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Spaniards discovered an Indian medicinal root

Source: Early History of the Creek Indians and Their Neighbors #121

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AN77

Barcia mentions as one result of the Florida settlements the discovery of an herb of wonderful medicinal qualities, which was in all probability the nut grass (Cyperus rotundus). He says:

Barcia's account of a medicinal root
The Spaniards discovered in this land some long roots, marked like strings of beads, so that each portion cut off remains rounded; outside they are black and within white and dry, hard like bones; the bark is so hard that one can scarcely remove it. The taste is aromatic, so that it appears to be a specific; the galanga is like it. The plant which produces it throws out short shoots, and spreads its branches along the ground; its leaves are very broad, and very green; it is warm (or heated) at the limit of the second degree, dries at the beginning of the first; it grows in moist situations:

The Indians use the plant, crushed between two stones, to rub over their entire bodies, when they bathe themselves, because they say that it tightens and strengthens the flesh, with the good odor, which it has, and that they feel much improved on account of it. They also use it in the form of a powder, for pains in the stomach. The Spaniards learned of this from the Indians, and they used it for the same purposes, and afterwards they discovered that it was an admirable specific for colic (or pain in the side), and urinary trouble, since it causes the stones to be driven out, even though they are very large. Other virtues were discovered, its estimation growing so much among the soldiers, that they all carried rosaries of these beads, which they called "of Santa Elena" on account of the great abundance of these which there are in the marshy places at the Gape of Santa Elena and province of Crista and the neighboring parts.
(Swanton)