2 1 6 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. n. 



potatoes. A mixture of these, stewed with salted 

 fish or salted meat of any kind, and highly seasoned 

 with Cayenne-pepper, is a favourite olio among the 

 negroes. For bread, an unripe roasted plantain is an 

 excellent substitute, and universally preferred to it 

 by* the negroes, and most ot the native whites. It 

 may in truth be called the staff of life to the former; 

 many thousand acres being cultivated in different parts 

 of the country for their daily support. 



Of the more elegant fruits, the variety is equalled 

 only by their excellence. Perhaps no country on 

 earth affords so magnificent a dessert; and 1 conceive 

 that the following were spontaneously bestowed on 

 the island by the bounty of nature; the anana or 

 pine-apple, tamarind, papaw, guava, sweet-sop of 

 two species, cashew-apple, custard-apple, (a species 

 of chirimoyail) coco-nut, star-apple, grenadilla, avo- 

 cado-pear, hog-plum and its varieties, pindal-nut, nes- 



It is said by Oviedo, that this fruit, though introduced into Hispani- 

 ola at a very early period, was not originally a native of the West Indies, 

 but was carried thither from the Canary islands by Thomas de Beilanga, 

 a friar, in the year 1516. The banana is a species of the same fiuit. 

 Sir Hans Sloane, whose industry is commendable, whatever may be 

 thought of his judgment, has, in his History of Jamaica, collected much 

 information respecting this production ; and from some authorities which 

 he cites, it would seem that Oviedo was misinformed, and that every spe- 

 cies of the plantain is found growing spontaneously in all the tropical 

 parts of the earth. 



|| This fruit is the boast of South America, and is reckoned by Ulloa 

 one of the finest in the world. I have been informed that several plants 

 of it are flourishing in Mr. East's princely garden, at the foot of the Li- 

 guanea mountains. 



