When Ripe It Turns Yellow, With A Soft And Sweet Pulp; But The
Natives Pull It Green, And Bake It
In an oven till the rind grows black.
They scrape off the rind, and the inside is soft and white,
Like the
crumb of new-baked bread, having neither seed nor stone; but it grows
harsh if kept twenty-four hours. As this fruit is in season for eight
months in the year, the natives use no other bread in all that time,
and they told us there was plenty of it in all the other Ladrone
islands.
[Footnote 191: This vague description may now safely be changed to the
size of a three-penny, or even four-penny loaf - E.]
On the 31st May we came to anchor near the middle of the west side of
this isle, a mile from shore, as there is no anchoring on its east side
on account of the trade-winds, which force the waves with great violence
against that side. The natives are of a copper-colour, strong-limbed,
with long black hair, small eyes, high noses, thick lips, white teeth,
and stern countenances, yet were very affable to us. They are very
ingenious in building a certain kind of boats, called proas, used all
over the East Indies. These are about twenty-six or twenty-eight feet
long, and five or six feet high from the keel, which is made of the
trunk of a tree like a canoe, sharp at both ends.
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