596 A. E. Verrill — The Bermuda Islands. 



no so offensively thankfull to the stomacke. Many an ancient Bur- 

 ger was "therefore heaved at, and fell not for his place, but for his 

 head. 1 ' ..." They beare a kind of berry, blacke and rounde, as 

 bigge as a Damson, which about December were ripe and lucious ; 

 being scalded (wildest they are greene) they eate like Bullases " 

 [bullaces]. 



Silvanus Jourdan, another of Admiral Somers' company, gave the 

 following account : — "And there is a tree called a Palmito tree, 

 which hath a very sweet berry, upon which the [wild] hogs doe 

 most feede ; but our men finding the sweetnesse of them, did will- 

 ingly share with the hogs for them, they being very pleasant and 

 Avholesome, which made them carelesse almost of any. bread with 

 their meate ; which occasioned us to carry in a manner all that store 

 of flower and meale wee did or could save for Virginia. The head 

 of the Palmito tree is verie good meate, either rawe or sodden, it 

 yeeldeth a heade which weigheth about twentie pound, and is far 

 better meate than any cabbidge." 



His statement is important, as explaining how it happened that 

 with only the limited amount of meal saved from the wreck, they 

 were still, at the end of nine months, able to carry a supply to the 

 starving Virginia colonists. 



Admiral Somers stated, in his Virginia letter of 1610, that the 

 allowance of meal in Bermuda was not above a pound and a half a 

 week for each man, during the nine months, and the same allowance 

 was continued to the Virginia colony, after his arrival there. 



Governor Moore, who had recently arrived on the " Plough," with 

 the 60 original colonists, in 1612, gave an account of the islands and 

 their natural productions which was very good indeed, considering 

 that he had been there only about forty days, as he remarked inci- 

 dentally. This letter seems to have been sent back on the return 

 voyage of the "Plough," and from internal evidence, was written 

 by Governor Moore, himself. (See p. 54V.) He says : — " And for the 

 Palmito tree, the top of it is a great deale sweeter and wholesome r 

 than any cabedge." ..." The top of the Palmito tree is in season 

 and good all the yeare." ..." I must needs mention the Palme 

 tree once againe, I have found it so goode ; take a hatchet and cut 

 him, or an augur and bore him, and it yeelds a very pleasant liquor, 

 much like unto your sweete wine ; it bears likewise a berry in 

 bignes of a prune and in taste much like." 



The " pleasant liquor " here referred to was the " bibby," which 

 later proved to be a great curse to the colony, as an intoxicant. A 



