For Three Or Four Leagues The Water Is
Only From Four Fathoms To Six, And This Bay Has White Cliffs Both To The
North And South.
In the bottom of the bay there are two rivers running
into the sea, both of which are what the seamen call alligator water,
that is, white and musky as before described.
On each side of these
rivers there are shoals of sand; and near their mouths are fine groves
of tall spreading green trees, which are the marks by which they may be
found, as their mouths are narrow, and not discernible at a distance.
These rivers are seldom frequented by the Spaniards, except for
refreshments, for which they are well adapted, as all the adjoining
country abounds with every kind of provisions that this part of the
world produces. About two leagues up these rivers there are several
Indian villages, who furnish the Spanish ships which come here with
cocoa-nuts, plantains, bananas, and other kinds of fruit.
The cocoa-tree is generally from fifty to an hundred feet high, and
for the most part straight and slender. The leaves are four fathoms, or
four and a half long, at the very top of the tree, and serve excellently
for thatching houses. At the bottom of the leaves the cocoa nuts grow in
clusters of ten, fifteen, or twenty, hanging by a small string which is
full of joints. Each nut, with its outer rind, is larger than a man's
head, and within this outer rind is a hard woody shell which will hold
near a quart of liquid. The nut or kernel lines the inside of this
shell, and within this kernel is about a pint and half of pure clear
water, very cool, sweet, and pleasant. The kernel also is very good and
pleasant; but when old, we scrape it all down, and soak it in about a
quart of fresh water for three or four hours, which is then strained,
and has both the colour and taste of milk, and will even throw up a
thick head not unlike cream. This milk, when boiled with rice, is
accounted very wholesome and nourishing by the doctors, and was given to
our sick men. When the nut is very old, the kernel of itself turns to
oil, which is often used to fry with, but mostly for burning in lamps.
The outer end of the nuts may be applied to the purposes of flax, and of
it the natives make a kind of linen, and it is also manufactured into
ropes and cables, which are sold in most parts of America and the West
Indies. The shell of this nut makes very pretty drinking cups, and it
also burns well, making a fierce hot fire. Thus the cocoa-tree affords
meat, drink, oil, clothing, houses, firing, and rigging for ships.
The plantain-tree is only about thirteen or fourteen feet high and
four feet round, its leaves being eight or nine feet long and two broad,
ending in a round point.
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