" by
mocous,^ obviously the same word, and referring to the
imported steel implements, the latter used in the drilling
of the shells. Not all the Algonquin languages possess
the word. We have Otchipwe migoss "awl, bodkin,"
Delaware muckoos "awl, nail," Natick mukqs "awl,"
Narraganset mucksuk "awl blades." But a confusion
with English "nail," which refers to the extremities of
the body, produced Abnaki m'kuse "nail, claw, hoof,"
Natick muhkos, muhkas "nail, claw, talon, hoof."
TrumbulP tries to derive all these from a root uhqude
* F. G. Sagard-Theodat, Le grand voyage du pays des Hurons, Paris 1865,
vol. I, p. 135, and G. Sagard-Theodat, Histoire du Canada et voyages que
les Frkres Mineurs Recollects y ont faicts pour la conversion des infideles, Paris
1866, vol. I, p. 252 f.
2 Op. cit, vol. Ill, p. 667.
3 J. H. Trumbull, Natick Dictionary, in Smithsonian Institution, Bureau
of American Ethnology, Washington 1903, Bulletin 25, p. 168.
254 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
"at the point or extremity of," and this will be dis-
cussed further on. Forty years before Cartier the
needle became known in the Carribean, through the
Spaniards, as Carib acoucha, Arawak akussa, Galibi
cacossa, etc.,^ and we shall see that the oldest refer-
ence to shell-money is found in the Spanish Darien,
hence in migoss, mocouschis, muckoos, all in regions
where shell-money is mentioned at an early time, we
must look for derivations of Spanish aguxa, that is,
modern aguja "needle.''
We have already seen that the Dutch popularized
shell-money at Long Island. In New England it was
unknown until introduced there by Governor Bradford
in 1627, but it took two years to familiarize the Indians
with its use: "That which turned out most to their
profite in time, was an entrance into the trade of Wam-
pompeake; for they now bought aboute 50" worth of
it of them; and they told them how vendable it was at
their forte Crania, [Aurania, now Albany] and did per-
swade them they would find it so at Kenebeck; and so
it came to pass in time, though at first it stuck, & it
was 2 years before they could put of this small quantity,
till y* inland people knew of it; and afterwards they
could scarcely ever gett enough for them, for many
years togeather And strange it was to see
. .

the great alteration it made in a few years amonge y*

Indeans themselves; for all the Indeans of these parts,
& y^ Massachusetts, had none or very little of it; but
y® sachems & some spetiall persons that wore a little
of it for ornaments. Only it was made and kepte
amonge y* Nariganssetts & Pequents, which grew rich
& potent by it, and these people were poore & begerly,
and had no use of it. Neither did the English of this
plantation, or any other in y® land, till now that they
had knowledge of it from y* Dutch, so much as know
» See vol. I, p. 50.
 222 228
zzr

INDIAN BEADS, from W. M. Beauchamp's Wampum and

Shell Articles.
 f

"1

C6
(07

,^J-

)
J

\ \ 7

li4
\b

119 lao
^
INDIAN LONG BEADS, from W. M. Beauchamp's Wampum and Shell Articles.
 WAMPUM 255

what was, much less y' it was a comoditie of that

it
worth &
valew. But after it grue thus to be a comodi-
tie in these parts, these Indeans fell into it allso, and to
learne how to make it; for y® Narigansets doe geather
y* shells of make it from their shors. And
which y®^
it hath now continued a current comoditie aboute
this 20 years, and it may prove a drugg in time. In y*
mean time it makes y® Indeans of these parts rich and
power full, and allso prowd therby and fills them with
;

peeces, powder, and shots, which no laws can re-

strained'^ In the State of New York the shell-beads
dug up from the graves present the same distinction
between white and blue beads^ as in Canada and Africa,
and, besides, we find here a large number of pipe beads,^
originally popularized in Africa by the Venetians.
Similar pipes have been found in the graves of the
Mound-builders,* which is significant for the dating of
these graves.
We have already seen that the Dutch and Indian name
*
sewan, zeewant for 'money" is related to Cartier's
esnogny and some modern Indian names for 'money," *

hence the assumed derivation from an Algonquin word

meaning "to scatter" is inadmissible. The beads
themselves are recorded under hi, pi, plural hiak, peak,
which, again, are related to the African and Chinese
words for 'shell-bead." The white bead was known
*

as suckauhoek. This biak, peak is unfortunately not

recorded in many Indian languages, as representing a
rare connotation outside of the region where it was
found and distributed by the aid of white traders, but
none the less, it is found in scattered places throughout
both Americas.
1 Beauchamp, op. ciL, p. 355.
2 IMd., p. 332.
3 Ibid., p. 369 ff.
Ibid., p. 337.
 :

256 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

It can, however, be shown, that the Canadian and
New York wampum belts are related to the Brazilian
wampum belt, which itself is of African origin. In his
La cosmographie universelle^ Thevet tells of ''a certain
kind of white necklaces made of very small cockle shells
(vignotz), which they take in the sea and prize very
highly. The beads which come to France, which are
as white as ivory, are brought from this country, and
the savages themselves make them, and the sailors
buy them at a low price; and from there came the first
belts, which were ever seen in France as made of that
material; which they make so round, without file or
other iron utensil, but only with rough stones, with
which they cut and round them: with which stones,
I that are black and gray, they used to cut trees, and
make wedges of them, before the Christians taught them
the use of iron. When the beads were first brought to
I
France, they thought that they were of white coral,
and some said that it was porcelain. Call them what
you may, I have seen them made of bones and fishscales
of which the women over there wear bracelets as large
as are those of soldiers over here."^ From this we
learn that the first wampum belts in Europe came from
Brazil. Hans Stade similarly tells of the white rosa-
ries made of a kind of sea-shell: "Of these the king
had also some six fathoms length hanging round his
neck.''^ '*They wear an ornament, which they make
out of large snail-shells; these they call mattepue. It
is made like a crescent, to hang round the neck, and it
issnow-white; they call it hogessy.'"^ Lery gives a some-
what different account of the Brazilian bead necklace
**When after a long time they have polished on a piece
of sandstone an infinity of small pieces of a large sea-
shell called vignol, which they round out and make as
1 Op. 931 b.
cit., fol.
2 Op. p. 72 f. (cap. 28).
cit.,
3 Ibid., p. 139 (cap. 15).
 WAMPUM 257

fine and round as a Tours dime, pierced through the

middle, they make necklaces of them called hoil-re,
which, when they so wish, they put around their necks,
as we do in our country with gold chains. This is
what, in my opinion, some call 'porcelaine' of which
we see our women over here wear belts, some of them
more than three fathoms, as beautiful as you may wish
to see, when I arrived in France. The savages also
make necklaces called hoil-re from a certain kind of
black wood, which, being almost as heavy and shining
as jet, is quite appropriate for it."^ ''And so, to use
them for that purpose, they consider as very beauti-
ful the small yellow, blue, green, and other glass but-
tons, strung like beads and called maurouhi, of which
we have brought such a large number to traffic with
them over there. Indeed, as soon as we land in their
villages, or they come to our fort, to get them from us,
they present us some fruit or other native article, with
their speeches full of flattery, as they are wont to do,
bothering our heads, they incessantly keep repeating:
'Mair, deagatorem amahe maurouhi, Frenchman, you
are good, give me some of your glass button bracelets.' "^
Stade's hogessy, Lory's hoii-re ''necklace" are the
modern Guarani mhoi-rici "bead necklace," preserved
in Tupi as mo yra, while Lory's maurouhi is the Guarani
mboi rohi "blue beads." We
thus get the Guarani
mhoi, poi "shell-bead," which is obviously identical
with the African ahuy^ etc. It is strange that the
French writers on Brazil, who so freely use vignot,
vignol for "a large shell," should not have known that
it is a French word. Belon, before L^ry, wrote: "The
French call the beads made from large vignols, por-

* J. de L6ry, Histoire d'un voyage faid en la terre du Bresil, Paris 1880,

vol. I, p. 126 f. (chap. VIII).
2 Ibid., p. 135 f.
258 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
celain beads. "^ These shells are found in enormous
quantities at Dieppe, hence it is most likely that the
French accounts referring to the shell-beads in Brazil
hark back to Dieppe accounts, and so may precede the
discovery of America by a century. It is, therefore,
in the Norman country that the wampum belt, as a
precious ornament for European women, had its origin
and was by the Frenchmen transferred to Brazil and
Canada.
*'Sheir' and **bead'' words are not often given in the
scanty vocabularies that have come down to us, and
only fragmentary information is possible here. It is
not at all surprising that Brazilian poi should turn up
as peag, etc., in Canada, since again and again we will
find the close relationship of European and African
influence skipping from Brazil to the St. Lawrence.
The other Algonquin languages do not seem to have
a word corresponding to hi, pi, but the Canadian
languages of this group throw a bright light on the
relation of the shell-money to the French art of drilling.
Cree mokisis **bead" and mikisi-yagan "plate, porce-
lain," which has the meaning both of "chinaware" and
*
'shell-bead," Otchipwe migiskan ''fish-hook" once more
show the relation to "awl, bodkin" and, at the same
time, help us to determine the origin of the Natick
words uhquae, originally "sharp point," uhkos "nail,"
uhquan "fish-hook" as either contaminations with some
other Algonquin roots, or, more likely, as derived
directly from a Spanish aguxa, aguja "needle," of
which all the others are derivatives.
We have a full description of shell-money in Virginia
in the beginning of the XVIII. century: "The In-
dians had nothing which they reckoned Riches, before
the English went among them, except Peak, Roenoke,
1 P. Belon du Mans, Les observations de plusieurs singularitez & choses
memorables, trouvees en Grece, Asie, Judee, Egypte, Arabic, & autres 'pays
estranges, Paris 1555, fol. 134a (cap. LXXI).
 WAMPUM 259

and such made out of the Cunk shell. These

like trifles
past with them instead of Gold and Silver, and serv'd
them both for Money and Ornament. It was the
English alone that taught them first to put a value on
their Skins and Furs, and to make a Trade of them.

