Here, and in various other parts of these early voyages,
India and the Indies seem confined to the western coast of the
peninsula, as it is called, or the Malabar coast. - E.]
SECTION XX.
_Some Account of the Commodities of India_.
Before concluding this relation of my peregrinations, it seems proper
that I should give some account of the productions of India.
In all parts of India, both of the western and eastern regions, there is
pepper and ginger, and in some parts the greatest quantity of pepper is
found wild in the woods, where it grows without any care or cultivation,
except the trouble of gathering it when ripe. The tree on which the
pepper grows is not unlike our ivy, and runs in the same manner up to
the top of such trees as grow in its neighbourhood, for if it were not
to get hold of some tree it would lie flat on the ground and perish. Its
flower and berry in all things resemble the ivy, and its berries or
grains are the pepper, which are green when gathered, but by drying in
the sun they become black. Ginger requires cultivation, and its seeds
are sown on land previously tilled. The herb resembles that called
_panizzo_, and the root is the spice we call ginger. Cloves all come
from the Moluccas, where they grow in two small islands, Ternate and
Tidore, on a tree resembling the laurel.
