All This Indeed
Cannot Be Done Out Of One Tree, But May Out Of Several Of The Same
Kind.
They saw the trunk into planks, and sew them together with
thread which they spin out of the bark, and which they twist for the
cables; the leaves stitched together make the sails.
This boat thus
equipped may be furnished with all necessaries from the same tree.
There is not a month in which the cocoa does not produce a bunch of
nuts, from twenty to fifty. At first sprouts out a kind of seed or
capsula, of a shape not unlike the scabbard of a scimitar, which
they cut, and place a vessel under, to receive the liquor that drops
from it; this drink is called soro, and is clear, pleasant, and
nourishing. If it be boiled, it grows hard, and makes a kind of
sugar much valued in the Indies: distil this liquor and you have a
strong water, of which is made excellent vinegar. All these
different products are afforded before the nut is formed, and while
it is green it contains a delicious cooling water; with these nuts
they store their gelves, and it is the only provision of water which
is made in this country. The second bark which contains the water
is so tender that they eat it. When this fruit arrives to perfect
maturity, they either pound the kernel into meal, and make cakes of
or draw an oil from it of a fine scent and taste, and of great use
in medicine; so that what is reported of the different products of
this wonderful tree is neither false nor incredible.
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