*'Peak is of two sorts, or rather of two colours, for

both are made of one shell, tho of different parts; one
is a dark Purple Cylinder, and the other a white ; they
are both made in size, and figure alike, and commonly
much resembling the English Buglas, but not so trans-
parent nor so brittle. They are wrought as smooth
as Glass, being one third of an inch long, and about a
quarter, diameter, strung by a hole drill' d thro the
Center. The dark colour is the dearest, and dis-
tinguish'd by the name of Wampom Peak. The
English men that are called Indian Traders, value the
Wampom Peak, at eighteen pence per Yard, and the
white Peak at nine pence. The Indians also make
Pipes of this, two or three inches long, and thicker than
ordinary, which are much more valuable. They also
make Runtees of the same Shell, and grind them as
smooth as Peak. These are either large like an Oval
Bead, and drilled the length of the Oval, or else they
are circular and flat, almost an inch over, and one
third of an inch thick, and drill'd edgeways. Of this
Shell they also make round Tablets of about four inches
diameter, which they polish as smooth as the other, and
sometimes they etch or grave thereon. Circles, Stars, a
Half Moon, or any other figure suitable to their fancy.
These they wear instead of Medals before or behind
their Neck, and use the Peak, Runtees and Pipes for
Coronets, Bracelets, Belts or long Strings hanging
down before the Breast, or else they lace their garments
with them, and adorn their Tomahawks, and every
other thing that they value.
260 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
''They have also another sort which is as current
among them, but of far less value; and this is made of
the Cockle shell, broke into small bits with rough
edges, drill'd through in the same manner as Beads,
and this they call Roenoke, and use it as the Peak.
"These sorts of Money have their rates set upon them
as unalterable, and current as the values of our Money
are.
**The Indians have likewise some Pearl amongst
them, and formerly had many more, but where they
got them is uncertain, except they found 'em in the
Oyster Banks, which are frequent in this Country."^
Captain Smith gives the meaning "chain" to roenoke
or rawrenock; hence there is, in all likelihood, no essen-
tial difference between this and wampum, except that
the first was thought of as part of a necklace, while the
second, being more carefully worked, was money proper.
It is also clear that the shell-money was introduced
into Virginia from the north by the traders acquainted
with the Long Island or New England method of shell
grinding and boring. Thus we see that since the day
of Jacques Cartier the shell-money was taken from
Canada first to and near Long Island, and then to
Virginia. In the beginning of the XVI. century two
streams of commercial enterprise are observable in the
region of the Great Lakes, one emanating from Brazil,
through the acquaintance of the French and, possibly,
Portuguese traders along the St. Lawrence with the
conditions prevailing in Brazil, and the other, an over-
land influence, obviously along the Mound-builders'
route, from the Gulf of Mexico, whence the Spanish
or Negro method of working shell-money was trans-
ferred to the region of the Great Lakes.

1 R. Beverley, The History and Present State of Virginia, London 1705,

Book III, p. 58 f.
 ;

WAMPUM 261

Fortunately we get ten years earlier than in Cartier a

documentary proof of the extension of the shell-money
trade from Panama of Nicaragua at least toward Peru
thus the Carribean wampum trade is, at least as re-
corded, older than the one in the north. We have
already seen^ that in 1525 Indians from Peru exchanged
a large number of commodities for shell-money off the
coast of Nicaragua or Darien.^ Uhle^ says that all
these articles mentioned were manufactured by the
Chimus, and that the Spondilus pictorum and Conus
Fergusoni, the shells found very near the shores of
Lower California and Central America and abundantly
deposited in graves at Trujillo^ and Ancon,^ are sufficient
proof of a commercial relation between Peru and Central
America. At Tiahuanaco a great number of shell-
beads are found which must have come from the sea,
1 See p. 78.
2 "Este navio que digo que tomo, tenia parecer de cabida de hasta treinta
toneles; era hecho por el plan y quilla de unas caiias tan gruesas como
postes, ligadas con sogas de uno que dicen eneguen, que es como caiiamo,
y los altos de otras canas mas delgadas, ligadas con las dichas sogas, adonde
venian sus personas y la mercaduria en enjuto porque lo bajo se banaba.
Traia sus mdstiles y antenas de muy fina madera y velas de algodon del
mismo talle, de manera que los nuestros navios, y muy buena jarcia del dicho
eneguen que digo, que es como cdnamo, y unas potalas por anclas 4 manera
de muela de barbero. Y
traian muchas piezas de plata y de oro por el
ario de sus personas para hacer rescate con aquellas con quien iban i con-
tratar, en que intervenian coronas y diademas y cintos y ponietes y arma-
duras como de piernas, y petos y tenazuelas y cascabeles y sartas y mazos
de cuentas y rosecleres y espejos guarnecidos de la dicha plata, y tazas y
otra vasijas para beber; traian muchas mantas de lana y de algodon, y
camisas y aljulas y alcaceres y alaremes y otras muchas ropas, todo lo mas
de ello muy labrado de labores muy ricos de colores de grana y carmisf, y
azul y amarillo, y de todas otras coores de diversas maneras de labores
y figuras de aves y animales y pescados y arboledas; y traian unos pesos
chiquitos de pesar oro, como hechura de romana, y otras muchas cosas.
En algunas sartas de cuentas venian algunas piedras pequenas de esmeraldas
y cacadonias, y otras piedras y pedazos de cristal y dnime. Todo esto
traian para rescatar por unas conchas de pescado de que ellos hacen cuentas
coloradas como corales, y blancas, que traian casi el navfo cargado de ellas."
Coleccion de doeumentos ineditos 'para la historia de Espana, Madrid 1844,
vol. V, p. 196 f.
3 La esfera de influencias del pais de los Incas, in Revista historica, organo

del Instituto Historico del Peru, Lima 1909, vol. IV, p. 22.
* Ibid., p. 10.
5 Reiss & Stiibel, The Necropolis of Ancon, vol. Ill, plate 83.
262 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
and the question arises whether these do not belong to
a later Inca period.^ Thus we are once more con-
fronted with the fact that the Chimu culture belongs
to a later time than generally assumed. No wonder,
then, that the Chimu graves contain representations
of peanuts and other fruits which have been shown to
be of African origin. According to the pilot's state-
ment, Christianity was already known in 1525 off the
coast of Peru,^ and now, that we are sure that this
report refers to the Chimus, we can determine the
name Maria Meseia, obviously that of the Virgin Mary,
from the Chimu language. In Chimu^ mecherrdk
means 'woman, doiia," hence Maria Meseia literally
*

means "Lady Mary," and the presence of Christianity

off the shore of Peru is once more established. But
if there was Christianity there, traders must have
existed there before, and the relation of Peru to Pan-
ama or Nicaragua
is simply the result of the influence
of traders, eitherwhite or black, who emanated from
that region, and we have seen that Negroes were settled
in Darien before the first white settlement.
Indeed, Andagoya tells that in Careta, about thirty
leagues from Darien, "shells were used as articles of
1 "Auch ist nicht anzunehmen, dass der Titicaca See selbst solche Muscheln

wie die, aus welcher Fig. 57 gearbeitet ist, darbietet. Das Material diirfte
dem Ocean entnommen sein. Durch alle solche Umstande wird die Frage
geweckt, ob hier nicht die Beweise einer Ketechuischen Werkstatte feinerer
Arbeitsmateriale, statt einer einheimischen der CoUa vorliegen. SoUte es
eine von Ketschuas gehaltene gewesen sein, so ware hochst auffallend deren
Niederlassung auf dem Platze anderer alterer Denkmaler einer ganz anderen
Kulturperiode, gewissermassen unter den Triimmern derselben," A. Stiibel,
W. Reiss und B. Koppel, Kultur und Industrie sudamerikanischer Volker,
Berlin 1889, vol. I, p. 52.
2 "Hay una en la mar junto d los pueblos donde tienen una casa de
isla
oracion hecha d manera de tienda de campo, toldada de muy ricas mantas
labradas, adonde tienen una imagen de una muger con un nifio en los
brazos que tiene por nombre Maria Meseia: cuando alguno tiene alguna
enfermedad en alguno miembro, hdcele un miembro de plata 6 de oro, y
ofr^cesela, y le sacrifican delante de la imdgen ciertas ovejas en ciertos
tiempos." Coleccion de documentos ineditos para la historia de Espana,
vol. V, p. 200.
3 E. W. Middendorf, Das Muchik oder die Chimu-Sprache, Leipzig 1892.
 WAMPUM 263

barter with the inner lands, for they were not found
anywhere except on the sea coast, "^ and in the region
nearby "there was a principal woman of this land who
said that there was a belief among the chiefs (for the
common people do not talk of these things) that there is ,

a beautiful woman with a child in heaven; but the story

goes no further."^ There is a great deal of confusion
about this region, for Careta also appears as the name
of a cacique near Darien, and both seem to be identical
with Quareca, given by Gomara as the name of a
province nearby, while Herrera records it as the name
of a region. In any case, it is right here that Gomara
records the only Negroes in America, hence we once
more get the close relation between the shell trade
and semi-Christian Negroes, that is, those of Portu-
guese or French origin. «;.>eancroj:t: Librarjlj

We are again brought back to the transference to

America of African commerce, of which we have heard
so much. The bread roots, tobacco, wampum, all pro-
ceeded in their dissemination in America along the
same roads. The only question is to determine the
date of the first contact. There can be little doubt
that in some things the African influence was exerted
before Columbus, and that this influence could not
have existed before the XI. century is plain from the
fact that the many Mandingo words met with in con-
nection with our words are of Arabic origin. Most
likely the Mandingos first reached America in the middle
of the XV. century, with the Portuguese explorers, but
should it be possible to prove that the French traders
had reached America from the Guinea coast, where
they were found already at the end of the XIV. cen-
tury, the first contact of Africa and America may be
set back another half a century. Here we enter a
1 P. de Andagoya, Narrative of the Proceedings of Pedrarias Davila, trans,
and ed. by C. R. Markham (TheHakluyt Society), London 1865, p. 9.
2 Ibid., p. 15.
264 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
field of speculation only and must patiently wait for
further evidence, before the final judgment can be
passed.
The Chimus got their shells from Darien or Nicara-
gua, but they also received the impetus for the making
of the shell-beads from the same region, for we have
accounts in regard to the manufacture of such beads
in these regions. *'In these islands (off the coast of
Nicaragua), there are some fishes which the Christians
call *pi6 de burro,' which are like large and fat wafers,
and in them pearls are also found. The sea people affirm
that it is the best fish of all. From their conchs the
Indians make very fine and colored beads for their
necklaces and bracelets, which they call chaquira, and
which look like corals and they also make them mur-
;

rey and white, and each color is perfect in the beads

which they make of these conches of the 'pie de burro,*
and they are quite hard; these 'pies de burro' are as
large as a man's hand, a^nd further down they are some-
what smaller."^ The same is told of the province of
Cueva in Castilla del Oro: **From these large shells
they make certain small white beads, and others red,
and others black, and others murrey, and little pipes
of the same: and they make bracelets in which they
mix with these beads others, and beads of gold which
are placed on the wrists and above the ankles and below
the knees for ornament, especially the women who
consider themselves highly and belong to the leading
class wear all these things on the limbs, as above men-
tioned, and about their necks, and they call these neck-
laces and such like things cachira.''^
But we possess also another version of the pilot's
voyage toward Peru, by Oviedo, who received it
directly from the participants in the expedition from
1 G. F. de Oviedo, Historia general y natural de laa Indias, Madrid 1853,
vol. Ill, p. 110.
2 Ibid., p. 138.
 WAMPUM 265

