By Means Of A Wood Called
Cambe, They Dye Their Purses And Mats Of A Red Colour.
[Footnote 210:
In a side-note; Purchas calls this the fruit of the
carob tree. - E.]
The tree on which the plantains grow is of considerable height, its
body being about the thickness of a man's thigh. It seems to be an
annual plant, and, in my opinion, ought rather to be reckoned among
reeds than trees; for the stem is not of a woody substance, but is
compacted of many leaves wrapped close upon each other, adorned with
leaves from the very ground instead of boughs, which are mostly two
yards long and a yard broad, having a very large rib in the middle. The
fruit is a bunch of ten or twelve plantains, each a span long, and as
thick as a man's wrist, somewhat crooked or bending inwards. These grow
on a leafy stalk on the middle of the plant, being at first green, but
grow yellow and tender as they ripen. When the rind is stripped off, the
inner pulp is also yellowish and pleasant to the taste. Beneath the
fruit hangs down, from the same stalk, a leafy sharp-pointed tuft, which
seems to have been the flower. This fruit they call bannana, which
they have in reasonable abundance. They are ripe in September and
October. We carried some with us green to sea, which, were six weeks in
ripening. Guinea pepper grows wild in the woods on a small plant like
privet, having small slender leaves, the fruit being like our barberry
in form and colour. It is green at first, turning red as it ripens. It
does not grow in bunches like our barberry, but here and there two or
three together about the stalk. They call it bangue. The pene, of
which their bread is made, grows on a small tender herb resembling
grass, the stalk being all full of small seeds, not inclosed in any
bask. I think it is the same which the Turks call cuscus, and the
Portuguese yfunde.
The palmito tree is high and straight, its bark being knotty, and the
wood of a soft substance, having no boughs except at the top, and these
also seem rather reeds than boughs, being all pith within, inclosed by a
hard rind. The leaf is long and slender, like that of a sword lilly, or
flag. The boughs stand out from the top of the tree on all sides, rather
more than a yard long, beset on both sides with strong sharp prickles,
like saw-teeth, but longer. It bears a fruit like a small cocoa-nut, the
size of a chesnut, inclosed in a hard shell, streaked with threads on
the outside, and containing a kernel of a hard horny substance, quite
tasteless; yet they are eaten roasted. The tree is called tobell, and
the fruit bell. For procuring the palmito wine, they cut off one of
the branches within a span of the head, to which they fasten a gourd
shell by the mouth, which in twenty-four hours is filled by a clear
whitish sap, of a good and strong relish, with which the natives get
drunk. The oysters formerly mentioned grow on trees resembling willows
in form, but having broader leaves, which are thick like leather, and
bearing small knobs like those of the cypress. From these trees hang
down many branches into the water, each about the thickness of a
walking-stick, smooth, limber, and pithy within, which are overflowed by
every tide, and hang as thick as they can stick of oysters, being the
only fruit of this tree.
They have many kinds of ordinary fishes, and some which seemed to us
extraordinary; as mullets, rays, thornbacks, old-wives with prominent
brows, fishes like pikes, gar-fish, cavallios like mackerel,
swordfishes, having snouts a yard long, toothed on each side like a saw,
sharks, dogfish, sharkers, resembling sharks, but having a broad flat
snout like a shovel, shoe-makers, having pendents at each side of their
mouths like barbels, and which grunt like hogs, with many others. We
once caught in an hour 6000 fishes like bleaks. Of birds, there are
pelicans as large as swans, of a white colour, with long and large
bills. Herons, curlews, boobies, ox-eyes, and various other kinds of
waterfowl. On land, great numbers of grey parrots, and abundance of
pintados or Guinea fowls, which are very hurtful to their rice crops.
There are many other kinds of strange birds in the woods, of which I
knew not the names; and I saw among the negroes many porcupine quills.
There are also great numbers of monkeys leaping about the trees, and on
the mountains there are lions, tigers, and ounces. There are but few
elephants, of which we only saw three, but they abound farther inland.
The negroes told us of a strange beast, which our interpreter called a
carbuncle, which is said to be often seen, but only in the night. This
animal is said to carry a stone in his forehead, wonderfully luminous,
giving him light by which to feed in the night; and on hearing the
slightest noise he presently conceals it with a skin or film naturally
provided for the purpose. The commodities here are few, more being got
farther to the eastwards. At certain times of the year, the Portuguese
get gold and elephants teeth in exchange for rice, salt, beads, bells,
garlick, French bottles, copper kettles, low-priced knives, hats, linen
like barber's aprons, latten basins, edge-tools, bars of iron, and
sundry kinds of specious trinkets; but they will not give gold for toys,
only exchanging victuals for such things.
* * * * *
"This diligent observer hath taken like pains touching Saldanha bay: But
as we touch there often, and have already given many notices of that
place, we shall now double the Cape, and take a view along with him of
Cape St Augustine." - Purch.
* * * * *
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