An Herbal Eldorado

8/7/2019 An Herbal Eldorado

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/an-herbal-eldorado 1/5

An herbal El Dorado: the quest for

botanical wealth in the Spanish EmpirePaula De Vos

History Department, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182-8147, USA

Few historians of science would associate the Spanish

Empire with scientific innovation. However, recent

research is increasingly demonstrating the Crown’s

strong commitment to scientific research, particularly

in the areas of botany, natural history and medicine.Although this commitment began in the 16th century, it

reached full development in the 18th, when Enlighten-

ment ideals led to growing interest in exploiting natural

resources in the New World. Interest in new resources,

which offered alternatives to silver and traditional cash

crops, focused largely on medicinal herbs indigenous to

the Americas. Herbs that provided ‘miracle cures’ for

age-old diseases would bring both material and moral

wealth to the Crown, and were thus pursued vigorously

throughout Spanish America. The result was a search

for an ‘herbal’ El Dorado, reminiscent of 16th-century

expeditions in search of a mythical land of gold – only

in this case, medicine, not metal, was the goal.

Visions of the Spanish Empire often evoke the image of a

corrupt and unwieldy bureaucracy struggling unsuccess-

fully to control greedy and cruel conquistadors whose only

aim was to find gold and silver in the New World. The

legends of El Dorado led more than one conquistador to

risk life, limb and personal fortune to leave the relative

safety of the American coastline and travel inland in

search of a mythical land of gold (Fig. 1). Despite the

promise of Inca temples literally covered in gold (Fig. 2), it

was soon clear that silver, not gold, was to be the

conquistadors’ ‘reward,’ as they saw it, for conquest and

native conversion. Major silver deposits were discovered in

the 1540s, and by the 1590s, the Spanish fleet system was

carrying millions of pesos’ worth of silver to Spain every

year. The Spanish Crown put considerable resources into

insuring the production and safe shipment of this precious

cargo through research into mining technology, purifi-

cation techniques, navigation, cartography and naval

weaponry [1]. It is silver, then, that has dominated much

of the political, economic and scientific history of the

Spanish Empire. It is to silver that historians attributed

Spain’s spectacular rise to power in the 16th century and

its equally ignominious decline in the 17th, as silver

receipts began to diminish [2]. It was also silver that

provided the motivation for any scientific or technological

innovation that took place in the Spanish Empire.This traditional view of science and technology in the

Spanish Empire is not entirely inaccurate. There is no

denying the importance of silver production for Spain

throughout the colonial period, and its impact on various

scientific fields. However, the emphasis on silver obfuscates

a very vigorous imperial program of research into thenatural history, botany and medicine of the Americas that

began almost immediately upon contact. In fact, recent work

in the history of science in the Spanish Empire is beginning

to reveal a much more complex picture of a Spanish Crown

committed to the support of science, especially in the 18th

century. In the context of the Enlightenment, economic,

political and intellectual priorities converged in Spain to

make thediscovery of ‘new’and ‘useful’ plantsa primarygoal

for imperial statesmen and scientists alike. The result was

the search for a new kind of ‘herbal’ El Dorado, which held

the promise offinancial gain, but alsoof heightened national

prestige and the moral rewards that went along with using

science, according to the Spanish Crown, for the benefit of humanity.

The riches of natural history

ThebasisforthissearchforanherbalElDoradohaditsroots

in Spain’s earliest colonial efforts, but did not come to full

fruition until the time of the Enlightenment. The fact that

Columbus’sventure wasfounded on a desire to getto eastern

Fig. 1. Detail of Sir Walter Raleigh’s map of the legendary gold country El Dorado.Corresponding author: Paula De Vos ([email protected]).

Review Endeavour Vol.27 No.3 September 2003 117

http://ende.trends.com 0160-9327/$ - see front matter q 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.101 6/S0160-9327(03)00109-1

http://www.trends.com/




spices meant thatspices continued to be a highpriority, even

after it was clearthat Columbus had not landed in Asia. The

search for spices was a significant factor in the search for

New World drugs as well, for most of them also served as

medicines. In fact, spices weremedicinal staplesin theearly-

modern European pharmacopoeia, used for all sorts of cures

including stomach ache, diarrhoea, colds and even epilepsy.