which we learn that the Nicaraguan and Peruvian shell

ornaments were identical with those used by the Portu-
guese in the Guinea trade: "We saw on the ocean side
a ship of great size, which looked like lateen sails, and
the captain and people voyaging in it were getting
ready to fight, if it was necessary. And he bore down
upon the boat and took it, and they found that it was
a ship of merchants from those parts, who were going
on their commercial errand, and in it were as many as
twenty people, men, women, and children. This boat
was constructed of heavy timbers strongly tied together
with henequen ropes, with its quarterdecks, cabins,
rudder, sails and tackle, and large stone blocks of the
size of barber stones, which served in the place of
anchors. They carried red conchshells, which there are
in Chaquira, that is, strings of beads, such as are found
in the Canary Islands, which are sold to the king of
Portugal for Guinea, and for these the Indians give
all the gold and silver and cloth which they carry for
barter. They carried many black vessels and many
garments of various colors, made of wool, shirts, finely-
wrought colored mantles, white cloth with fringes, all
new, for the trade, and dyed wool, wool dye, and many
other delicate and fine things, from which it appeared
that they were a clever people, but they look something
like Berberisci. They told us the way they mined
gold, and they said that they had sheep which they
sheared every year, and that there were inhabited
islands, and many pearls, and that they slept in beds
with cotton sheets. They worship certain idols; their
arms are lances, bows, and macanas, like those of the
Indians of certain parts of Cueva, and in other
parts they had no wars. They salt their fish, to keep
it, as we do. The Indians are dressed in shirts, and
the women in enaguas and shirts and mantles thrown
under their arms, like the women of the Moors or in
266 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
the Canary Islands. They have assays with which to
tellthe gold, and scales to weigh it; they worked silver
and other metals, and knew it very well: and they
carried a certain quantity of either, and they informed
us that in their country there were many precious
stones."^
Oviedo was not sure what the chaquira or cachira was,
except that it referred to some kind of fine bead, and
thought that it might be the name of the bead necklace.
We learn more from Cieza de Leon, who says that in Peru
they wear **a few ornaments, such as jewels of gold and
very small beads, called chaquira. In some provinces I
have myself seen that the people put so high a value on
these chaquiras, that they will give their weight in gold
for them. "^ Few are the things they now make in com-
'
'

parison with the great and rich ornaments they made

*"E vido venir del bordo de la mar un navio que hagia muy grand bulto,
que paresgia vela latina, y el maestre e los que con 61 yban se aparejaron
para pelear, fuesse menester; 6 arribo sobrel navio e le tomaron, I hallaron
si
que era un navio de tractantes de aquellas partes, que venian a ha^er sus
rescates, en el qual venian hasta veynte personas, hombres e mugeres 6
muchachos.
"La manera deste navio era de muy gruessos maderos reatados fuerte-
mente con sogas resgias de henequen, con su alcdgar 6 retretes e gobernalles,
velas 6 xargias 6 potales de piedras grandes, tamanas como piedras de
barbero, que sirven en lugar de dncoras. Llevaban conchas coloradas, de
que hay en Chaquira, id est sartales, como los de las islas de Canaria, que se
venden al rey de Portugal para el rescate de Guinea; e por estas dan los indios
todo el oro 6 plata e ropas que traen de rescate. Traian muchos cdntaros
negros 6 mucha ropa de diverssas colores, de lana, e camisas 6 ayubas,
e mantas de colores muy labradas, panos blancos con franja, todo nuevo,
para contractar; € lana de colores, tinta en lana 6 otras muchas cosas sutiles
e muy primas, en que paresgia bien ser gente entendida. Y eran de buena
dispusigion de personas; mas tienen alguna semejanga de berberiscos.
Degian la manera de como sacan el oro; 6 degian que hay ovejas 6 que las
tresquilan cada afio, 6 que hay islas pobladas, 6 que hay muchas perlas, 6
que duermen en camas con sdbanas de algodon. Adoran giertos ydolos:
sus armas son lancas e tiraderas e macanas, como los indios de Cueva en
algunas partes, 6 que en otras no tienen guerra. Salan los pescados, para
su mantenimiento, como nosotros. Los Indios andan vestidos con camisas,
6 las indias con sus enaguas e camisas e mantas echadas debaxo del brago,
a manera de moras 6 canarias. Traen toque para conosger el oro 6 romana
para pessarlo 6 pessar la plata labrada 6 otros metales, 6 con6s5enlo muy
bien: 6 traian cierta cantidad de lo uno 6 de lo otro, 6 dieron notigia que
en la tierra avia muchas piedras de valor," ibid., vol. IV, p. 121 f.
2 C. R. Markham, op. ciL, p. 176 (chap. XLVI).
 brm:^^?^

PERUVIAN BEADS, from Reiss and Stuebel's The Necropolis of Ancon.

 WAMPUM 267

in the time of the Yncas. They, however, make the

chaquiras, so small and accurately worked, by which
they show themselves eminent workers in
still to be
silver."^ To de la Vega says: "Pedro
this Garcilasso
Cieza, in chapter XLIV, speaks at length of the wealth
found in those temples and royal chambers of the prov-
inces of the Canaries as far as Tumipampa, which the
Spaniards call Tomebamba outside of which
wealth there was a very great quantity of treasure in
pitchers and pots, and other vessels, and much clothing,
very rich and full of silver work and chaquira
The Spaniards name chaquira certain very small gold
beads, smaller than any glass beads, which the Indians
make with such skill and dexterity, that the best silver-
smiths whom I knew in Seville asked me how that was
done, because although so small the joints are soldered;
I found a few in Spain, and they marveled at them
greatly."^ Pedro Pizarro, in 1571, similarly wrote:
''There were mantles made of gold and silver chaquira,
which are certain very small beads, marvelous to look
at, because everything was full of these beads, without a
thread showing, like cloth of a closely woven net, and
these mantles were for the ladies."^
It follows from Garcilasso de la Vega that chaquiras
is not a native Peruvian word, but was introduced by
the Spaniards from Castillo del Oro. Here the form
cachira prevails over an enormous territory. It is
still found in Carib and Arawak, for we get Arawak
kassuru ''bead," Carib ''cachourou rassade, sont petits
grains de verre blanc, rond comme petites perles, on
I'apporte de Venise, au moins la plus grade partie, les
Sauuages es en sont fort curieux en enfillent dans des
petites cordes de pitte, puis la tournent au lieu de la
1IhU., p. 404 f. (chap. CXIV).
2
Ov. ciL, parte 1, lib. VIII, cap. 5 (The Hakluyt Society).
3 P. Pizarro, Descubrimienio y conquista del Peru, in Coleccion de libros
y documentos referentes a la hisioria del Peru, Lima 1917, vol. VI, p. 74.
268 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
iartiere la largeur de trois doigts, au tour du bras, entre
I'epaule &
le coude, au poignet au lieu de brasselets
(outre les escharpes dont i'ay parle cy-deuant) eela &
paroist fort sur leur corps rougis: les femmes n'en
sont pas moins curieuses que les hommes/'^ In Campa
we have ghanquiro "mussel/' which is, no doubt, related
to the Carib and Arawak words.
It is not difficult to show how all these arose in the
gold trade of the Gold Coast of Africa. De Marees
tells of the kakrauw, small bits of gold, used by the
Negroes in the trade, and originally introduced by the
Europeans into Africa.^ Bosman^ says: "These Fe-
tiches are cut into small Bits by the Negroes, about the
worth of one, two or three Farthings. 'Tis a common
Proverb, That you cannot buy much Gold for a Farth-
ing, yet even with that value in Gold you may here go
to Market and buy Bread or Fruit for your Necessities.
The Negroe Women know the exact value of these Bits
so well at sight, that they never are mistaken; and
accordingly they tell them to each other without weigh-
ing, as we do coined Money. They are here called
Kakeraas, the Word expressing something of very little
value; and the Gold it self is indeed very little worth:
For we cannot sell it in Europe for above forty shillings
the Ounce; and yet it passes currant all over the Coast;
and our Garrisons are paid their subsistence Money
in it. And for this they may buy all sorts of Edibles
of the Negroes; who mixing it with other Gold, bring
it to us again; and as soon as received, the Clerks are
ordered to pick it out of the other with which it is
mixed; so that this Stuff seems to pass backward and
forward without the least diminution, notwithstanding
large quantities of it are annually sent to Europe by
1 R. P. R. Breton and J. Platzmann, Dictionaire caraibe-frariQais,
Leipzig 1892, p. 99 f.
2 Op. cit,
pp. 65 f., 197 ff.
' Op. ciL, p. 72 f.
 WAMPUM 269

the French and Portuguese, besides what we our selves

spend: But the Negroes making them faster than we
export them, they are like to continue long enough."
At about the same time Barbot wrote: ** These pieces
of gold are by the Blacks cut into small bits worth one,
two, or three farthings, used as coined money in the
markets, to buy provisions, as bread, fruit, fish, flesh,
etc. The Black women are so well acquainted with
the value of those bits, which they call Kakeraas, or
Krakraas, a word signifying a very little value, that ^
they are never mistaken, and tell them to one another
without weighing, as we do farthings or half-pence in
England. And this sort of money is more generally
found at Commendo, Mina, cape Corso, and the adja-
cent parts, than elsewhere. Those Krakraas are indeed
worth very little, for that gold in any part of Europe,
will not yield above forty shillings an ounce; and yet
it passes current all over the coast, and the European
garrisons are paid their subsistence in it, and can with
it buy all sorts of eatables of the Blacks, who mix it
with other gold, and carry it again to the European
forts and ships. "^ "Informer times those people had no
other way of vending their commodities among them-
selves, than by bartering or exchange; but since the
French first, and after them the Portuguese, taught them
the way of cutting coarse gold into very small bits, by
them call'd Kra-kra, to facilitate the buying and selling
of small things, the Blacks have so well improved that
sort of money, that now pretty large sums are paid
init."2
The etymology given by Bosman and Barbot is cor-
rect, for we have Asante kakra "little, small," kakrawa
"little, very little," kakawa "the smallest, least, a kind
of yellow precious bead," that is, in imitation of a gold

