A Mile From The Entrance The Creek Winds Towards The West,
And Here The Spaniards Had Thrown Up An Entrenchment,
Fronting the
entrance of the creek, and defended by 100 soldiers and twenty guns,
having a boom of trees thrown
Across the creek, so that they might
easily have beaten off 1000 men, but they wanted courage to defend their
excellent post; for on our firing two guns they all ran away, leaving us
at liberty to cut the boom. We then landed and marched to the town of
Realejo, a fine borough about a mile from thence, seated in a plain on a
small river. It had three churches and an hospital, but is seated among
fens and marshes, which send forth a noisome scent, and render it very
unhealthy. The country round has many sugar works and cattle pens, and
great quantities of pitch, tar, and cordage are made by the people. It
also abounds in melons, pine-apples, guavas, and prickly pears.
The shrub which produces the guava has long small boughs, with a white
smooth bark, and leaves like our hazel. The fruit resembles a pear, with
a thin rind, and has many hard seeds. It may be safely eaten while
green, which is not the case with most other fruits in the East or West
Indies. Before being ripe it is astringent, but is afterwards loosening.
When ripe it is soft, yellow, and well tasted, and may either be baked
like pears, or coddled like apples.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 414 of 825
Words from 112251 to 112501
of 224764