From the first decades of the 16th century the desire to find

new spice medicines led to exploration of and experimen-

tation with indigenous ‘balsams’, peppers and cinnamon in

the circum-Caribbean [3]. From that time as well, Spanish

chroniclers produced voluminous natural histories of the

Indies and popular medical books describing Americandrugs [4]. Research into the natural history and medicinal

plants of the Americas resulted not only from individual

initiative but also from state direction. Spanish monarchs

such as Philip II (1556–1598) organized a series of

investigations into New World plants, animals, climate

and geography and established botanical gardens and

natural history cabinets to house their findings [5].

However substantial these early efforts, it was not until

the 18th century that they reached full fruition. Under the

influence of Enlightenment ideals, the Spanish ruling

dynasty of the Bourbons set about establishing a series of

political, social and economic reforms in Spain and

Spanish America. Designed to combat a generally per-ceived ‘decline’, these reforms included an even greater

commitment to scientific pursuits [6]. Natural history and

botany were an important part of that commitment, as

they in particular enjoyed a heightened popularity

throughout the 18th century.

The publication of CarlLinneus’s Systemof Nature(1737)

helped to both systematize and simplify plant classification,

making it accessible to both expert and layperson. Cabinets

of curiosity, popular since the Renaissance, were increas-

ingly augmented by objects from all over the world.

Institutional support transformed these private pursuits

to public ones, raising them to professional status: botanical

gardens, natural history museums, and university chairs of botany and natural history appeared in most major

European cities, and in Mexico and Peru as well.

Enlightenment ideals also had a profound effect on

economic theory and policy in the Spanish Empire. Greater

emphasis on free trade and entrepreneurial activity

convinced Crown and colonist alike of the need for a more

open trade policy, as seen in the1778 decreeof comercio libre

(free trade) between Spanish and Spanish American ports

[7]. The growing importance of botany and natural history

combined with a developing entrepreneurial spirit in the

search for new products to cultivate and sell on an

increasingly global market. Although all natural history

products had intrinsic value as ‘curiosities’, the ‘useful’ones,

those with commercial potential,were the mostsoughtafter.

Cashcrops of natural dyes, spices and medicines offered new

economic alternatives to the traditional tobacco, cacao andsugar. In this way, agriculture and agronomy became foci of

Crown goals: to find and cultivate new cash crops in Spain’s

overseas realms would come to be a significant factor in

Spain’s economic goals – a far cry from the image of a

bureaucracy and a colonial populace focused exclusively on

the extraction of mineral wealth.

In this way, natural history and botany became pivotal

sciences in the pursuit of colonial wealth, well deserving of

the full support of the Spanish Crown. Bureaucrats,

botanists and naturalists alike recognized the financial

riches to be gained from a ‘scientific’ inquiry into the

botanical specimens of the Spanish viceroyalties. In 1774,

the economist and statesman Pedro Rodriguez de Campo-manes advocated the study of naturalhistory, going so far as

to suggest that a prize be offered to anyone who found new

and innovative uses for plants [8]. The director of the Royal

Botanical Garden in Madrid, Casimiro Gomez Ortega (Fig.

3), wished to capitalize on the possibility of circumventing

Spain’s dependence on the Eastern spice trade when he

urged collectors,doctorsand pharmacists in 1785 to ‘use the

notions of botany…to explore the properties and virtues of

plants in order to determine if one might be able to replace

expensive foreign…spices with those that are grown

domestically.’ [9] Even more important, however, was the

notion that plants, unlike metals, represented a perpetual

source of income because they could reproduce themselves.AccordingtoGomezOrtega,‘Mineralscannotbereproduced;

neither can mineral wealth be propagated. The vegetal

treasures of America, once acquired, can multiply to

Fig. 2. (a) Theodore de Bry’s woodcut and (b) a Colombian votive gift in the form of a raft, both depicting ‘El Dorado’.

Review Endeavour Vol.27 No.3 September 2003118

http://ende.trends.com





infinity.’ [10] In 1777, the Mexican naturalist Jose Alzate y

Ramırez proclaimed to his literate countrymen the fact that

‘At first glance, natural history does not seem to present the

means for building one’s fortune; but…those who have

experienced its capabilities [know that] it produces an

inexhaustible flow of wealth.’ [11]

The message was clear: those mostcapable of recognizing

the value and harnessing the power of America’s natural

resources would be rewarded with unimaginable wealth –

and that wealth might come from the least obvious places.