1 J. Churchill, op. ciL, vol. V, p. 230 f.

2 Ibid., p. 269.
270 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
bead. This is not originally an African word, but
Portuguese caracol, plural caracoes, "shell, trifle, small
thing." The Spanish caracol has the same meaning,
hence, as we have seen,^ we get, in American, Galibi
caracoulis **copper trinkets," cacones "trifles, trinkets,"
Carib calluculi, Accawai corrocori, Chayma, Cumana-
gote carcuriri, Cariniaco cureuco "trinkets, gold,"
Roucouyenne caracouli "silver." This word, from the
form chaquira, is also found in Aymara and Kechua,
geminated as choque and cori "gold." This brings us
to the very important question whether all the Inca
gold artifacts are due to tangomao initiative, a question
which will have to be investigated in full. For the
present this much is certain, —
the tiny gold beads of
Peru, the necklaces of Castillo del Oro are of African
origin and belong to the same trade activity which
produced the wampum belt. From Darien this ac-
tivity extended down the coast as far as Peru, and to
the north, in California, it resolved itself into a local
point of distribution far inland of abalone and oli-
vella shells.
1 Vol. I, p. 51 f.
 WORD INDEX
abdiga, Kandin, 20. amuijo, Apiaca, 81.
abduga, Hausa, 20. amulu, Galibi, 81.
abduyat Tuareg, 20. amuniju, Kamayura, 81.
ahuyy African, 216. amydu, Brazilian, 81.
acayetl,Nahuatl, 143. ankaora, Taukarana, 222.
dccarey, Benin, 244. *aqiq, Arabic, 224, 232.
accary, African, 216. *aiaba, Arabic, 19.
acoHcha, Carib, 254. atakxera, Bakairi, 80.
'adai, Somali, 21. atakxira, Bakairi, 80.
agaga. Ewe, 221. *atbah, Arabic, 19.
agur, Hebrew, 235. aualri, Baniba, 80.
aguxa, Spanish, 254, 258. auarli, Baniba, 80.
ahuaramuto, Uarao, 80. audiga, Hausa, 20.
akord, Taimarona, 223. ayupe, Mehinaku, 81.
akorane, Betsileo, 222. ayupo, Yaulapiti, 81.
akorany, Hova, 222.
akori, Benin, 240.
akussa, Arawak, 254. Bdbdgur, Abyssinian, 235.
akutan, Landoma, 22. bdbagurl, Guzerati, 232.
akwe, Dahome, 221. bdbdquri, Turkish, 232.
akweho, Dahome, 221. bad, Hebrew, 7.
akwejo, Dahome, 221. bafejar, Portuguese, 100.
akweno, Dahome, 221. bafo, Spanish, 100.
alaqueca, Portuguese, 232. baforada, Portuguese, 100.
(dbafar, Portuguese, 100. baguz, Arabic, 7.
albafor, Spanish, 100. baho, Spanish, 100.
aliupo, Yaulapiti, 81. bdhitr, Arabic, 99.
al-kawara, Hausa, 223. bakdr, Arabic, 99.
allowa, Hausa, 21. baibal, Arabic, 214.
altabaca, Spanish, 124. bam, Hausa, 102.
amacapulquauitl, Nahuatl, 39. bara, Sumerian, 7.
amacuahuitl, Nahuatl, 39. bara§, Arabic, 7.
amaju, Brazilian, 81. bargande, Japanese, 183.
amandyju, Guarani, 81. bars, Arabic, 7.
amaniu, Brazilian, 81. bawaghori, Guzerati, 232.
amano, Cocama, 81. bazz, Arabic, 7.
amanyju, Brazilian, 81. bella, Sinhalese, 216.
amatl, Nahuatl, 39. /Scp/3c^i, Greek, 214.

amatsitu, Aueto, 81. beviese, Dutch, 247.

'anpiKifffiSs, Greek, 94. bey a, Malay, 216.
ambix, Latin, 90. bi, biak, Algonquin, 255.
'an^vKl^w, Greek, 94. bia, Siamese, 216.
'afjLpvKi<rn6s, Greek, 94. /Skos, Greek, 90.
a-misaflga, Quellimane,|226. birs, Arabic, 7.
amoniu, Oyampi, 81. biri, Arabic, 7.
ampe, Anti, 81. biya, Malay, 216.
ampegi, Anti, 81. boejies, African, 217.
 .

WORD INDEX 273

boesjes, Dutch, 218. cachourou, Carib, 267.

bofar, Portuguese, 100. cacones, Galibi, 270.
bofarinheiro, Portuguese, 99. cacossa, Galibi, 254.
bofe, Spanish, 100. c'aj-am, Pokonchi, 54.
bofon, LLatin, 99. calliomarcu^, Latin, 96.
bogessy, Tupi, 256. calluculi, Carib, 270.
bokor, Arabic, 99. c'am, Kekchi, 54.
boll, Maldivian, 214. c'am-al, Kekchi, 54.
bolli, Maldivian, 220. canivet, OFrench, 93.
boly, Maldivian, 214. caracal, Portuguese, 270.
Greek, 10.
/36^/3a|, caracouli, Roucouyenne, 270.
bombyce, Latin, 17. caracoulis, Galibi, 270.
bosse, French, 94. carbasus, Latin, 12.
bouges, French, 218. carcuriri, Chayma, 270.
bou-re, Tupi, 257. cascavel, Spanish, 25.
bousies, English, 218. cassot, French, 132.
bout, French, 94. Costilla, Spanish, 48.
bouton, French, 94. cauarli, Mandauaca, 80.
buckoor, Negro, 120. cox, Maya, 49.
bufar, Spanish, 100. caxlan, Kekchi, 49.
bufarinha, Portuguese, 99. caxlan lem, Kekchi, 49.
bufarinheiro, Portuguese, 99. caxlan oua, Kekchi, 49.
bufo, LLatin, 99. caxtil, Nahuatl, 49.
bufonerus, LLatin, 99. ghanquiro, Campa, 268.
bufonus, LLatin, 99. chaquira, Nicaragua, 264.
bugle, English, 248. Greek, 9.
xedofji^pri,
buhdr, Arabic, 99. xee6v, Greek, 9.
buhdriy, Arabic, 99. chicha, Spanish, 114 f.
buhoneria, Spanish, 99. chichi, Nahuatl, 115.
buhonero, Spanish, 99. chichilia, Nahuatl, 115.
buise, OFrench, 247. chichina, Nahuatl, 115.
buisine, OFrench, 248. Xtrdv, Greek, 13.
bulbe, Yiddish, 182. choque, Aymara, 270.
bumbo, Hausa, 102. cnafa, ASaxon, 93.
bummi, Hausa, 102. Qoqo, Nahuatl, 52.
bus, Hebrew, 7. QOQoa, Nahuatl, 52.
bu^A, Syriac, 7. cohere, Moxa, 80.
buse, OFrench, 247. coj, Chimu, 81.
busine, OFrench, 248. col, Chimu, 81.
buss, Walloon, 247. contaria, Portuguese, 245.
/SiJo-tros, Greek, 7. continha, Portuguese, 245.
buzio, Portuguese, 210, 217. cori, Aymara, 270.
buta, LLatin, 94. cori, Benin, 237.
butta, LLatin, 94. coril, Manicongo, 237.
buttis, LLatin, 94. cornibotz, OFrench, 249.
buzai, Walloon, 247. corrocori, Accawai, 270.
buzine, OFrench, 248. cottamo, Guaycurus, 80.
coyllu, Aymara, 73 f
curenco, Cariniaco, 270.
cynae, Latin, 17.
^aang, Tupi, 251.
gaangaba, Tupi, 251.
cab, Kiche, 53. 4arra, Arabic, 22.
caballo, Spanish,j81. dishniupan, Gothic, 93.
cachira, Castillafdel Ore, 264. dragoman, English, 112.
 .

