CHAP, iv.] WEST INDIES. 109 



by the feet, and dragging it by a sudden jerk under 

 the surface, he fastens it to his girdle, and thus loads 

 himself with as many as he can carry away, without 

 creating the least alarm or disturbance among the rest. 



I might now proceed to an enumeration and ac- 

 count of the esculent vegetables originally produced 

 in these islands ; especially those most valuable ones, 

 the maize, the maniock,f and the different species of 

 the dioscorea or Yam; of which, and the many deli- 

 cious fruits, the growth of these climates, the natives 

 without doubt composed the chief part of their daily 

 support: but I am here happily anticipated by the vo- 

 luminous collections of systematical writers, particu- 

 larly those of Sloane, Brown, and Hughes. Never- 

 theless, it were to be wished, that those authors had 

 more frequently discriminated than they appear to 

 have done, such vegetables as are indigenous, from 

 those which have been transplanted from foreign coun- 

 tries. Nature, with most beneficent intention, has 

 bestowed on different climates and regions many spe- 

 cies peculiar to each. This variety in her works, is 

 one of the greatest incitements to human industry; 

 and the progress of men in spreading abroad the bles- 

 sings of Providence, adorning and enriching the wide- 

 ly separated regions of the globe with their reciprocal 



f A late ingenious writer (Dr. Darwin) has given it as his opinion, 

 that the maniock, or cassava, when made into bread, is rendered mild 

 by the heat it undergoes, rather than by expressing its superfluous juice; 

 and I believe the observation to be just; for Sir Hans Sloane relates, 

 that the juice iiself, however aciimonious in its raw state, becomes, when 

 boiled, as innocent and wholesome as whey. 



