WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 273 



danism, whose devotees the Persians had planted and disseminated 

 it over these islands ; in fact, most of the inhabitants of the islands, 

 diminutive Moors in rites and ceremonies, have maintained this 

 accursed worship, though some of them have been released and freed 

 from the power the Devil had over them, through the light of the 

 Holy Gospel, which has been preached in more than 50 of these 

 islands. May God in His infinite goodness and mercy, bring them 

 all to the true knowledge of Him, and take them out of the darkness 

 in which they are living! 



Chapter IV 



Of Other Islands, in Which Diamonds and Other Precious Stones 

 Are Produced ; and of the Delicious Fruit Growing in the Philippine 

 Islands. 



782. In all the islands which lie toward India, they find diamonds, 

 rubies, and other precious stones of the first quality ; amber, and 

 great beds of fine rich pearls. Many of them have abundance of 

 gold, extracted from their mines and all their rivers ; their petty 

 kings have great treasures of these valuables and set all their happi- 

 ness in them. I do not enter on the description of them, not wishing 

 to lengthen out this story, and also because it does not belong in my 

 account of what comes under the Crown of Castile. 



783. In these Philippine Islands there are some kinds of fruit 

 quite different in every respect from those to be found in the West 

 Indies. The santor is a fruit of the shape and general appearance 

 of a peach ; it differs in having three or four seeds of the size of 

 peeled beans. It is a delicious fruit ; they make excellent preserves 

 out of it, and from the core and seeds a marmalade like that made 

 from quinces. 



784. The fruit called nanca grows on a plant resembling an arti- 

 choke. It has the green color and the shape of a pineapple, but the 

 divisions are larger. The flesh is yellow ; each section contains a 

 seed surrounded by flesh. In taste it resembles Michaelmas plums, 

 but more mucilaginous. 



785. Bilimbines are a fruit the size of a small olive, divided into 

 four quarters ; each quarter contains a seed. It is yellow in color 

 and sour in taste. They make a delicious preserve out of it, very 

 healthful and refreshing. The banquilin fruit is like the bilimbin, 

 the only difference being that they are smaller; it is a safe and 

 agreeable laxative. 



786. Paos are a fruit altogether like almonds when green, but 

 larger ; they put them in vinegar and pickle them, and then eat them 



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