We Then Landed And Marched To The Town Of
Realejo, A Fine Borough About A Mile From Thence, Seated In A Plain On A
Small River.
It had three churches and an hospital, but is seated among
fens and marshes, which send forth a noisome scent, and render it very
unhealthy.
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.
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