274 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

echarbot, French, 251. guanin, Taino, 117 f.
embocus, LLatin, 89. gungun, Bagbalan, 22.
embotar, Catalan, 94. Gur-bdbd, Bhil, 235.
LLatin, 88 ff
evfihotus, guriyd, Hindustani, 236.
embudar, Spanish, 94. gti^ikd, Sanskrit, 236.
embut, OFrench, 89.
embutz, Provengal, 89.
empa, Coptic, 10. haa, Guarani, 251.
empai, Coptic, 10. haangaba, Guarani, 251.
empombe, Mozambique, 101. hdbal, Hebrew, 11.
enogny, Canada, 249. hdbar, Hebrew, 11.
en-simbi, Luganda, 222. habaM, Hebrew, 11.
eoru, Kupa, 21. hamaniu, Cocama, 81.
escarbot, French, 251. hamba, Bondei, 10.
escargot, French, 251. hanji, Kannada, 8.
escorobot, French, 251. hdpd, Hebrew, 11.
esnogny, Canada, 249. jf^dpdh, Hebrew, 11.
esurgny, Canada, 249. hdpap, Hebrew, 11.
esvogny, Canada, 249. hdpa§, Hebrew, 11.
etouab, Coptic, 19. haraz, Arabic, 224.
ettbbeu, Coptic, 19. harS, Kannada, 8.
eupe, Swahili, 20. hari, Kannada, 8.
haSbun, Arabic, 17.
ha§i§, Arabic, 114 f.
fapa, Sotho, 10. hatti, Kannada, 8.
fap'a, P6di, 10. heten meni, Egyptian, 9.
fara§a, Arabic, 7. hnau, Coptic, 92.
fkotun, Bulonda, 22. hnifr, Icelandic, 93.
ho-pei, Chinese, 203, 222.
hope§, Hebrew, 11.
gdbal, Hebrew, 11. hosca, Chibcha, 142.
gdbar, Hebrew, 11. hotollo, Peul, 21.
gad, Sumerian, 11. hu§bun, Arabic, 17.
ganivet, French, 93.
gaur, Hindustani, 236.
gaura, Sanskrit, 236. ich-pocatl, Nahuatl, 53.
gaz\ Arabic, 224. ich-taca, Nahuatl, 53.
gazl, Arabic, 22. ich-teco, Nahuatl, 53.
gese, Malinke, 22. ich-tectli, Nahuatl, 53.
gese, Kra, 22. ich'tequi, Nahuatl, 53.
gese-fute, Soso, 22. ich-tli, Nahuatl, 54.
geze, Toma, 22. ie, Chibcha, 140.
gid, Sumerian, 11. igovo, Negro, 210.
gie, Gio, 22. igovo, Benin, 221.
gil,Sumerian, 11. iguou, Benin, 221.
ginbo, Angola, 213. imbotare, LLatin, 94.
gord, Hindustani, 236. in-tsimbi, Kaffir, 221.
gorao, Prakrit, 236. ipamba, Tabwa, 10.
Gor Bdba, Northern India, 236. lye, Mano, 22.
gossypinns, Latin, 17. ix, Maya, 53.
gotun, Arabic (oases), 21. ix-cax, Maya, 53.
grecikha, Russian, 182. ix-kanabal, Maya, 53.
gri, Neule, 240. ix-nabatun, Maya, 53.
guani, Taino, 117. ix-nuc, Maya, 53.
 WORD INDEX 275
ix-pochina, Nahuatl, 54. kiah, Chinese, 12.
ix-tun^ Maya, 53. kid, Sumerian, 11.
ix-tux, Maya, 53. kid, Kannada, 11.
kil, Sumerian, 11.
kir, Sumerian, 11.
jam, Chimu, 81.
Assyrian, 13.
kittu,
jariderli, Caruzana, 80.
knaau, Coptic, 92.
jirbi, Galla, 20.
Knabe, German, 93.
joniia, Otchipwe, 249.
knap, English, 93.
joniians, Otchipwe, 249.
knapp, German, 93.
jop, Chibcha, 141 f.
knappr, ONorse, 93.
knau, Coptic, 92.
kaan, Maya, 54. knave, English, 93.
kdbal, Hebrew, 11. kneif, ONorse, 93.
kdhan, Hebrew, 11. kneifen, German, 93.
kdbar, Hebrew, 11. knife, English, 93.
kabathf Maldivian, 208. knifr, Olcelandic, 93.
kakawa, Asante, 269. knivus, LLatin, 93.
kakeraas, Gold Coast, 268. knob, English, 93.
kakra, Asante, 269. Km)pf, German, 93.
kakrauw. Gold Coast, 268. Knoph, German, 93.
kakrawa, Asante, 269. KvoO<piop, Greek, 92.
kal-gudan, Bornu, 21. k(4d, Guzerati, 222.
kal-gutan, Kanuri, 21. koli, Benin, 238.
kap, Chinese, 12. korande, Mandingo, 21.
kdpal, Hebrew, 11. korandi, Bambara, 21.
kdpar, Hebrew, 11. korho, Dyula, 21.
kaparda, Sanskrit, 222. korho-nde, Dyula, 22.
kdpas, Hebrew, 11. kori, Bambara, 21.
kdpat, Hebrew, 11. kotodin, Malinke, 21.
kappu, Kannada, 12. kotoka, Makusi, 80.
kara, Kannada, 11. kotole, Soninke, 21.
kdrpdsa, Sanskrit, 5, 12. kotollin-khare, Soninke, 80.
Kdpvacros, Greek, 4 ff. kotondo, Bambara, 21.
karpu, Kannada, 12. koi4i, Tulu, 222.
Kartoffel, German, 182. koun, Coptic, 92.
kaMabel, Coptic, 25. koyondyl, Toronka, 21.
kassuru, Arawak, 267. krakraas. Gold Coast, 268.
kathodnie, Apinages, 80. kristal, Dutch, 246.
Arabic, 13.
k(d(iidn, ku, Sumerian, 11.
kauddf Marathi, 222. kudi, Hausa, 223.
kaudi, Hindustani, 222. kukuruza, Russian, 182.
kauri, Hindustani, 222. kundera, Buduma, 22.
kavaca, Sanskrit, 12. kunkun, Koama, 22.
kavadi, Kannada, 12. kunkuntu, Gurma, 22.
kavadi, Malayalam, 208. kvxm, Bambara, 21.
kavadi, Kannada, 222. kur, Sumerian, 11.
kavadiya, Sinhalese, 208. kurdi, Hausa, 223.
kavi, Dravidian, 12. kuro, Bambara, 223.
kavidi, Kannada, 12. kurpdsa, Sanskrit, 12.
kawara, Hausa, 223. kuru, Sumerian, 11.
ketn, Egyptian, 13. kurun, Malinke, 223.
ketn meni, Egyptian, 9. kutan, Arabic (oases), 21.
khorre, Wolof, 223. kutando, Kalumga, 21.
276 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
lanQado, Portuguese, 106 ff. mikisi-yagan, Cree, 258.
Uhus, Hebrew, 12. misanga, Fiote, 226.
lewu, Udom, 21. missanga, Portuguese, 226, 251.
libdSy Arabic, 12. m'kuse, Abnaki, 253.
libs, Arabic, 12. mocous, Canada, 253.
lllu, Puka, 21. mocouschis, Canada, 253.
lolo, Pika, 21. mx>kisis, Cree, 258.
lolu, Esitoko, 21. mxyneyu, Trumai, 81.
I6{i, Peul, 21. mpai, Coptic, 10.
lubdra, Assyrian, 12. mpamba, Swahili, 10.
lubaiu, Assyrian, 12. mpempa, Coptic, 10.
ludhu, Tamazirt, 21. m'sanga, Fiote, 226.
lullo, Hausa, 21. muckoos, Delaware, 253.
lulo, Goali, 21. mucksuk, Narraganset, 253.
lulu, Nupe, 21. muhkas, Natick, 253.
lumaca, Italian, 211 f. muhkos, Natick, 253.
lursimbi, Nyamwesi, 222. muiniju, Emerillon, 81.
mujinha, Kimbundu, 81.
mukqs, Natick, 253.
madache, French, 253.
mdh, Egyptian, 10.
negbie, Neule, 221.
make, Coptic, 10.
newu, Ekantulufu, 21.
mahi, Coptic, 10.
nibble, English, 93.
Tnaid, Somali, 21.
nip, English, 93.
manako, Guzerati, 245.
njimbu, Kimbundu, 213.
manholu, Carib, 81.
nsaflga, Quellimane, 226.
manhulu, Galibi, 81.
nsungu, Kongo, 226.
manka, Hindustani, 245.
nzimbu, Kikongo, 213.
manni, Abnaki, 250.
mashanga, Swahili, 225.
fMffTdpiov, Greek, 90.
matachiaz, Canada, 252. och-pana, Nahuatl, 54.
matamungo, Portuguese, 245. odonii, Akra, 22.
matasse, French, 253. okondo, Fan, 22.
mattepue, Tupi, 256. olulu, Sobo, 21.
mauroubi, Tupi, 257. oro, Isoama, 21.
mauru, Galibi, 81. osca, Chibcha, 141 f.

mazari, Hausa, 22. 'otbe, Saho, 20.

Tnhai, Coptic, 10. *oibi. Afar, 20.
mbamvu, Kongo, 102. 'o66piop, Greek, 5.

mbiya, Kongo, 221. otocuare, Cumanagota, 80.

mboi-rici, Guarani, 257. otoquat, Chayma, 80,
mboi-robi, Guarani, 257. oudega, Bagirmi, 20.
mbombo, Angola, 102. owro, Okuloma, 21.
me-ca-tl, Nahuatl, 54. owo, Yoruba, 221.
mecherrdk, Chimu, 262. owu, Aku, 21.
mel^i, Egyptian, 10. owuh, Yoruba, 21.
meni, Egyptian, 9.
metl, Nahuatl, 49.
m*hi, Egyptian, 10. pai-tie, Chinese, 8.
midarrah, Arabic, 22. pai Cantonese, 205.
ts'z,
mien, Chinese, 9. paj, Kakchiquel, 48.
migiskan, Otchipwe, 258. paj-am, Pokonchi, 48.
migoss, Otchipwe, 253. pakhta, Persian, 8.
 WORD INDEX 277

pakonde, Padsadse, 22. pikdh, Hebrew, 7.

Kannada, 8.
palti, piStdn, Talmudic, 7.
pi§tim, Talmudic, 7.
pamba, Herero, 10.
pisU, Assyrian, 7.
pambah, Persian, 10.
pita, Spanish, 49.
Tamil, 8.
paiiji,
pocyetl, Nahuatl, 139.
panju, Tamil, 8. poi, Guarani, 257.
paniii, Malayalam, 8. polme, Portuguese, 100.
pavr-qua, Tarascan, 54. polpa, Italian, 100.
par, Simierian, 7. pomba, Swahili, 10.
para, Malayalam, 8.
pombe, Bantu, 101.
paras, Hebrew, 7. pombeiro, Portuguese, 103 flf.
pdrai, Hebrew, 7. pombero, Portuguese, 103 f.
paratie, Tamil, 8. pombinha, Portuguese, 100.
paratti, Telugu, 8. pombinho, Portuguese, 102.
parS, Kannada, 8. pombo, Swahili, 10.
pari, Kannada, 8. pomme, French, 182.
paritt, Telugu, 8.
porce, Italian, 205.
par§, Assyrian, 7. porcella, Spanish, 204.
parti,Kannada, 8.
porcellana, Oltalian, 204.
pdru, Kannada, 8.
porcelletta, Italian, 217.
parutii, Tamil, 8.
po-tie, Chinese, 8.
pdidh, Hebrew, 7.
po-tie-tzi,Chinese, 9.
pa§il, Assyrian, 7.
potollo, Peul, 21.
patti, Kannada, 8.
pourcelaine, OFrench, 204.
pauttie, Telugu, 8. ppiz, Maya, 48.
peag, Canada, 258. ppiz-ah, Maya, 48.
peak, Virginia, 258. ppiz-bo, Maya, 48.
peg, Egyptian, 6. ppiz-ib, Maya, 48.
pei, Chinese, 203, 222. ppiz-kin, Maya, 48.
pei-tch'i, Chinese, 203. ppiz-muk, Maya, 48.
pei tsz, Chinese, 205. puiisz, Chinese, 205.
pei-tze, Chinese, 203. pulmentum, Latin, 100.
pek, Egyptian, 6.
pulpa, Latin, 100 ff.
peletre,OEnglish, 122. pulperia, Spanish, 114.
pelydr, Welsh, 122. pulpero, Spanish, 114.
pempai, Coptic, 10. pulque, Spanish, 114.
p^u, Kannada, 8. pulqueria, Spanish, 114.
peSet, Hebrew, 7. pUmbela, Kimbundu, 105.
pesht, Egyptian, 6. puzzolana, Italian, 205.
peso, Spanish, 48.
pesouia, Nahuatl, 184.
pest, Egyptian, 6.
petch, Egyptian, 6. qdbal, Hebrew, 11.
petum, Brazilian, 186. qanaba, Arabic, 93.
pexouia, Nahuatl, 48. qa?abah, Arabic, 132.
(pourr, Punic, 7. qend, Egyptian, 92.
pi, peak, Algonquin, 255. qSnab, Talmudic, 93.
pichawya, Sinhalese, 9. qenb, Egyptian, 92.
pichu, Sinhalese, 9. qenu, Egyptian, 92.
pidelt, Nahuatl, 160. qSnubah, Talmudic, 93.
picyetl, Nahuatl, 139. qhuea, Aymara, 81.
pir, Egyptian, 6. qnaba, Arabic, 93.
plr, Kannada, 8. qten, Kabyl, 21.
pis-oc, Kiche, 48. quetate, Mapoyo, 80.
278 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
quetejuate, Yabarana, 80. targdmdn, Arabic, 112.
quihisa, Chibcha, 81. tarha, Dyula, 112.
quvb, Arabic, 92. tarhama, Dyula, 112.
qunub, Arabic, 92. taske, Peul, 179.
qutn, Arabic, 13. ^a-udb-t, Egyptian, 19.
tauaco, Taino, 149.
tbbe, Coptic, 19.
rebasha, Egyptian, 12. tbbeu, Coptic, 19.
teb, Bedauye, 20.
rebeshaiu, Egyptian, 12.
roenoke, Virginia, 260. teba, Coptic, 19.
*pinuov, Greek, 90. teca, Nahuatl, 53.
tedec, Chibcha, 142.
tibq, Arabic, 122.
tla-ch-ayotl, Nahuatl, 54.
sangah, Arabic, 225.
tla-ch-pan-tli, Nahuatl, 54.
sang-e-sulaimdnl, Hindustani, 225.
tobbdqah, Arabic, 123.
sang-i-sulaimanl, Persian, 224.
tokhoma, Malinke, 112.
sanih, Arabic, 225.
torn, African, 187.
saraisin, French, 182.
torokire, Nahuqua, 80.
saurlot,Puinabe, 80.
tsze-pei, Chinese, 222.
sawari, Piapoco, 80.
tubbdq, Arabic, 123.
sewan, Long Island, 250. tyhyquy, Chibcha, 142.
shanga, Swahili, 225.
tze-pei, Chinese, 203.
shuliau, Montagnais, 250.
simbo, Angola, 212.
soniyaw, Cree, 249.
sooleawa, Micmac, 250. udb, Egyptian, 18.
suckauhoek, Algonquin, 255. udbt, Egyptian, 18.
sulaimdnl, Arabic, 225. udbtiu, Egyptian, 18.
sungah, Arabic, 225. udbu, Egyptian, 18.
Suparuru, Assyrian, 7. ubulunguy Bemba, 226.
Swanneke, Long Island, 250. uda, Sudanese, 210.
udbi, Somali, 20.
ude, Sudanese, 210.
to, Vei, 112. v4u, Kabyl, 21.
taaske, Peul, 179. uhkos, Natick, 258.
tab, African, 187. uhqme, Natick, 253.
tabaco, Taino, 136 f.
ulu-cu, Sindebele, 226.
tabacoyay, Vera Cruz, 140. ura, Tarascan, 54.
tabagie, Canada, 178. uraflga, Inhambane, 226.
tabagie, French, 179. ura-pe-ni, Tarascan, 54.
tabaske, Peul, 179. ura-pi, Tarascan, 54.
tabaski, Mandingo, 179. urusanga, Warundi, 225 f.

