Book IX, Chapter XXX

Of the fragrant trees in New Castile.

Translated by Elizabeth Girdharry ’22

In those lordships that belonged to Atabaliba, which are now called New Castile, in the land that sits at the other side of the equator, Marquis Francisco Pizarro rules in the name of Their Majesties. In that region, especially from Puerto Viejo to the tip they call Santa Elena by the coast, there are trees of a very tender wood and leaves resembling those of ash trees. These trees smell like fennel, and they produce a very odorous resin that the Indians love and keep in large quantities; they perfume their idols with the resin, often using it in their sacrifices and idolatries, and it really smells very good.

Image: Drawing of the leaves of Fraxinus excelsior or the common European ash tree by François André Michaux in the 1840s, retrieved from the digital collections at the New York Public Library.