Science and Spanish prestigeThepotential for financial gain through the study of natural

history andbotany was thus clear to Spanish statesmen and

scientists alikeand undoubtedly provided strong motivation

for its support. Yet financial wealth was not the only goal:

political considerations of Spain’s position vis-a-vis its

European neighbors certainly played a role in funding

scientific research. A commitment to natural history, botany

and medicine would add to Spain’s prestige and insure it a

position in the cosmopolitan intellectual world of the

‘Republic of Letters’. Spanish statesmen, anxious to counter

assumptions of Spanish backwardness, orthodoxy and

decline, wished to present themselves as modern and

forward-thinking – in a word, enlightened.

These sentiments were embodied in the person of

Casimiro Gomez Ortega, pharmacist, botanist, director

of the Royal Botanical Garden and chief organizer of the

Royal Botanical Expedition to New Spain in the 1780s.

Gomez Ortega was consciously and conscientiously cos-

mopolitan. As an enthusiastic supporter of the Linnean

system, he promoted that author’s work throughout Spain

and the Empire. He had visited the Royal Botanical

Gardens in Paris, Oxford and Chelsea and was a member

of the Royal Society and the Linnean Society of London,

the Academy of Sciences in Paris, and many others. He

also carried on a lively correspondence with members of

these organizations, including Joseph Banks [12]. Under

his direction, the Botanical Garden of Madrid regularlysent seeds of ‘exotic’ plants to gardens in London,

Edinburgh, Paris, Florence, Turin, Parma, Zurich,

Amsterdam, The Hague and Leiden [13]. Gomez Ortega

was also author of Elemental Course in Theoretical and

Practical Botany (1785), which was translated into Italian

(1788), and of Instruction Concerning the Transport of

Plants from America to Spain, which he wished to be

translated into English and French, since ‘my friends in

London and Paris, with whom I have been corresponding,

wish me to have it done in the name of the common good.’

[14] Gomez Ortega himself also translated several

botanical and agricultural works into Spanish, including

those of Linneus.

The Spanish counterpart to Joseph Banks, Gomez

Ortega was utterly convinced of the exquisite riches to

be found in the American kingdoms. Although he never

traveled there himself, he spent his career advocating for

the collection, cultivation and dissemination of knowledge

about useful plants from the New World. As part of a larger

wave of European scientific expeditions sent all over the

globe – the voyages of James Cook, Louis Bougainville andAlexander von Humboldt are famous examples – the

Spanish organized them as well, a fact that has received

little attention from historians of science. Over the course

of the 18th century, the Spanish Crown funded no less than

eight natural history expeditions to North and South

America and the Philippines, and sent out dozens of royal

orders to colonial administrators requesting the collection

and remittance of exotic and useful specimens [15]. In

1777, Gomez Ortega voiced his strong support of these

collecting missions by declaring:

I am of the firm persuasion that if a peaceful and wiseking influenced by learned and intelligent advisors

orders the examination of the natural productions of this Peninsula and of his vast overseas dominions; thattwelve naturalists accompanied by as many chemists andmineralogists dispersed throughout these areas, willthrough their pilgrimages produce benefits that areincomparably greater than could one hundred thousandsoldiers. [16]

These words indicate a new idea behind the concepts of

imperialism and conquest. The Spanishmilitaryexpeditions

of the 16th century and the quest for new territory had

transformedinto scientificcollecting expeditions anda quest

for knowledge. The knowledge gained in these expeditions

would lead not to exploitation of new territory, but in the

spirit of the Enlightenment would lead to exploitation of

resources hitherto unknown in Spain. These resourceswould bring incomparably greater riches than before,

because they could be cultivated and perpetuated in an

unending cycle of supply and demand. And unlike the

conquistadors, whose cruelty had been well publicized, the

naturalists would bring a prestige to the Crown based upon

the indisputable value of scientific knowledge, untainted by

the Black Legend. In this scenario, the naturalist, not the

conquistador or the pirate, was the hero; although according

to Gomez Ortega, he was ‘humble and simple, like nature

itself,’ his collections and publications would bring both

honor and glory to his country [17].

Miracle medicinesGiven the growing recognition of the economic and political

advantagesof finding‘useful’ plants,it is no surprise that the

search for herbal medicines would become a focus of Crown

Fig. 3. Signature of Casimiro Gomez Ortega.







goals. The discovery of these medicines had several prag-

matic functions that would aid in furthering imperial aims.

