The Poison Apple that Killed the Conquistador

Interesting Bit of Information #4

According to some reports, the Calusas may have shot Ponce De Leon with an arrow coated with the sap of the manchineel tree. De Leon died several days later in Cuba.

I found a blog post titled The Power of Poison that mentioned how every part of the tree was dangerous. The post added that “Caribs” would sometimes tie captives to a manchineel tree to cause an extremely painful death. They also poisoned their enemies’ water with manchineel leaves.

The danger was not all intentional: standing under a manchineel tree in the rain. is dangerous as the sap might drip on you, causing blisters. The post also stated how smoke from a manchineel tree can make people become blind. Of course, eating the fruit could also be deadly.

Image Credit

I am going to include the Manchineel tree in my novel Calusa Gold. My Calusa warriors will carry some of the sap with them on their voyage to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. This is just one of many things I am doing to make my Calusas formidable fighters.