tabasHa, Wolof, 179. usanga, Tette, 226.

tabba, African, 187. iishanga, Swahili, 225.
tabbdq, Arabic, 123. *utb,Arabic, 19.
tabdeet, African, 187. 'utbah, Arabic, 19.
tafaske, Berber, 179. uthu, Swahili, 21.
tafeske, Berber, 179. utku, Kechua, 81.
takha, Malinke, 112. uulungu, Lala-Lamba, 226.
tama, Bambara, 112.
tamaba, Bambara, 112.
tamba, Vei, 112. vignol, OFrench, 256.
tangomao, Negro, 105. vignot, OFrench, 257.
tangomao, Portuguese, 106, 112 ff. vusanga, Sofala, 226.
 WORD INDEX 279

wada, Bedauye, 21. x-ura, Tarascan, 54.

wa4a\ Arabic, 208 f. x-ura-ni, Tarascan, 54.
wadah, Sudanese, 210. x-uri, Tarascan, 54.
wambatira, Ganda, 10.
wampom, Virginia, 259.
wari, Mandingo, 240.
wari, Bambara, 223. yaat, Chorotega, 138.
witen, Wolof, 21. yapoquete, Chorotega, 139.
woda, Dravidian, 222. ychca, Nahuatl, 53.
woiongin, Kanuri, 21. ych-ca-tl, Nahuatl, 54.
wori, Malinke, 223. yetl, Nahuatl, 139 f.
wori, Mandingo, 240.
worye, Baule, 240.
wudu\ Arabic, 21.
wuri, Hausa, 223. zari, Hausa, 22.
wuten, Wolof, 21. zaria, Hausa, 22.
zarre, Hausa, 22.
zeawant, Long Island, 250.
x-cah, Kiche, 53. ziemniak, Polish, 182.
x-mulis, Maya, 54. zimbo, Manicongo, 211.
 . . . . . . ;

SUBJECT INDEX
Ablution words for "cotton" in Ara- Arrian mentions cotton in India, 5.
bic and the African languages, 21. Assyria, cotton in, 3.
Acosta and the banana, 73 f. Awls in North America, 253 f
Africa, "cotton" words in, 18 flf.;
and the Arabic "purification"
words for "cotton," 18 ff.; and BdbdgUrl from Cambay, 229; name
the Arabic "ablution" words for for onyx at Cambay, 232; and Solo-
"cotton," 21; agriculture of, in mon's stone, 235; see Solomon's
Peru, 63; fruits from, in Ancon stone.
graves, 75; and wine, 101 flf.; uni- Baessler and reburials in Peru, 71.
versality of smoking in, 188; Bahrein, cotton in, 4.
cowries in, 209 f. ; beads imported Banana in Peruvian graves, 73; spu-
from Cambay to, 226 flf.; beads in riousness of native variety of coyl-
North America originate in, 251; lo in Peru, 73; and Garcilasso de
commerce in America from, 263; la Vega, 73 ff.
origin of American culture in, 263. Bantu, "cotton" words in, 10.
Agate trade of Cambay, 235. Barbosa, his account of the Cambay
AGGRY BEADS, 237—248. beads, 227 f
Aggry beads, their history, 237 flf.; Barbot on crystals in Africa, 246; on
in Benin, 238 flf. supposed to grow
; gold beads in Africa, 269.
in the sea, 244. Bamabe Cobo and reburials in Peru,
Albiruni on cowries, 208. 69 f.
Alchemy and the distilling cap, 92 flf. Barros on cowries in Africa, 209 f
Alcyonium and smoking, 85 ff. Basket-makers* culture and tobacco
Algonquin languages and "bead" pipes, 196 ff.
words, 258. Beads and Columbus, 25; imported
Alloy of gold in Africa and in Ameri- into Africa from Cambay, 226 ff .

ca, 118 f. red, from Cambay at Sofala, 230

Almagro on cotton in Peru, 78 f. f.; blue, called "coris," 237 f.;
America visited by Negroes before opinion of their origin, 238; coral,
Columbus, 116 ff. 238; artificial, made in Europe for
Ancon, mummies at, 72; graves of African trade, 239; of Arabic man-
recent origin, 73 f ufacture, 240; blue, in Benin,
Andagoya on bead money, 262 f 240; at Zanzibar, 240 ff.; manu-
Arabic, "cotton" words in, 7; word factured in China for Arabic trade,
for "tree" basis for Pliny's gossy- 243; from Cambay in Madagascar,
pium, 17; influence in Africa in 245; from India and Venice in
"cotton" words, 18 ff.; "purifi- Africa, 245; the African trade in
cation" words for "cotton," 19. XVI. c, 245 f.; their deteriora-
Archaeology has no means for deter- tion in Africa in the last two cen-
mining history of cultivated plants, turies, 246 f.; manufactured at
185; its fallacy in applying Egyp- Venice, 247; substitute for money,
tian and Babylonian data to Amer- 248; stanch blood, 249; names for,
ica, 195; must be checked by his- in North America, 249 f.; names in
tory and philology, 196 ff. Brazil, 251 obtained in America as
;

Arriaga and reburials in Peru, 75 ff.; in Africa, 251; among Indians of

and guano, 77 f Canada, 252; at Long Island, 254
 ; . .. .

SUBJECT INDEX 281

f.; of late importation in North Cambay and African beads, 226 ff.
America, 254 ff.; from France in itstrade with East Africa, 226 ff.
Brazil, 257; words in America, 258; carnelians from, 228 f., 233 ff.
in Algonquin languages, 258; in beads in West Africa, 245; its
Virginia, 258 ff.; their progress trade deteriorates, 246.
from Canada, 260; methods of Canada, beads in, 249 ff.
their manufacture in North Amer- Canoes in Cada Mosto, 24 f.
ica from Brazil and Central Amer-
Carbasus defined, 5; its etymology,
ica, 260; in Nicaragua, 261; at
12.
Darien, 262 f.; see Gold beads,
Wampum. Carib languages, "cotton" in the,
80.
Belles Letires, fabrics in, not reliable,
5.
Carnelians from Cambay, 228 f., 233
ff.
Bitum£n smoked, 122.
Bombax, its etymology, 10. Cartier on shell-money in Canada,
249.
Bosmxin on gold beads in Africa, 268.
Botany possesses no decisive method Ceiba confused by Columbus with
cotton, 28; paper, 40 f.; described
for the history of cultivated plants,
185; its hypothetical solution of
by Oviedo, 52 f
Central America, its commercial
origins of plants, 190 f.; changes
relations with Peru, 261.
in species due to changed condi-
tions, 191 f.; its ultimate sources
Cessac and Savatier and excavation
at Ancon, 73.
for original home of tobacco are
history and philology, 195.
Ceylon and "cotton" words, 9.
Chaquira, see Gold beads.
Bradford on beads in Massachusetts,
254 f. Chicha, its philological history, 114 f.
Braun on African Chickens in Mexico and Central
cowries, 216; on
aggry beads, 244. America, 48 f
Brazil, the "cotton" words in, 81 f.;
Chimu culture apparently of late
origin, 262.
the tangomao in, 113; tobacco not
common in XVI. c. in, 135; bead China and "cotton" words, 8 f.; its
manufacture of blue beads for
words from, in North America,
Arabic trade, 243; its wares at
251; beads in, 256 f.; its culture at
Zanzibar, 243 f
the St. Lawrence, 260.
Christianity in Peru before 1525, 78
Bufarinheiro, history of the, 99 ff.
f., 262.
Buffoon, history of the, 99 ff.
Chronology in Peru, 57 ff.; from cem-
Burial ceremony and cotton, 19 ff.;
eteries upset, 78.
custom of deep, in Peru, 64 ff.; re-
Cieza de Leon and the Peruvian buri-
newal in Peru, 67 f.; as men-
al custom, 63 f., 67 f.; on gold
tioned by Ondegardo, 68 f.; as
beads, 266.
mentioned by Bernabe Cobo, 69 f .
Codex Kingsborough, its tribute, 46
in cotton, in Peru, no proof of
ff.
antiquity, 70 ff.; renewal of, in
Codex Mendoza and cotton mantles,
Peru, and cotton wrappings, 71 at ;
50 ff.; and the Mexican figure
Tiahuanaco, 72; in ancient Peru-
writing, 50.
vian cemeteries in XVII. c, 78.
Codice Mariano Jimenez and the In-
Byssus and Philostratus, 5 f.; and
dian tribute, 46.
Pollux, 6; etymology of, 7.
Colt's foot and smoking, 95 f
Columbus promised to bring cotton
Cabeza de Vaca and tobacco in North from newly discovered lands, 23;
America, 177. and cotton, 23 ff and Cada Mosto
. ;

Cada Mosto and Columbus, 24; his 24; trades with the Indians as
description of canoes, 24 f.; refers with the Negroes, 26; speaks of
to cotton in Africa, 25. large quantity of cotton, 27; says
 .

