The Notion Generally Received
Is, That The Coral Found In Such Quantities At The Bottom Of The Sea
Might Communicate This Colour To The Water:
An account merely
chimerical.
Coral is not to be found in all parts of this gulf, and
red coral in very few. Nor does this water in fact differ from that
of other seas. The patriarch and I have frequently amused ourselves
with making observations, and could never discover any redness, but
in the shallows, where a kind of weed grew which they call gouesmon,
which redness disappeared as soon as we plucked up the plant. It is
observable that St. Jerome, confining himself to the Hebrew, calls
this sea Jamsuf. Jam in that language signifies sea, and suf is the
name of a plant in Aethiopia, from which the Abyssins extract a
beautiful crimson; whether this be the same with the gouesmon, I
know not, but am of opinion that the herb gives to this sea both the
colour and the name.
The vessels most used in the Red Sea, though ships of all sizes may
be met with there, are gelves, of which some mention hath been made
already; these are the more convenient, because they will not split
if thrown upon banks or against rocks. These gelves have given
occasion to the report that out of the cocoa-tree alone a ship may
be built, fitted out with masts, sails, and cordage, and victualled
with bread, water, wine, sugar, vinegar, and oil. All this indeed
cannot be done out of one tree, but may out of several of the same
kind. They saw the trunk into planks, and sew them together with
thread which they spin out of the bark, and which they twist for the
cables; the leaves stitched together make the sails. This boat thus
equipped may be furnished with all necessaries from the same tree.
There is not a month in which the cocoa does not produce a bunch of
nuts, from twenty to fifty. At first sprouts out a kind of seed or
capsula, of a shape not unlike the scabbard of a scimitar, which
they cut, and place a vessel under, to receive the liquor that drops
from it; this drink is called soro, and is clear, pleasant, and
nourishing. If it be boiled, it grows hard, and makes a kind of
sugar much valued in the Indies: distil this liquor and you have a
strong water, of which is made excellent vinegar. All these
different products are afforded before the nut is formed, and while
it is green it contains a delicious cooling water; with these nuts
they store their gelves, and it is the only provision of water which
is made in this country. The second bark which contains the water
is so tender that they eat it. When this fruit arrives to perfect
maturity, they either pound the kernel into meal, and make cakes of
or draw an oil from it of a fine scent and taste, and of great use
in medicine; so that what is reported of the different products of
this wonderful tree is neither false nor incredible.
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