596 A, E. Vervill— 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.” . . . “ They beare a kind of berry, blacke and rounde, as 
bigge as a Damson, which about December were ripe and lucious ; 
being scalded (whilest 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 
wholesome, 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. 547.) He says :—‘‘ And for the 
Palmito tree, the top of it is a great deale sweeter and wholesomer 
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 
