We Found Here Some Guinea Pepper, And Some Silk Cotton Trees, Besides
Several Others With The Names Of Which I Am Not Acquainted.
Pimento is
the best timber, and the most plentiful at this side of the island, but
it is very apt to split till it is a little dried.
We cut the longest
and cleanest to split for fire wood. In the nearest plain, we found
abundance of turnip greens, and water-cresses in the brooks, which
greatly refreshed our men, and quickly cured them of the scurvy. Mr
Selkirk said the turnips formed good roots in our summer months, which
are winter at this island; but this being autumn, they were all run up
to seed, so that we had no benefit of them excepting their green leaves
and shoots. The soil is a loose black earth, and the rocks are very
rotten, so that it is dangerous to climb the hills for cabbages without
great care. There are also many holes dug into the ground by a sort of
birds called puffins, which give way in walking, and endanger the
breaking or wrenching a limb. Mr Selkirk said he had seen snow and ice
here in July, the depth of the southern winter; but in September,
October, and November, the spring months, the climate is very pleasant,
and there are then abundance of excellent herbs, as purslein, parsley,
and sithes. We found also an herb, not unlike feverfew, which proved
very useful to our surgeons for fomentations.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 570 of 825
Words from 154789 to 155039
of 224764
