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Updated: June 9, 2025
Many varieties of the forest trees exude resins, which are collected and used for torches and for repairing boats, as well as brought to the bazaars, where the best kinds fetch very good prices. Sometimes the resin is found in large masses on the ground where it has dripped from the trees. A curious and valuable natural product is the bezoar stone.
There might be imported, long pepper, white pepper, white powder sugar, preserved nutmegs and ginger preserved, merabolans, bezoar stones, drugs of all sorts, agate heads, blood stones, musk, aloes socratrina, ambergris, rich carpets of Persia and of Cambaya, quilts of satin taffety, painted calicoes, Benjamin, damasks, satins and taffeties of China, quilts of China embroidered with silk, galls, sugar candy, China dishes, and porcelain of all sorts.
But they found that a great deal too much trouble, as most people have since; and so had recourse to Borage. Cauteries. But it didn't. Bezoar stone. Diamargaritum. A ram's brain boiled in spice. Oil of wormwood. Water of Nile. Capers. The water of a smith's forge. Ambergris. Mandrake pillows. Dormouse fat. Hares' ears. Starvation. Camphor. Salts and senna. Musk. Opium. Strait-waistcoats.
There is a famous law-case of James the First's time, in which a goldsmith sold a hundred pounds' worth of what he called bezoar, which was proved to be false, and the purchaser got a verdict against him. Governor Endicott also sends Winthrop a unicorn's horn, which was the property of a certain Mrs. Beggarly, who, in spite of her name, seems to have been rich in medical knowledge and possessions.
They are always fat, I believe, with some delicate Herbage that grows on the Hills; for we find all Creatures that graze much fatter and better Meat on the Hills, than those in the Valleys: I mean towards and near the Sea. Some Deer on these Mountains afford the occidental Bezoar, not coming from a Goat, as some report. What sort of Beast affords the oriental Bezoar, I know not.
In very far-off times, when superstition and medicine went hand in hand, and charms were deemed more efficacious than drugs, a hard substance found in the intestines of goats, was greatly valued as a cure for most disorders. It was called the bezoar stone, and was a concretion chiefly of resinous bile and magnesia, and the rest inert vegetable matter.
This Evening, came down some Toteros, tall, likely Men, having great Plenty of Buffelos, Elks, and Bears, with other sort of Deer amongst them, which strong Food makes large, robust Bodies. Enquiring of them, if they never got any of the Bezoar Stone, and giving them a Description how it was found, the Indians told me, they had great plenty of it; and ask'd me, What use I could make of it?
Some remedies of questionable though not odious character appear occasionally to have been employed by the early practitioners, but they were such as still had the support of the medical profession. Governor John Winthrop, the first, sends for East Indian bezoar, with other commodities he is writing for. Governor Endicott sends him one he had of Mr. Humfrey.
Leonardus Camillus had seen a white stone taken from the brain of a newly-killed toad, that was a certain antidote against poison. The bezoar, that was found in the heart of the Arabian deer, was a charm that could cure the plague. In the nests of Arabian birds was the aspilates, that, according to Democritus, kept the wearer from any danger by fire.
Lying in the chests for subsequent division were swords, silver-mounted pistols, daggers chased and inlaid, watches from Spain, necklaces of uncut jewels, rings and bangles, heavy carved furniture, "cases of bottles" of delicately cut green glass, containing cordials distilled of precious mints, with packets of emeralds from Brazil, bezoar stones from Patagonia, paintings from Spain, and medicinal gums from Nicaragua.
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