In The Middle Of The Isle The Soil Is Black And Rich, Where
Abundance Of Plantains And Bananas Are Produced, And Near The Sea There
Are Cocoa And Mammee Trees.
These are large and straight in their
stems, without knots, boughs, or branches, and sixty or seventy feet
high.
At the top there are many small branches set close together,
bearing round fruit about the size of a large quince, covered with a
grey rind, which is brittle before the fruit is ripe, but grows yellow
when the fruit comes to maturity, and is then easily peeled off. The
ripe fruit is also yellow, resembling a carrot in its flesh, and both
smells and tastes well, having two rough flat kernels in the middle,
about the size of large almonds. The S.W. side of this isle is covered
with trees, affording abundant fuel, and the N. side has a fine stream
of good water, which falls from the mountains into the sea. Near this
there was formerly a pretty town with a handsome church, but it has been
mostly destroyed by the privateers. There is good anchorage opposite
this town a mile from the shore, in sixteen to eighteen fathoms on soft
ooze. At the N.N.W. end is a small town called Tabogilla, and on the
N.E. of this another small town or village without a name.
While at anchor near Tabogilla, we were in great danger from a
pretended merchant, who brought a bark to us in the night, under
pretence of being laden with merchandise to trade with us privately, but
which was in reality a fire-ship fitted out for our destruction.
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