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. There are several sorts,
distinguished by their shape, taste, and colour, some being red and
others yellow in the pulp. The prickly-pear grows on a shrub about
five feet high, and is common in many parts of the West Indies, thriving
best on sandy grounds near the sea. Each branch has two or three round
fleshy leaves, about the breadth of the hand, somewhat like those of the
house-leek, edged all round with spines or sharp prickles an inch long.
At the outer extremity of each leaf the fruit is produced, about the
size of a large plum, small towards the leaf and thicker at the other
end, where it opens like a medlar. The fruit, which is also covered by
small prickles, is green at first, but becomes red as it ripens, having
a red pulp of the consistence of a thick syrup, with small black seeds,
pleasant and cooling to the taste. I have often observed, on eating
twenty or more of these at a time, that the urine becomes as red as
blood, but without producing any evil consequence.
We found nothing of value in Realejo, except 500 sacks of flour, with
some pitch, tar, and cordage. We also received here the 150 oxen
promised by the gentleman who was released at Leon; which, together with
sugar, and other cattle we procured in the country, were very welcome
and useful to us. We remained in Realejo from the 17th to the 24th of
August, when we re-embarked. On the 25th Captains Davis and Swan agreed
to separate, the former being inclined to return to the coast of Peru,
and the latter to proceed farther to the north-west; and as I was
curious to become better acquainted with the north-western parts of
Mexico, I left Captain Davis and joined Captain Swan. Captain Townley
joined us with his two barks, but Captains Harris and Knight went along
with Swan. On the 27th Davis went out of the harbour with his ship, but
we staid behind for some time, to provide ourselves with wood and water.
By this time our men began to be much afflicted with fevers, which we
attributed to the remains of a contagious distemper that lately raged at
Realejo, as the men belonging to Captain Davis were similarly infected.
We sailed from Realejo on the 3d September, steering to the north-west
along the coast, having tornadoes from the N.W. accompanied with much
thunder and lightning, which obliged us to keep out to sea, so that we
saw no land till the 14th, when we were in lat. 13 deg. 51' N. We then came
in sight of the volcano of Guatimala. This presents a double peak like
two sugar-loaves, between which fire and smoke sometimes burst forth,
especially before bad weather. The city of Guatimala stands near the
foot of this high mountain, eight leagues from the South Sea, and forty
or fifty from the gulf of Amatique, at the bottom of the bay of
Honduras.[178] This city is reputed to be rich, as the country around
abounds in several commodities peculiar to it, especially four noted
dyes, indigo, otta or anotto, cochineal, and silvestre.[179] Having in
vain endeavoured to land on this part of the coast, we proceeded to the
small isle of Tangola. a league from the continent, where we found
good anchorage, with plenty of wood and water.
[Footnote 178: This description agrees with the situation of St Jago de
Guatemala, in lat. 14 deg. 25' N. long. 31 deg. 18' W., which is about thirty
statute miles from the South Sea. The modern city of Guatemala, standing
nine miles to the S.E., is only about sixteen miles from the sea at the
head of a bay of the same name. - E]
[Footnote 179: This last is an inferior species of cochineal, gathered
from the uncultivated opuntia, while the true cochineal is carefully
attended to in regular plantations. Both are the bodies of certain
insects gathered by the Indians and dried for preservation, constituting
the most valuable scarlet dye. - E]
A league from thence is the port of Guataico, in lat. 15 deg. 52' N. long.
36 deg. 20' W. one of the best in Mexico. On the east side of the entrance,
and about a mile from it, there is a small isle near the shore, and on
the west side a great hollow rock, open at top, through which the waves
force a passage with a great noise to a great height even in the calmest
weather, which affords an excellent mark for seamen. This port runs into
the land about three miles in a N.W. direction, and is about one mile
broad. The west side affords the securest anchorage, the other being
exposed to S.W. winds, which are frequent on this coast. We landed here
to the number of 140 men, of whom I was one, on the 8th September, and
marched about fourteen miles to an Indian village, where we found
nothing but vanillas drying in the sun. The vanilla grows on a small
vine, or bindwood shrub, which winds about the stems of trees, producing
a yellow flower, which changes to a pod of four or five inches long,
about the the size of a tobacco-pipe stem.
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