Treatise of the drugs and medicines of the East Indies (16th Century)

Cover from 1578 spanish edition of "Tractado de las drogas y medicinas de las Indias Orientales", by Cristóbal Acosta.

Cristobal Acosta (Portuguese origin but settled down in Burgos at the end of his life) was a Doctor and Physician considered a pioneer in the study of plants and its use in pharmacology. In 1568 he travelled to remote East Indies to serve as personal physician for the Viceroy and started to collect botanical specimens from various parts of India. In 1578 he returned to Spain (Burgos) and commissioned a treatise with all material collected in India during 10 years, named "Treatise of the drugs and medicines of the East Indies". In the treatise he says he was brought to India by his desire to see "the diversity of plants God has created for human health and provide to Occidental Medicine new remedies from distant lands, observed directly on site". Cristobal Acosta provides a very accurate description of each Plant, name and different use provided by local population, most favorable regions to find it, characteristics, and even the value (translated to local goods).

The codex is written in ancient spanish and online hosted by google books. I tried to find references -page by page- to drug plants but most of the references I could find were oriented to plants like cinnamon, black pepper, nutmeg, peppermint, saffron... I imagine this was the "commercial" side of the Book. During 16th Century, these Plants (spices) were considered as "foreign exchange" and even more valuables that gold...

Cristobal Acosta bio from wikipedia here. 

Cinnamon Plant.

Black pepper tree

Nutmeg tree

Peppermint

Saffron

"Buccaneers of America" by Alexandre Exquemelin, 17th Century

François l'Olonnais (French) was probably the most cruel pirate in the Caribbean during the 1660s. He caused several losses to Spanish imperium (was known as "El filibustero francés"). He and his crew raped, pillaged, killed and burned complete towns. His operation base was Tortuga Island and payed all his crimes at the end. He had a terrible dead in Darien, Panama, eaten by Kuna tribe. As said in this codex, "tore him in pieces alive, throwing his body limb by limb into the fire and his ashes into the air; to the intent no trace nor memory might remain of such an infamous, inhuman creature."

Original title for this codex is “The Buccaneers of America. A true account of the most remarkable assaults committed of late years upon the coasts of West Indies by the Buccaneers of Jamaica and Tortuga”. This Codex is available on facsimilium DVD collection.

Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin, born about 1645 in France, was the author of this amazing codex, one of the most important sourcebooks of 17th century caribbean piracy. In 1666, while he was trying to escape from European religious persecutions –he was Huguenot-, was engaged by the French West India Company, and travelled to America. During this travel, his merchant ship was intercepted by Caribbean pirates that conducted him to Tortuga Island, where he stayed for at least three years learning and practicing as barber-surgeon. After this time, he finally enlisted with the buccaneers, in particular with the band of Henry Morgan, and remained with them until 1674.

Shortly afterwards he returned to Europe and settled in Amsterdam where he qualified professionally as a surgeon, his name appearing on the 1679 register of the Dutch Surgeons' Guild. However, he was later once again in the Caribbean as his name appears on the muster-roll as a surgeon in the attack on Cartagena de Indias in 1697. At the end, Mr Exquemelin, although a good chronist, was just simply... a caribbean pirate.

The damage inflicted upon Gibraltar (southern shore of Lake Maracaibo) by pirates was so great that the city, formerly a major centre for the exportation of cacao, nearly ceased to exist by 1680.

Bartholomew the Portuguese, another terrible cruelty caribbean pirate, well known by the Spaniards.

Pirate attack on Cartagena de Indias in 1697, by Pirate Baron Pointis.

Pirate attack to Panama Town