Their cultivation and exportation would not only provide

much-needed funds for the Royal Treasury, but would

restore pride and prestigeto the SpanishCrown and provide

means for further conquest. As British, Portuguese, Dutch,

French and Spanish imperialists alike attempted to expand

settlement into the interior of their far-flung empires, they

faced the continual barrier of the one thing that would not

yield to force of arms, no matter how cruelly imposed –

disease, which only medicines and medical innovation could

cure. In addition to these factors was one final incentive – a

moral one, based on the fact that new medicines would help

humanity in general. Medicines were thus the vehicle par

excellence for providing both the material wealth of

commerce and the moral riches associated with curing the

sick. What better way to justify imperial domination of the

Americas than to prove that in these vast territories layriches greater than any amount of silver or gold? Medicines

that could cure syphilis, malaria, pleurisy and epidemic

disease; that served as antidotes to anypoison; thatcouldaid

in childbirth,breastfeeding and miscarriage: these could rid

society once and for all of the most feared conditions that

shortened lifeexpectancy, limited birthrates and, at the very

least, led to paralysis, chronic fevers and disfiguring scars.

The explosive potential of new medicines, particularly

‘miracle’ drugs to cure major epidemic diseases led to a

wholesale pursuit throughout the Americas of indigenous

plants that was supported, directed and organized by the

Crown. In addition to the scientific expeditions, the Council

of the Indies sent out order after order to administrators inSpanish America requesting them to send to Madrid

‘medicinal herbs, roots and seeds,…and descriptions of

their uses.’ [18] Responses to these orders poured in from all

over Spanish America. Throughout the 1770s and 1780s,

hundreds of medicines arrived from Mexico, Cuba, Puerto

Rico, Santo Domingo,Peruand Louisiana,and frompresent-

day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Argentina and Chile.

These medicines represented an impressive array of

indigenous ‘folk’ remedies for a wide range of afflictions,

from headaches to bladder stones and menstrual problems.

However, the medicines that received the most attention

fromwerethosepurportedtocureepidemicdiseases.Thus,a

veritable scramble to find ‘miracle cures’ broke out among

bureaucrats and various amateurs in Spanish America who

hoped to receive fame and fortune in return for their finds.

The intention of finding miracle cures was not lost on the

colonial subjectswho were doingthe collecting. As notices of

folk medicines began to reach Madrid, so too did notices of

miraculous drugs that cured anynumberof seriousdiseases.

Such was the case with a drug sent to Madrid in 1778 from

Yucatan that reputedly cured malaria. This drug was a

powder made from the bark of the Choch Tree, and hadbeen

discovered by a local surgeon. Having completed ‘a very

careful mechanical analysis’ of the tree’s bark, the surgeon

found that it was ‘powerfully absorbent for the acids which

produce the fermentation…causing intermittent fevers

[malaria].’ [19] A possible cure for malaria was extremelysignificant, not only because the disease had plagued

colonizers for centuries, but also because its most promising

cure to date, quinine, was another example of a miracle

medicine. The Council of the Indies arranged for two large

bottles of the Choch Tree powder to be sent to Madrid right

away. Once arrived, the bottles were remitted to Doctor

Joseph Lafarga of the hospital that served the royal court in

San Lorenzo del Escorial. The doctor tested the powder by

administeringit to a total of 28patients who were illwith the

fevers and who had been treated with quinine, to no avail.

According to Lafarga, the Choch powderwasa great success:

of the 28 people treated with Choch, 21 had been cured. Not

only was it more effective than quinine, but it was also much

easier on the body, ‘moving sweat, urine, and saliva, gently,

without harming the patient.’ In a resounding affirmation of

his admiration of this new drug, it was Lafarga’s final

judgement that

If these powders are capable of being grown in Spain inlarge numbers so that they can be widely used, it appearsto me that these results will be very favorable, and that

their discovery will be a new find of the greatestconsideration and estimation for medicine.

Another ‘great find’ for medicine appeared in 1791 when

an army officer in Havana was moved ‘by humanitarian

sentiment’to notify His Majesty of something ‘veryuseful to

thepreservation of [our]species’: a cure forsmallpox used by

the indigenous people of Cuba [20]. The cure consisted of a

certain ‘Herb N.’ that entirely healed smallpox sores, no

matter how severe or advanced the disease. Herb N. was

preparedbyboilingitinalargequantityofwater,whichthen

served as a bath for the patient. The patient bathed in the

infusions three times a day ‘until the pox have swelled up.’

