The Grains Are White And Round, Shining Like
Pearls That Have Lost Their Lustre, And About The Size Of Our
Pease.
Almost their whole substance turns to flour, leaving very little bran.
The ear is inclosed in three blades, each
About two inches broad, and
longer than the ear; and in one of them I counted 260 grains of corn. By
this fruitfulness, the sun seems in some measure to compensate for the
trouble and distress produced by its excessive heat. Their drink is
either water, or the juice which drops from cut branches of the palmito,
a barren palm or date tree; to collect which they hang great gourds to
the cut branches every evening, or set them on the ground under the
trees, to receive the juice which issues during the night. Our people
said that this juice tasted like whey, but sweeter and more pleasant.
The branches of the palmito are cut every evening to obtain this juice,
as the heat of the sun during the day dries up and sears over the wound.
They have likewise large beans, as big as chesnuts, and very hard,
having shells instead of husks or pods. While formerly describing the
fruit containing the _grains_ or Guinea pepper, called by the physicians
_grana paradisi_, I remarked that they have holes through them, as in
effect they have when brought to us; but I have been since informed,
that these holes are made on purpose to put strings or twigs through,
for hanging up the fruit to dry in the sun. This fruit grows on a plant
which does not rise above eighteen inches or two feet above the ground.
At their coming home, the keels and bottoms of the ships were strangely
overgrown with certain shells, two inches or more in length, as thick as
they could stand, and so large that a man might put his thumb into their
mouths. It is affirmed that a certain slimy substance grows in these
shells, which falls afterwards into the sea, and is changed into the
bird called barnacles[223]. Similar shells have been seen on ships
coming from Ireland, but these Irish barnacles do not exceed half an
inch long. I saw the Primrose in dock, after her return from Guinea,
having her bottom entirely covered over with these shells, which in my
judgment must have greatly impeded her sailing. Their ships also were in
many places eaten into by the worms called _Bromas_ or _Bissas_, which
are mentioned in the Decades[224]. These worms creep between the planks,
which they eat through in many places.
[Footnote 223: This is an old fable not worth confuting. The Barnacle
goose or clakis of Willoughby, anas erythropus of Linnaeus, called
likewise tree-goose, anciently supposed to be generated from drift wood,
or rather from the _lepas anatifera_ or multivalve shell, called
barnacle, which is often found on the bottoms of ships. - See Pennant's
Brit. Zool. 4to. 1776. V. II. 488, and Vol. IV. 64. - E.]
[Footnote 224: Meaning the Decades of Peter Martyr, part of which book
was translated and published by Richard Eden. - Astl I. 149. b.]
In this voyage, though they sailed to Guinea in seven weeks, they took
twenty to return; owing to this cause, as they reported, that about the
coast at Cape Verd the wind was continually east, so that they were
obliged to stand far out into the ocean, in search of a western wind to
bring them home. In this last voyage about twenty-four of the men died,
many of them between the Azores and England, after their return into the
cold or temperate region. They brought with them several black
slaves[225], some of whom were tall strong men, who could well agree
with our meats and drinks. The cold and moist air of England somewhat
offended them; yet men who are born in hot regions can much better
endure cold, than those of cold regions can bear heat; because violent
heat dissolves the radical moisture of the human body, while cold
concentrates and preserves it. It is to be considered as among the
secrets of nature, that while all parts of Africa under the equator, and
for some way on both sides, are excessively hot, and inhabited by black
people, such regions in the West Indies [America], under the same
parallels, are very temperate, and the natives are neither black, nor
have they short curled wool on their heads like the Africans; but are of
an olive colour, with long black hair. The cause of this difference is
explained in various places of the _Decades_. Some of those who were
upon this voyage told me that on the 14th of March they had the sun to
the north of them at noon.
[Footnote 225: In a side note, _five blacke moors_. - E.]
SECTION IV.
_Voyage to Guinea in 1555, by William Towerson, Merchant of
London_[226].
On Monday the 30th of September 1555, we sailed from the harbour of
Newport, in the Isle of Wight, with two good ships, the Hart and the
Hind, both belonging to London, of which John Ralph and William Carters
were masters, bound on a voyage for the river Sestos, in Guinea, and
other harbours in that neighbourhood. Owing to variable winds, we could
not reach Dartmouth before the 14th of October; and having continued
there till the 20th of that month, we warpt out of the harbour, and set
sail to the S.W. and by next morning had run 30 leagues. On the 1st
November, by the reckoning of our master, we were in lat. 31 deg. N. and
that day we ran 40 leagues. The 2d we ran 36 leagues; and on the 3d we
had sight of Porto Santo, a small island about three leagues long and
one and a-half broad, belonging to the Portuguese, and lying in the
ocean. As we came towards it from the N.N.W. it seemed like two small
hills near each other.
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