120 CAPTAIN TUCKEY’S NARRATIVE. 
the liquor is extracted as in the West Indies. The sweet 
wine is allowed to ferment, and produces an intoxicating 
beverage; when quite fresh it 1s very pleasant and whole- 
some, taken moderately, keeping the body open. The 
Masongoi tree also affords a palm wine, considered of supe- 
rior quality ; an imebriating liquor is also produced from 
Indian corn, and named baamboo. 
The cultivation of the ground is entirely the business of 
slaves and women, the King’s daughters and princes’ wives 
being constantly thus employed, or in collecting the fallen 
branches of trees for fuel. The only preparation the ground 
undergoes is burning the grass, raking the soil into little 
ridges with a hoe, and dropping the Indian corn grains 
into holes. ‘The other objects of cultivation that we saw 
near the banza, were tobacco and beans of two sorts. Fruits 
are very scarce at this time, the only ones being long 
plantains, small bitter oranges, limes and pumpkins. ‘There 
are no cocoa nut trees, nor, according to the natives, is this 
tree found in the country. ‘The only root we saw is the 
sweet cassava, which the natives eat raw and roasted. Sugar 
cane of two kinds was seen. 
The only vegetable production of any consequence in 
commerce is cotton, which grows wild most luxuriantly ; 
but the natives have ceased to gather it, since the English 