Theherb itself wasplaceddirectly over thesores,afterwhich

the humor causing the disease would dissipate rapidly. Theofficer could attest personally to the efficacy of Herb N. His

son Ramon had been afflicted by smallpox and was

‘practically dead’ when he was told of the remedy. After

bathing in the herb for only a few days, his son had emerged

‘perfectly cured.’ Without casting doubt on the officer’s

commitment to thegoodof humanity, thefact that the herb’s

name was concealed does suggest that he was aware of its

economic potential and did not want any competitors to

collect it before he did.

That the search for miracle cures had turned into an

18th-century version of a search for a medicinal El Dorado

that would make the discoverer rich and famous is evident,

finally, in a poignant letter by the Franciscan leader of the

collecting mission in Guatemala, Friar Jose AntonioGoscoechea. The search for miracle cures, like earlier

searches for the mythical El Dorado, often turned up fakes.

In 1785, Friar Jose commiserated with members of the

Council of the Indies that

Your Excellencies must feel every day the tedium,drudgery, and vexation caused for you by people who areforever sending one drug or another, and in this waycounting on getting promotions and making a fortune. [21]

The friar’s complaint reveals some of the difficulties

involved in collecting efforts, but more importantly it

demonstrates that these efforts were taking place on a

relativelylargescale,and were gearedtowards thediscovery

of ‘miracle drugs’ that could provide the finder with greatriches, much like the earlier promise of finding El Dorado.

Unfortunately for our purposes, it is unclearexactlywhat

happened with each of these drugs. Gomez Ortega had great

Review Endeavour Vol.27 No.3 September 2003120






plans for them, and arranged for the testing and chemical

analysis of several of these herbs, including a ‘Tabasco

Pepper’, which he was sure would overtake the Eastern

trade in cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in one fell swoop

(Fig. 4) [22]. What may have become a strong tradition in

Spain of tropical medicine research, however, was halted by

several factors. Spain’s chronic lack of development in

industry and manufacture made it impossible for these

projects to flourish on a large scale, particularly after the

Napoleonic takeover of Spain in 1808 and the subsequent

decades of devastating turmoil in the Spanish–American

wars of independence. Nevertheless, there is much value in

knowing Crownintentions. Whilst many of the newbreed of

fortune hunter naturalists were undoubtedly guided bymore parochial and personal aims, the administrators who

receivedthefruitsof theirlabor had a larger visionin mind –

as they saw it, that of an enlightened Spain whose imperial

efforts,particularly in the area of science, would not only fill

its coffers, but be a benefit to all of humanity.

References1 See, for example, Cipolla, C. (1965) Guns and Sails in the Early Phase

of European Expansion, Collins; and Parry, J.H. (1963) The Age of

Reconnaissance, University of California Press, Berkeley

2 For a general history of the ‘rise and fall’ of Spain in the 16th and 17th

centuries, see Lynch, J. (1991) Spain 1516–1598 and The Hispanic

World in Crisis and Change, 1598–1700, Blackwell and various works

by John Elliott

3 Barrera, A. (2001) Local herbs, global medicines: commerce, knowl-edge andcommodities in Spanish America. In Merchantsand Marvels:

