438
THE CURARE POISON.
interest shall call n e w settlers thither. H a b i t u a l evils are those w h i c h are least f e l t ; and m e n b o r n in A m e r i c a d o n o t suffer the same intensity o f pain as, E u r o p e a n s recently arrived. Perhaps, also, the destruction o f forests r o u n d t h e inhabited places, although slow, will somewhat tend t o diminish the t o r m e n t o f the tipulary insects. San F e r n a n d o do A t a b a p o , Javita, San Carlos, and Esmeralda, appear (from their situation at the m o u t h o f the Guaviare, the portage between Tuamini and the; Rio N e g r o , the c o n fluence o f the Cassiquiare, and the p o i n t o f bifurcation o f t h e U p p e r O r i n o c o ) t o promise a considerable increase o f p o p u l a t i o n and prosperity. The same i m p r o v e m e n t will take place i n t h e fertile b u t uncultivated countries t h r o u g h which flow the Guallaga, the A m a z o n , and the O r i n o c o ; as well as at the isthmus o f Panama, the lake o f N i c a r a g u a , and the Rio Huasacualco, which furnish a c o m m u n i c a t i o n b e t w e e n the t w o oceans. The imperfection o f political institutions may for ages have converted into deserts places where the c o m m e r c e o f the world should be found c o n c e n t r e d ; b u t the time approaches w h e n these obstacles will exist n o l o n g e r . A vicious administration c a n n o t always struggle against the united interest o f men ; and civilization will be carried insensibly into those countries, the great destinies o f which nature itself proclaims, b y the physical configuration of the soil, the immense windings o f the rivers, and the p r o x i m i t y o f t w o seas, that bathe the shores o f E u r o p e and o f India. Esmeralda is t h e m o s t celebrated spot on tho O r i n o c o for the preparation o f that active p o i s o n , which is e m p l o y e d in war, in the chase, and, singularly e n o u g h , as a remedy for gastric d e r a n g e m e n t s . The p o i s o n o f the ticunas of the A m a z o n , the u p a s - t i e u t e o f Java, and the curare o f G u i a n a , are the m o s t deleterious substances that are k n o w n . Raleigh, about the end o f the sixteenth c e n t u r y , had beard o f urari* as b e i n g a vegetable substance with which arrows were e n v e n o m e d ; y e t n o fixed n o t i o n s of this poison had reached Europe. T h e missionaries G u m i l l a and Gili had n o t been able t o penetrate into the c o u n t r y where the curare is manufactured. G u m i l l a asserts that " t h i s p r e * In Tamanac marana ; in Maypure, macuri.