was followed, and the mysterious, tenacious, and mistrustful disposition of these Indians[1], have deprived us of many advantages which might have resulted from their long experience. On our side, we have not aimed at recovering these advantages, contenting ourselves with the relics which tradition and history have afforded us[2] . It may be said,
that the
- ↑ The obstinacy with which the Indians endeavoured to conceal their acquirements from the Europeans, may be collected from a document, by Pedro De Osma, dated at Lima, 1568. In this paper he states, that having left his house, in company with several friends, with a view to discover the part in which the bezoar stone is engendered in the vicunas, the Indians not only refused to answer the different questions which were proposed to them on this subject, but likewise would not consent to disclose the secret of the poison they carried about them. Si quidquam de lapldibus scire negabant, ut sunt nobis infesttssimi, nee sua secreta nobis innotcsccre vellent. These secrets having, however, been revealed by a young Indian aged ten or twelve years, his countrymen expressed a wish to cut off his head. Osma took him under his protection; but having aftervifards negledled the necessary precautions for his security, he fell into the hands of the Indians, by whom he was sacrificed.
- ↑ Cieza, Gomara, and Zarate, were the earliest historians who attempted to give a few notices relative to the esculent and medicinal plants of Peru. Garcilaso, Don Antonio Pinelo, and Calancha, followed them with more precision, and with a greater length of detail. With the historians we may connedl the poets: among ours, the only one who has treated this subject is Don Pedro De Peralta, in his work entitled Lima Fundada,
culty, set out for Cercado and Surco" (Indian villages, the former contiguous to, and the other at a small distance from Lima), "to be cured by Indian men and women, and recover the health which their physicians could not give them." The progress made by the Indians in the knowledge of medicinal plants, was in a great measure owing to the prospedt this acquirement held out to them, of being appointed physicians to the Yncas, and distinguished personages a dignity which did not allow them to debase themselves by practising among the common people. The law which expressly enjoined that no one should be idle, and that those, among the people, who were not skilled in agriculture or in warfare, should become herbalists to aid the sick, was equally favourable to this study. For these reasons, we ought to consider the Indians as the fathers and founders of the botany of Peru.
