Of the brasil trees[1] that are found on this and other islands and the Mainland.

Translated by Carly Fajardo ’23

The brasil is a well-known and useful tree; it is of great value to cloth and wool dyers and painters, and for other things, and there are so many in some parts of the Mainland that one could load as many ships as possible with them. It is also abundant in some islands off the coast of the Mainland, and here on this island of Hispaniola it is not far, but next to the lake of Jaragua and throughout those mountains. The tree is not very tall or straight, and after it is cut into slabs the heartwood tends towards mauve or purple.; in the province and mountains of cape San Miguel, which others call Tiburon, there are also many of these trees. They are somewhat like the holm oak, but thinner and crooked and not commonly tall. The bark flakes in large patches, and the leaves are pinnate and smooth. The largest number of them are found on the great coast of the Mainland, to the side of our Arctic pole, in great groves reaching from the great Marañón River up the eastern coast. And because the tree is so well-known and prominent, I will not say more of it, for there are many that have experience with its usefulness and the benefits and effects of its colors and properties and can better testify to them.

[1] Paubrasilia echinata, a species of flowering plant in the legume family, Fabaceae, endemic to the Atlantic Forest; commonly known as Pernambuco wood or brazilwood.