282 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

cotton grows on high trees, 28; tation, 35; in America merely a
introduces cotton as Indian trib- name for textile, 36 f.; in Cortes
ute, 29 f.; knew of Negroes in includes various textiles, 37; as
America before him, 1 16 flf. tribute, 40 f.; mantles with Chris-
Congo, cowries in, 211 f. tian designs, 42 f.; planted over
Conus Fergusoni used as shell-money, and above the tribute, 44 f.; plan-
261. ted as a Spanish extortion, 44 f.;
in the tribute lists, 46 ff.; not
Coptic, "purification" words in, 19.
mentioned in Codex Kingsborough,
Cortes and cotton, 37.
49; mantles in Libro de los tribu-
COTTON AND COLUMBUS, tos not reliable, 52; in bulk in Co-
23 35
dex Mendoza, 52 f.; in NahuatI
COTTON IN MEXICO, 36—56. and the Maya languages and in
COTTON IN PERU, 57—82. Tarascan, 53; unknown in ancient
Cotton, earliest date for, in Assyria,
Mexican tribute, 55 f.; as part of
3; not found in Egyptian mummy Peruvian tribute, of Spanish ori-
bands, 3; sent from Egypt to
gin, 61 ff.; cloth in Peru still rare
Greece, 3; mentioned by Ctesias
in XVII. c, 70; antiquity of, in
and Theophrastus, 4; in the Peri-
Peruvian cemeteries, negatived,
plus, 4 f.; in Arrian, 5; in the Bel-
72; in Peru not older than XIII. c,
les Lettres, 5; in Strabo, 5; used by
79; its philology in Peru and in
the Macedonians for stuffing, 5;
South America, 80 ff in Brazil in-
;
mentioned as byssus, 5 f.; in Phi- .

troduced at various times, 81 f.

lostratus, 5 f.; linen and silk sub-
stitutes for, 6; and par "spread," 6
COWRIES, THE, 203—223.
Cowries, white and purple, in China,
ff.; words for, in Arabic, 7; leads to
203; Chinese, in Marco Polo, 204;
"leprosy" in Arabic, 7; in the Dra-
in Asia and Africa, from IX. c. on,
vidian languages, 8; in China, 8
according to Arabic sources, 208
f.; in Ceylon, 9; leads to "leprosy"
ff.;in Africa, 209 f.; in Congo, 211
in Sinhalese, 9; spreads from sou-
f. cypraea moneta, from Pescado-
;
thern India, 9; in Greek, 10; in
res Islands, 214; and iron in South
Persian and Bantu, 10; and kar
Africa, 221 f.; words in Asia, 222;
"enclosure," 10 ff.; etymology of,
words in Africa, 222 f
13; in Pliny, 13 ff.; in Africa, 18
Coyllo banana non-existent, 74.
ff.; in burial ceremony in Africa,
Crystals, blue, in Africa, 244; as told
19 f.; in Hamitic languages, 20;
in Negro languages, 20 ff.; and
by Dapper, 246; jewels from Italy
in China, 247.
"ablution," 21; from Arabic qutn,
Ctesias mentions cotton in India, 4.
in African languages, 21 f.; first
Cypraea moneta, see Cowries.
mentioned in Columbus, 23; con-
fusing statements of Columbus in
regard to, 26 ff.; popularized in
Africa by Arabs, 22; not necessar- Dapper on cowries in Africa, 218 ff.;
ily seen by Columbus, 23 ff.; on blue beads, 239 f.; on crystals
spun by Franciscan monks, 28 f.; in Africa, 246.
as Indian tribute established by Darien, Negroes in, 138 f.; beads at,
Columbus, 29 f.; declined in cul- 261.
tivation but never was a success Datura arborea confused with to-
before, 29; variant accounts of, in bacco, 139 ff.
Oviedo, 30 f.; lack of information Delafosse on blue beads, 240.
about indigenous, in America, De Candolle and American cotton,
according to Watt, 31 ff.; wild in 31; and the banana, 73; employs
Mexico, 33; in Peru, 33; in Africa, philology for settlements of origin
34; uncertainty as to American of tobacco, 185 f.
species of, 34 f ; produced by mu-
. De Soto on the mounds, 176.
 . . . . ;

SUBJECT INDEX 283

Disinterment from cemeteries in Peru, GuAino and Peruvian chronology, 57

75 ff.; from churches in Peru, 77. ff.; deposits irregular, and furnish
Distilling cap and the pipe, 89 ff.; no historical data, 59 ff.; survey
and the mastarion, 90 ff.; and of, by Peruvian government, 59 f .

alchemy, 92 ff. depth of burial in, not a proof of

Dragoman, its philological history in antiquity, 64; and Arriaga, 77 f.
Africa, 112.
Dravidian languages and "cotton"
words, 8.
Dutch popularized shell-money in
Hamy and antiquity of Peruvian
graves, 93.
Long Island, 250.
Hariot and tobacco, 177.
Hawk's bells and Columbus, 25 f.
Hebrew, linen words in, 7.
Edrisi on cowries, 208. Henbane, smoking of, 87 ff.
Egypt, cotton imported into, from HcTiequen, in Cortes, 38 f.; cloth in
India, 6; philology of "cotton" tribute lists, 49; in Codex Mendoza,
words in, 6 f.; andlinen garments, 52.
9; stratification of soil in, not Herodotus mentions cotton in Egypt,
applicable to Peru, 66 f
3; in India, 3 f.
Embotus, its philological history, 94; Hispaniola, tobacco raised in, for
see Pipe. trade with Indians, 141; exporting
Enclosure words and "cotton," 10 tobacco, according to Champlain,
ff. 177 f.
Engler on tobacco in Africa, 189 f.;
on identity of plants in Africa and
America, 192 f.
Europeans Negroized, 106 f Ibnr-al-Baitdr and tabbaq, 123 f.

Ibn Batutah on cowries, 209.

India, cotton in, mentioned by Hero-
dotus, 3 f.; by Ctesias, 4; by Theo-
Focke on hybridization of tobacco, phrastus, 4; by Strabo, 5; by Phil-
193 ff.
ostratus, 5 f.; exporting cotton
Franciscan monks and cotton, 28 f.
to Egypt, 6; southern, home of
Fumigation and smoking, 95 f
cotton, 9.
Indian weights of Spanish origin,
48.
Galen and smoking, 85. know value of parrots and
Indiana
Garcilasso de la Vega on gold beads glass beads and
cotton, 24; and
in Peru, 267.
bells, 25 f.; their extraordinary
Gold, African, in America, 117 ff.
accommodation to new conditions,
Gold beads manufactured at Nicara-
42 f as masons and weavers soon
.
;
gua, 264; at Castilla del Oro, 264;
after 1525, 43 f.; raise wheat in
in America, according to Oviedo,
1528, 50; of Peru very early under
such as are found in Africa, 265 f.;
Spanish influence, 61 f.; and the
in Africa, 268 f.
Virgin Mary, 78 f
Gomara on Negroes at Quarequa,
138.
Gonzdlez de la Rosa and the guano
deposits, 60. Lavender smoked, 120.
Gossypium an Arabic word, 17; ar- Leprosy and "cotton" in Arabic, 7;
boreum in India, 4. in Sinhalese, 9.
Greek, cotton in, 10. Lery on Brazilian beads, 256 f.
Grijalva and cotton and silk, 36 f. Lescarbot on beads in Canada, 252.
Guanin, African, in America before Libro de los tributes and cotton man-
Columbus, 117 ff. tles, 50 ff.
 . . . . . .

284 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

Liebaut disseminating Nicot's exper- Nasca Valley, cemeteries in, of late
iments in his work on agriculture, origin, 72.
151 f. Needles and awls in North America,
Linen a substitute for cotton, 6; 253 f.
words for, in Semitic languages, Negroes, words for "cotton" among
7; in Josephus, 9; in Egyptian and the, 20 ff.; described by Cada
Coptic, 9 f Mosto, 25; overseers in Mexico,
Loan-words, 185; see Philology. 41 f.; and wheat culture in Mexico,
Long Island, beads in, 250, 254. 45 f.; very early in charge of Pe-
ruvian Indians, 62 f.; and Chris-
tianity in Peru, 79; and the ped-
dler, 106 ff.; pombeiros in America,
114; before Columbus in America,
Maguey mantles in tribute lists, 49. 116 f.; inveterate smokers, 133 f.;
Mande languages and "cotton," 21 f. smoking in Hispaniola, 136; in
Marcellus Empiricv^ and smoking,
Darien before 1513, 137 f.; or
122.
Moors using tobacco before Ni-
Marco Polo on Chinese cowries, 204.
cot, 151; slaves first tobacco grow-
Marees on gold beads in Africa, 268.
ers, 181; near Darien, 263.
Markham and the guano deposits, Nicaragua and shell-money, 261.
58 f.
Nicot, his experiments disseminated
Massachusetts f beads in, 254 f
by Liebaut, 151 ff.; and his intro-
Mastarion on Roman pipes, 91; its
duction of tobacco, 151 f.
philology, 92 ff.;on Tarascan
pipes, 144; on American pipes,
144 f.

Mas'udi on cowries, 208. Ondegardo on the formation of soil

Means and Peruvian chronology, 57 by the Peruvians, 64 ff.; and re-
ff.
burial in Peru, 68 f
Medicine, mediaeval, and smoking, ONYX, THE, 224—236.
85 ff.; condition of, in Mexico, after Onyx, history 224 ff.; see Bdbd-
of,

the conquest, 146; in Mexico a gurl,Solomon's stone.

mixture of European science and Oviedo and cotton, 30 f.; and ceiba,
native practices, 146 f.; in Mexico 52 f.; his contradictions about
soon after the conquest, 147 f smoking, 136 f.; confuses tobacco
Meerschaum, a substitute for alcy- with datura arborea, 139; on gold
onium, 87. beads in America, 265.
Mexico, history of cotton in, 36 ff.;
. and origin of its wheat culture,
45 f.; itsfigure writing unreliable, Pacheco Pereira on cowries in Africa,
50. 21 1; on blue beads, 237 f
Monardes and tobacco smoking, Paper from maguey, 38 ff.; from
145; issues chapter on tobacco as ceiba, 40; not found in Mexico, 41.
resultof Liebaut 's publication, Par "cotton" words in Egyptian, 6
158 ff.; quotes Peter Martyr on f.; in Semitic, 7; in the Dra vidian
tobacco, 175. languages, 8; in Chinese, 8 f.

Money, beads as, 248; names for, in Pare on smoking, 96 ff.

