Now to close up all that can be said of fruits, I must name the Pine, for in that single name, all that is excellent in a superlative degree, for beauty and taste, is totally and summarily included: and if it were here, to speak for it selfe, it would save me much labour, and do it selfe much right. ’Tis true, that it takes up double the time the Plantine does, in bringing forth the fruit; for ’tis a full year before it be ripe; but when it comes to be eaten, nothing of rare taste can be thought on that is not there; nor is it imaginable, that so full a Harmony of tastes can be raised, out of so many parts, and all distinguishable. But before I come to say any thing of that, I will give you some little hints of her shape, and manner of growth, which though I must acknowledge my selfe to be down-right lame, in the expression; yet rather then you shall lose all, I will indeavour to represent some of her beauties, in such faint expressions as I have. A Slip taken from the body of this plant, and set in the ground, will not presently take root, but the Crown that growes upon the fruit it selfe will sooner come to perfection then it; and will have much more beauty all the time of growing. In a quarter of a year, it will be a foot high, and then the leaves will be about 7 or 8 inches long, which appeare to your eyes like Semi-Circles: the middle being a little hollow, so as I have seen a french sword, that is made for lightness and strength. The colour for the most part, frost upon green, intermixt with Carnation, and upon the edges of the leaves, teeth like those upon Sawes; and these are pure incarnadine. The leaves fall over one another, as they are plac’t higher on the stem; the poynts of the lowest, touching the ground; in a quarter of a year more, you shall perceive on the top of the stem a Blossome, as large as the largest Carnation, but of different colours, very small flakes, Carnation, Crimson and Scarlet, intermixt, some yellow, some blew leaves, and some Peach Colour, intermixt with Purple, Sky colour, and Orange tawny, Gridaline, and Gingeline, white and Philyamort. So that the Blossome may be said to represent many of the varieties to the sight, which the fruit does to the taste, these colours will continue a week or tenne dayes, and then wither and fall away, under which there will appear, a little bunch of the bigness of a Wallnut; which has in it, all these colours mixt, which in the blossome were disperst; and so grows bigger for two months more, before it shews the perfect shape; which is somewhat of an Ovall forme; but blunt at either end; and at the upper end, growes out a Crown of leaves, much like those below for colour, but more beautifull; some of the leaves of this Crown, six inches long; the out leaves, shorter by degrees. This fruit is inclos’d with a rind, which begins with a screw at the stalk, and so goes round till it comes to the top, or Crown, gently rising, which screw is about ¼ of an inch broad; and the figures, that are imbrodred upon that screw neer of that dimension, and divisions between. And it falls out so, as those divisions, are never over one another in the screw, but are alwayes under the middle of the figures above, those figures do vary so in the colouring as if you see an hundred Pines, they are not one like another and every one of those figures, has a little tuft or beard, some of green some yellow, some Ash colour, some Carnation. There are two sorts of Pines, the King and Queen Pine: The Queen is farre more delicate, and has her colours of all greens, with their shadowes intermixt, with faint Carnations, but most of all frost upon green, and Sea greens. The King Pine, has for the most part, all sorts of yellows, with their shadowes intermixt with grass greens, and is commonly the larger Pine. I have seen some of them 14 inches long, and sixe inches in the diametre; they never grow to be above four foot high, but the most of them having heavy bodies, and slender stalks, leane down and rest upon the ground. Some there are, that stand upright, and have comming out of the stem, below, some sprouts of their own kind, that beare fruits which jetty out from the stem a little, and then rise upright. I have seen a dozen of these, round about the prime fruit, but not so high as the bottom of that, and the whole Plant together, shewes like a Father in the middle, and a dosen Children round about him; and all those will take their turnes to be ripe, and all very good. When this fruit is grown to a ripenesse, you shall perceive it by the smell, which is as far beyond the smell of our choisest fruits of Europe, as the taste is beyond theirs. When we gather them, we leave some of the stalk to take hold by; and when we come to eat them, we first cut off the crown, and send that out to be planted; and then with a knife, pare off the rinde, which is so beautifull, as it grieves us to rob the fruit of such an ornament; nor would we do it, but to enjoy the pretious substance it contains; like a Thiefe, that breakes a beautifull Cabinet, which he would forbear to do, but for the treasure he expects to finde within. The rinde being taken off, we lay the fruit in a dish, and cut it in slices, halfe an inch thick; and as the knife goes in, there issues out of the pores of the fruit, a liquor, cleer as Rock-water, neer about six spoonfulls, which is eaten with a spoon; and as you taste it, you finde it in a high degree delicious, but so milde, as you can distinguish no taste all; but when you bite a piece of the fruit, it is so violently sharp, as you would think it would fetch all the skin off your mouth; but, before your tongue have made a second triall upon your palat, you shall perceive such a sweetnesse to follow, as perfectly to cure that vigorous sharpnesse; and between these two extreams, of sharp and sweet, lies the relish and flaver of all fruits that are excellent; and those tastes will change and flow so fast upon your palat, as your fancy can hardly keep way with them, to distinguish the one from the other: and this at least to a tenth examination, for so long the Eccho will last. This fruit within, is neer of the colour of an Abricot not full ripe, and eates crispe and short as that does; but it is full of pores, and those of such formes and colours, as ’tis a very beautifull sight to look on, and invites the appetite beyond measure. Of this fruit you may eat plentifully, without any danger of surfeting. I have had many thoughts, which way this fruit might be brought into England, but cannot satisfie my selfe in any; preserv’d it cannot be, whole; for, the rinde is so firm and tough, as no Sugar can enter in; and if you divide it in pieces, (the fruit being full of pores) all the pure taste will boyle out. ’Tis true, that the Dutch preserve them at Fernambock, and send them home; but they are such as are young, and their rinde soft and tender: But those never came to their full taste, nor can we know by the taste of them, what the others are. From the Bermudoes, some have been brought hither in their full ripenesse and perfection, where there has been a quick passage, and the fruites taken in the nick of time; but, that happens very seldome. But, that they should be brought from the Barbadoes, is impossible, by reason of the severall Climates between. We brought in the ship seventeen of severall grouths, but all rotten, before we came halfe the way.
Sugar Canes, with the manner of planting; of their grouth, time of ripenesse, with the whole process of Sugar-making.
Though I have said as much as is fit, and no more than truth, of the beauty and taste of these formentioned Trees and Plants, beyond which, the Sun with his masculine force cannot beget, nor the teeming Earth bear; all which are proper and peculiar to the Iland; for they were planted there by the great Gardiner of the World. Yet, there is one brought thither as a stranger, from beyond the Line, which has a property beyond them all; and that is the Sugar-Cane, which though it has but one single taste, yet, that full sweetnesse has such a benign faculty, as to preserve all the rest from corruption, which, without it, would taint and become rotten; and not only the fruits of this Iland, but of the world, which is a speciall preheminence due to this Plant, above all others, that the earth or world can boast of. And that I may the more fully and amply set her off, I will give you all the observations I made, from my first arrivall on the Iland, when planting there, was but in its infancy, and but faintly understood, to the time I left the place, when it was grown to a high perfection.
An Index to the Platforme or Superficies of an Ingenio, that grinds or squeezes the Sugar.
A
The ground-plat, upon which the Posts or Pillars stand, that bear up the house, or the Intercolumniation between those Pillars.
B
The Pillars or Ports themselves.