356 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 
of manioc or cassava, yams, and maize or Indian corn ; 
to which may be added sweet potatoes, pumpkins, millet 
of two or three species, and calavanses : they have besides 
cabbages, spinach, pepper, capsicum, the sugar-cane, 
and tobacco. Of fruits they have the plaintain or banana, 
papaw, oranges, limes, and pine-apples. The latter fruit 
was met with by Captain Tuckey growing on the open 
plains near the extreme point of his journey, and far be- 
yond where any Europeans had advanced. This fruit, 
therefore, as well as the bananas, the one being from the 
West, the other from the East Indies, (or both perhaps from 
the Vest), must have been carried up into the interior by the 
natives. The only beverage used by the inhabitants, except 
when they can get European spirits, is the juice of the palm 
tree, of which there are three distinct species. It is usually 
known by the name of palm wine, and was considered by 
the whole party as a very pleasant and wholesome liquor, 
having a taste, when fresh from the tree, not unlike that of 
sweetish cyder; is very excellent for quenching the thirst, 
and for keeping the body gently open. When tapped near 
the top, the juice runs copiously out during the night, but 
very little is said to exude in the day time. One of the spe- 
cies yields a juice sweeter than the rest, and this being suf- 
fered to ferment, is said to produce a liquor of a very intoxi- 
cating quality. The trees are remarkably tall, and are 
ascended by means of a flexible hoop which encloses, at the 
same time, the body of the person intending to mount and 
the stem of the tree, against the latter of which the feet are 
pressed, while the back rests against the hoop. At each 
ss 
