“The tree on which the plantains grow is of a considerable height, its body being about the thickness of a man’s thigh. It seems to be an annual, and, in my opinion, ought rather to be reckoned among reeds than trees; for the stem is not of a woody substance, but compacted of many leaves wrapped close upon each other, adorned with leaves from the very ground instead of boughs, which are mostly two yards long and a yard broad, having a large rib in the middle. The fruit is a bunch of ten or twelve plantains, each a span long and as thick as a man’s wrist, somewhat crooked or bending inwards. These grow on a leafy stalk on the middle of the plant, being at first green, but grow yellow and tender as they ripen. When the rind is stripped off, the inner pulp is also yellowish and pleasant to the taste. Beneath the fruit hangs down, from the same stalk, a leafy sharp-pointed tuft, which seems to have been the flower. This fruit they call banana, which they have in reasonable abundance. They are ripe in September and October. We carried some with us green to sea which were six weeks in ripening.
“Guinea pepper grows wild in the woods on a small plant like privet, having small slender leaves, the fruit being like our barberry in form and colour. It is green at first, turning red as it ripens. It does not grow in bunches like our barberry, but here and there two or three together about the stalk. They call it bangue.
“The pene of which their bread is made grows on a small tender herb resembling grass, the stalk being all full of small seeds, not inclosed in any husk. I think it is the same which the Turks call cuscus, and the Portuguese Yfunde.
“The palmito tree is high and straight, the stalk being knotty and the wood of a soft substance, having no boughs except at the top and these also seem rather reeds than boughs, being all pith within inclosed by a hard rind. The leaf is long and slender, like that of a sword-lily or flag. The boughs stand out from the top of the tree on all sides, rather more than a yard long, beset on both sides with strong sharp prickles, like the saw teeth but longer. It bears a fruit like a small cocoa-nut, the size of chestnut inclosed in a hard shell, streaked with threads on the outside, and containing a kernel of a hard horny substance quite tasteless, yet they are eaten roasted. The tree is called tobell and the fruit bell. For procuring the palmito wine they cut off one of the branches within a span of the head, to which they fasten a gourd shell by the mouth, which in twenty-four hours is filled by a clear whitish sap, of a good and strong relish, with which the natives get drunk.
“The oysters formerly mentioned grow on trees resembling willows in form, but having broader leaves, which are thick like leather, and having small knobs like those of the cypress. From these trees hang down many branches into the water, each about the thickness of a walking-stick, smooth, limber, and within, which are overflowed by every tide and hang as thick as they can stick of—oysters, being the only fruit of this tree.
“They have many kinds of ordinary fish, and some of which seemed to us extraordinary, as mullets, rays, thorn-backs, old-wives with prominent brows, fishes like pikes, gar-fish, cavallios, like makerel, sword-fishes having snouts a yard long toothed on each side like a saw-shark’s, dog-fish sharkers, resembling sharks but having a broad flat snout like a shovel, shoemakers, having pendants at each side of their mouths like barbels, and which grunt like hogs, with many others. We once caught in an hour 6,000 fishes like bleaks. Of birds there are pelicans as large as swans, of a white colour, with long and large bills; herons, curlews, boobies, ox-eyes, and various other kinds of water-fowl. On land great numbers of grey parrots, and abundance of pintados or Guinea fowls, which are very hurtful to their rice crops. There are many other kinds of strange birds in the woods, of which I knew not the names; and I saw among the Negroes many porcupine quills. There are also great number of monkeys leaping about the trees, and on the mountains there are lions, tigers and ounces. There are but few elephants, of which we only saw three; but they abound further inland. The negroes told us of a strange beast, which our interpreter called a carbuncle, which is said to be often seen, but only in the night. This animal is said to carry a stone in the forehead, wonderfully luminous, giving him light by which to feed in the night, and on hearing the slightest noise he presently conceals it with a skin or film naturally provided for the purpose. The commodities here are few, more being got farther to the eastwards. At certain times of the year the Portuguese got gold and elephants’ teeth in exchange for rice, salt, beads, bells, garlick, French bottles, edge-tooles, iron barrs, and sundry specious trifles, but for your toyes they will not give gold in this place but victuals.”
In 1615 Sierra Leone was visited by the Unity, a ship of 360 tons, of which William Cornelison Schonten was the master. This visit is described as follows:—
“On the 1st August we came in sight of the high land of Sierra Leone, on the 21st of that month, as also of the island of Madre Bomba, which lies off the south point of Sierra Leone and north from the shallows of the island of St. Ann. This land of Sierra Leone is the highest of all that lie between Cape Verd and the coast of Guinea, and is therefore easily known.
“On the 30th August they cast anchor in eight fathoms water on a fine sandy bottom near the shore and opposite a village or town of the negroes in the road of Sierra Leone. This village consisted only of eight or nine poor thatched huts. The moorish inhabitants were willing to come on board to trade, only demanding a pledge to be left on shore for their security, because a French ship had recently carried off two of the natives perfidiously. Aris Clawson, the junior merchant or supercargo, went accordingly on shore, where he drove a small trade for lemons and bananas in exchange for glass beads.
“In the meantime some of the natives came off to the ship, bringing with them an interpreter who spoke many languages. They here very conveniently furnished themselves with fresh water, which poured down in great abundance from a very high hill, so that they had only to place their casks under the waterfall. There were here whole woods of lemon-trees, and lemons were so cheap that they might have had a thousand for a few beads and ten thousand for a few common knives, so that they easily procured as many as they wished, and each man had 150 for sea store. The 3rd September they found a vast shoal of fish resembling a shoemaker’s knife. They left Sierra Leone on the 4th September.”