The tree on which the plantains grow is of considerable height, its body being about the thickness of a man's thigh. It seems to be an annual plant, and, in my opinion, ought rather to be reckoned among reeds than trees; for the stem is not of a woody substance, but is 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 very 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 bannana, 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 bask. I think it is the same which the Turks call cuscus, and the Portuguese yfunde.
The palmito tree is high and straight, its bark 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 lilly, 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 saw-teeth, but longer. It bears a fruit like a small cocoa-nut, the size of a chesnut, 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 bearing 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 pithy 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 fishes, and some which seemed to us extraordinary; as mullets, rays, thornbacks, old-wives with prominent brows, fishes like pikes, gar-fish, cavallios like mackerel, swordfishes, having snouts a yard long, toothed on each side like a saw, sharks, dogfish, sharkers, resembling sharks, but having a broad flat snout like a shovel, shoe-makers, having pendents at each side of their mouths like barbels, and which grunt like hogs, with many others. We once caught in an hour 6000 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 waterfowl. 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 numbers 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 farther 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 his 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 get gold and elephants teeth in exchange for rice, salt, beads, bells, garlick, French bottles, copper kettles, low-priced knives, hats, linen like barber's aprons, latten basins, edge-tools, bars of iron, and sundry kinds of specious trinkets; but they will not give gold for toys, only exchanging victuals for such things.
"This diligent observer hath taken like pains touching Saldanha bay: But as we touch there often, and have already given many notices of that place, we shall now double the Cape, and take a view along with him of Cape St Augustine."--Purch.
SECTION 2. Observations made at St Augustine in Madagascar, and at the Island of Socotora.
St Augustine, in the great island of St Lawrence or Madagascar, is rather a bay than a cape or point, as it has no land much bearing out beyond the rest of the coast. It is in 23° 30' S. latitude, the variation here being 15° 40, and may be easily found, as it has breaches[211] on either side some leagues off to the W.S.W. Right from the bay to seaward the water is very deep; but within the bay the ground is so very shelvy, that you may have one anchor to the north in 22 fathoms, and your other anchor in more than 60; while in some places nearer shore you will not have two feet at low water, and deep water still farther in; the whole ground a soft ooze. Within a mile or two of the bay the land is high, barren, and full of rocks and stones, with many small woods. Two rivers run into the bottom of the bay, the land about them being low, sandy, and overflowed; and these rivers pour in so much water into the bay that their currents are never stemmed by the tide, which yet rises two fathoms, by which the water in the bay is very thick and muddy. Great quantities of canes are brought down by these rivers, insomuch that we have seen abundance of them twenty or thirty leagues out at sea. This bay is open to a north-west wind, yet the force of the sea is broken by means of a ledge of rocks. We caught here smelts of a foot long, and shrimps ten inches: The best fishing is near the sandy shore off the low land, where the natives catch many with strong nets. Within the woods we found infinite numbers of water-melons growing on the low lands, which yielded us good refreshment. But we had nothing from the rivers, except that one of our men was hurt by an alligator. The water also was none of the best; but we got wood in plenty.
[Footnote 211: Probably meaning breakers.--E.]
This place did not seem populous, as we never saw above twenty natives at any one time. The men were comely, stout, tall, and well-made, of a tawny colour, wearing no cloathing excepting a girdle or short apron made of rind of trees. Their beards were black and reasonably long; and the hair of their heads likewise black and long, plaited and frizzled very curiously; neither had their bodies any bad smell. They carry many trinkets fastened to their girdles, adorned with alligators teeth, some of them being hollow, in which they carry tallow to keep their darts bright, which are their chief weapons, and of which each man carries a small bundle, together with a fair lance, artificially headed with iron, and kept as bright as silver. Their darts are of a very formidable and dangerous shape, barbed on both sides; and each man carries a dagger like a butcher's knife, very well made. They therefore showed no regard for iron, and would not barter their commodities for any thing but silver, in which we paid twelve-pence for a sheep, and 3s. 6d. for a cow. They asked beads into the bargain, for which alone they would give nothing except a little milk, which they brought down very sweet and good in gourds.