Commerce, Science, and Art in Early Modern Europe (Smith, P. and

Findlen P., eds), Routledge. Other sources are Archivo General de

Indias, Sevilla (AGI/S), Contratacion, 928, N. 18, f. 1, Santo Domingo,

868,L. 3, f. 5r., and Santo Domingo, 868, L. 4, f. 29r

4 For an overview of natural histories of Spanish America by 16th-

century chroniclers, see Esteve Barba, F. (1992) Historiografı a

Indiana, Editorial Gredos, S.A., Madrid; and Gerbi, A. (1985) Nature

in the New World: From Christopher Columbus to Gonzalo Ferna ndez

de Oviedo (Jeremy Moyle, trans.) University of Pittsburgh Press,

Pittsburgh, USA. An early and well-known medical book on American

medicinal herbs was written by Nicholas Monardes in 1545. See

Monardes, N. (1988) Historia medicinal de las cosas que se traen de

nuestras Indias Occidentales que sirven de medicina, Facsimile of 1574

Seville edition, Padilla Libros, Seville

5 Several works have come out recently that emphasize Philip II’s

commitment to science, including Martinez Ruiz, E., ed. (1999) Felipe

II, la ciencia y la tecnica. Actas Editoriales, Madrid; Campos y

Fernandez de Sevilla, F.J., ed. (1992) La Ciencia en el Escorial, San

Lorenzo de El Escorial; and Goodman, D. (1988) Power and Penury,

Cambridge University Press

6 See Herr, R. (1958) The Eighteenth-Century Revolution in Spain,

Princeton University Press, ch. 3

7 See Fisher, J. (1997) The Economic Aspects of Spanish Imperialism in

America, 1492–1810, Liverpool University Press

8 Bleichmar, D. Painting as exporation: visualizing nature in eight-

eenth-century colonial science, unpublished

9 Gomez Ortega, C. (1785) Curso elemental de botanica. Parte Teo rica,

Capı tulo 6, p. 154

10 AGI/S Indiferente, L., 1544. Informes de Don Casimiro de Ortega

sobre el sistema o modo de estampar al natural las Plantas, como

presento Don Celedonio de Arce. Letter from Casimiro Gomez Ortega

to Jose de Galvez, 10 February 1779

11 Newberry Library, Ayer Collection,MS 1301, Alzatey Ramırez,J. (1777)

Memoria Sobre la Naturaleza, Cultivo, y Beneficio de la Grana, f. 2v

12 For a biography of Gomez Ortega, see Puerto Sarmiento, F. (1992)

Ciencia de camara: Casimiro Go mez Ortega (1741–1818) el cientifico

cortesano, CSIC, Madrid.Whereas Puerto Sarmiento contends (pp.97–

102) that Gomez Ortega’s membership in so many different academies

indicated his lack of depth and direction as a serious botanist, I would

argue to the contrary, that it demonstrates his participation in theEuropean Republic of Letters. This participation was crucial to the

development not only of Gomez Ortega’s intellect and career, but of

Spanish imperial science in general in the late 18th century

13 There are too many archival examples to cite here, but a few

representative documents are: Archivo del Real Jardin Botanico de

Madrid (A.R.J.B.M.) I, 3, 6, 14; I, 3, 6, 15; and, I, 4, 1, 9

14 AGI/S Indiferente, L. 1544. Informes de Don Casimiro de Ortega sobre

el sistema o modo de estampar al natural las Plantas, como presento

Don Celedonio de Arce. Letter from Casimiro Gomez Ortega to Jose de

Galvez, 10 February, 1779

15 Bleichmar, D. op. cit. Engstrand, I. (1981) Spanish Scientists in the

New World, Universityof WashingtonPress, Seattle, USAmakeup the

few historians writing in English about the 18th-century Spanish

scientific expeditions

16 AGI/S Indiferente, L. 1544. Expediente sobre el fomento, el comerico,

y cultivo dela Pimienta de Tabasco,o Malagueta. Letterfrom CasimiroGomez Ortega to Jose de Galvez, 23 February, 1777

17 AGI/S Indiferente, L. 1544. Informes de Don Casimiro de Ortega sobre

el sistema o modo de estampar al natural las Plantas, como presento

Don Celedonio de Arce. Letter from Casimiro Gomez Ortega to Jose de

Galvez, 10 February 1779

18 AGI/S Indiferente, L. 1549. Compendio de las noticias que S.M. por su

Real Orden de 20de Octubreproximopasadoordenaque se puntualisen

para el completo conocimiento de la Geografıa, Fısica, Antiguedades,

Mineralogıa y Metalurgıa de este Reyno de Nueva Espana, f. 4. 23

January 1777

19 AGI/S Indiferente, L. 1553. Letter from Bartolome Goujoun, 12

February 1778

20 AGI/S Indiferente, L. 1553. Letter from Don Juan Bautista Prats, 31

January, 1791

21 AGI/S Indiferente, L. 1550. Letter fromFray Jose Antonio Goscoechea

to Jose de Galvez, 15 June, 178522 AGI/S Indiferente, L. 1544. Expediente sobre el fomento, el comercio,

y cultivo dela Pimienta de Tabasco,o Malagueta. Letterfrom Casimiro

Gomez Ortega to Jose de Galvez, 23 February, 1777

Fig. 4. Gomez Ortega’s ‘Tabasco pepper ’.





Documents

An Herbal Eldorado