North America, 249 f Parrots and American Indians, 23 f.

Moors using tobacco in medicine, Peanuts in Ancon graves, 74.
151. Pearce on blue beads at Zanzibar,
Motolinia on paper, 39, 240 ff.
Mound-builders and de Soto, 176; Pearls, false, from France in Africa,
their mounds built for defence, 176; 246.
identical with African mounds, Peddler, see Bufarinheiro, Pombeiro,
176 f.; and the bead trade, 260. Smoke vender, Tangomaos.
 , . .

SUBJECT INDEX 285

Periplus, cotton mentioned in the, chaeologists, 185 f.; chief argu-

4f. ment for origin of tobacco by
Persian, "cotton" words in, 10. Engler, 190; its place in archaeo-
Peru, cotton in, 57 ff.; tribute in, logy, 196 ff.; of "porcelain," 205
based on Mexican, 61; methods of f.; of zimbo, 213; of "cowrie"
soil formation in, 64 ff.; burial in, words, 214 ff.; of Chinese pei, 214
f.; of French bouges for "cowries,"
64 ff.; stratification in, not sign
of antiquity, 66 f.; reburials in, 217 ff.; of zimbo and abuy, 221
f.; of "cowrie," 222 f.; of Persian
67 ff as mentioned by Ondegardo,
.
;

68 f.; as mentioned by Bernab^ sanga, 225 f.; of bdbaguri, 232 ff.;

Cobo, 69 f antiquity of cemeteries
;
of Dutch betriese, 247 t.; of English
.

in, 70 ff.; reburials in, and Baessler, bugles, 248; of French cornibotz,
71; antiquity of cemeteries nega- 251; of Canadian matachiaz, 253;
tived by presence of banana, 73; of Algonquin migoss, 253 f.; of
peanuts in, 74; its commercial re- Tupi boil-re, 257; of chaquira, 267
lations with Central America, 261; ff.; of Asante kakra, 269 f.; of
gold beads in, 266 f Spanish caracol, 270.
Peter Martyr on the Negroes of Qua- Philostratu^ and byssus, 5 f
requa, 138; his account of tobacco Physicians, Mexican, and the college
quoted by Monardes, 175. at Tlatelulco, 146.
Philology of "cotton" words in Pigafetta on cowries, 211 f.
Egypt, 6 f.; of par "spread" words, Pipe, history of, 88 ff.; the embotus,
6 ff.; in Semitic languages, 7; in 88 originally a distilling vessel,
ff.;
the Dra vidian languages, 8; in 89 ff.;in Roman graves, 91 ff.;
Chinese, 8 f in Persian and Bantu,
.
; of Negroes, 132; few found in
10; in Greek, 10; of kar "spread" Mexico, 143; in Basket-makers'
words, 10 ff.; leads to conclusion culture, 197 ff.; Mexican, in the
that Assyria and India are origi- North-west, 200; tubular, in Ariz-
nal homes of cotton, 13; of gossy- ona, 200.
pium, 17; of "cotton" words in Pizarro and cotton in Peru, 78; on
Africa, 18 ff.; of "purification" gold beads in Peru, 267.
words for "cotton," 1, 8 ff.; of Pliny on cotton cribbed from Theo-
"ablution" words for "cotton," phrastus, 13 ff.; interpolations in,
21; of "cotton" from Arabic qutn 13 ff.; and cotton in Egypt, 17.
in Africa, 21 f.; of "weigh" words Pobiguin on indigenous African to-
in Mexico and Central America, bacco, 195.
48; of "chicken" words in Mexico Pombe, history of, 101 ff.
and Central America, 48 f.; of Pombeiro, history of, 103 ff ; in Brazil,
.

"cotton" in Nahuatl, the Maya 114 ff.; in America before Colum-

languages and Tarascan, 53 f.; of bus, 119.
"cotton" in Peru and South Amer- Porcelain and cowries in Marco Polo,
ica, 80 ff.; of the "mastarion" 92, 204 f.; story of its manufacture
ff.; of "bud" words, 94 of "smoke"
; from cowrie shells, 206; and beads
words, 99 ff.; of "pulp" words, in Africa, 244; weathering of, as
100 ff.; of pombe, 101 ff.; of "dra- understood in Africa, 244.
goman" words in Africa, 112 f.; Pulperia, its history, 1 14 ff.
of pulque, 114; of pulpero, 114; Pulque, its philological history, 1 14 ff.
of tabagie, 178 f.; fallacy of apply- Purification and cotton, 18 ff.; in
ing absence of a common term to Coptic, 19; words for "cotton" in
separate origin, 182 f.; a common Arabic, 19; in Hamitic and Negro
root nearly always a proof of com- languages, 20 f
mon origin, 183; rapidity of dis- Pyrard de Laval on Maldivian cow-
tribution of common idea, 183 f.; ries, 214 ff.
ultima ratio of botanists and ar- Pyrethrum smoked, 122.
 . . . .

286 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

Quarequa, Negroes at, 138. Solomon's stone and the onyx, 224;
in Persia, 224 f.; and bdbagurl, 235.
Reber, on Roman pipes, 91 flf.
Spondilus pictorum used as shell-
REDISCOVERY OF TOBACCO, money, 261.
THE, 151—179. "Spread" foundation of "cloth"
Reiss and Stiibel, and reburials, in words, 6 ff
Peru, 70 f Springer on blue crystals in Africa,
Religion and cotton, 18 ff. 244.
Rochebrune found banana in Ancon Squier and the guano deposits, 59.
graves, 73. Stade on Brazilian beads, 256.
Rouen manufactures beads, 247. Stone, in Persian, and the Arabic
words derived from it, 225; in the
African languages, 225 f
Sahagun does not refer to cotton Strabo and cotton, 5.
cloth, 37 f.; and Mexican botany,
Suleiman on cowries, 208.
145.
Sumerian "cloth" words, 7.
Schweinfurth employs philology to
determine origin of cultivated
plants, 186 flf.; on the native origin
of tobacco in Africa, 188. Tahagie in Champlain not of Indian
Scribonius Largus and smoking, 122. origin, 178.
Seler and Mexican paper, 40. Tabbdq in Arabic medicine, 123 ff.
Sheep in Mexican tribute list, 49 f Tangomaos, history of, 105 ff.; Portu-
Shell-money. See Beads, Wampum. guese law concerning, 106; are
Silk, a substitute for cotton, 6; in Negroized Europeans, 107; as
America refers to hare's wool, 36. outcasts, 107 ff.; as smugglers,
SMOKE VENDER, THE, 99—121. 108 ff.; in Brazil, 113.
Smoke vender, his history, 99 ff.; in Tarascans addicted to smoking,
Africa, 100 ff.; see Bufarinheiro, 143 f.
Pombeiro. Tello and antiquity of graves, 72.
SMOKING IN ANTIQUITY,85-98. Theodai on beads in Canada, 253.
Smoking, history of, 85 ff.; of alcy- Theophrastus mentions cotton in
onium, 85 ff.; of henbane, 87 ff.; India and Arabia, 4; cribbed by
with pipes in Roman times, 91 ff.; Pliny, 13 ff.
for chest troubles, 94 f.; in Par6, Thevet and tobacco in Europe, 151;
96 ff.; in the XIII. c, 120; in on Brazilian wampum, 256.
Africa, 120 f.; of pyrethrum, 122; Tiahuanaco, reburials at, 72; its
of bitumen, 122 ff.; of viscous sub- beads apparently of late origin,
stances, 122 ff.; not mentioned in 261 f.
mediaeval Belles Lettres, 125 f.; in Tlatelulco, college at, and Sahagun's
Africa, 126 ff.; among Negroes an interest in Mexican botany, 145 ff.
inveterate habit, 133 f.; in Brazil TOBACCO OF THE MOORS,
in XVI. c. not common, 135; in 122—134.
Nicaragua in 1529, 133 f.; not de- TOBACCO AND THE SCIENCES,
finitely referred to in pre-Colum- 180—200.
bian Mexico, 143; common among Tobacco among the Arabs, 181; in
the Tarascans, 143 f.; and Mo- Africa, 125; various names for,
nardes, 145, 158 ff.; in Mexico of 126; not known in Europe before
European origin, 149; reintroduced 1556, 126; among Negroes of good
by Nicot, 151 ff.; in North Amer- quality, 129; growing wild in Af-
ica, as told by Cabeza de Vaca, rica, 1 29 ff . ; smoking among Negro-
177; in America of slow growth, es, 133 f.; not common in Brazil
181; for medicinal purposes very in XVI. c, 135; confused with
old, 181; in America based on datura arborea, 139, 141 f.; smoke
philological fallacy, 182. used as a punishment at Vera
 . .

SUBJECT INDEX 287

Cruz, 139 f.; used by wizard in borough, 46 flf.; ancient Mexican,

Venezuela, 140 f.; raised by Ne- irregular and indefinite, 54 f.; in
groes in Hispaniola for trade with Peru based on Mexican, 60 f
Indians, 141; and Monardes, 145; Tubbdq, see Tabbdq,
its curative properties not of Mex-
ican origin, 50; its rediscovery,
151 flf.; introduced into European
medicine by Nicot, 151 ff.; dis- Uhle on commercial relations of Peru
tributed from the West Indies to with Central America, 261.
Florida and the Great Lakes, 176;
and Cabeza de Vaca, 177; culti-
vated in Virginia, not growing
Venice, its beads in Africa, 245; its
wild, 177; from Hispaniola in
manufacture of glass pipes, 247.
North America, 177 f.; used only Virgin Mary in Peru in 1525, 78 f.;
by the rich, 178; fallacy of its in Indian belief, 262; at Darien,
American origin, 181 f.; its origin
263.
determined on philological grounds
Virginia, beads in, 258 flf.
by Schweinfurth, 186 flf.; similarly Viscous substances smoked, 122 f.
by de CandoUe, 186 flf.; N. rus-
tica possibly native of Airica, ac-
cording to Schweinfurth, 188 f. ; ul-
timate source for its origin found WAMPUM, 249—270.
by botanists in philology, 190; Wampum, how procured, according
N. suaveolens according to Focke, to Cartier, 249; belts in France
not different from the American in XVI. c, 256; see Beads.
N. acuminata, 193 f.; its easy Watt and indigenous American cot-
hybridization, as told by Focke, ton, 31 flf.
193 £f.; N. glauca found wild in Wheat, origin of its culture in Mex-
America, Africa and Europe, 194; ico, 45 f.; raised by Indians, 50.
new varieties of, 194; indigenous Wine in Africa, 101 flf.
in Africa, according to Pob^guin,
194 £.
Tribute payed by Indians in 1537, 41
f.; of 1549 in Mexico and cotton Zanzibar, blue beads at, 240 flf.; Chi-
mantles, 46 f.; in Codex Kings- nese wares at, 243 f
J^