an herbal eldorado
Post on 08-Apr-2018
222 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
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 (pdevos@mail.sdsu.edu).
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
8/7/2019 An Herbal Eldorado
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/an-herbal-eldorado 2/5
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
8/7/2019 An Herbal Eldorado
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/an-herbal-eldorado 3/5
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.
Review Endeavour Vol.27 No.3 September 2003 119
http://ende.trends.com
8/7/2019 An Herbal Eldorado
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/an-herbal-eldorado 4/5
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
http://ende.trends.com
8/7/2019 An Herbal Eldorado
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/an-herbal-eldorado 5/5
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 ’.
Review Endeavour Vol.27 No.3 September 2003 121
http://ende.trends.com
top related