240 CAPSICUM. 



LlB - IV - sweete, as they may eate it alone as any other fruite. There 

 is some of it very small and pleasing in the mouth, almost 

 like to the smell of muske, and is very good. That which 

 is sharpe and biting in this Axi, be the veines and the 

 graine onely : the rest is not : for that they eate it greene 

 and dry,, whole and beaten, in the pot, and in sauces, being 

 the chiefe sauce, and all the spice they have at the Indies. 

 When this Axi is taken moderately, it helps and comforts 

 the stomacke for digestion : but if they take too much, it 

 hath bad effects, for of its self it is very note, fuming, and 

 pierceth greatly, so as the vse thereof is preiudiciall to the 

 health of yong folkes, chiefely to the soule, for that it pro 

 vokes to lust. It is strange, that although the fire and 

 heate of it be \vell knowne by experience, and that every 

 man saies it burnes in the mouth and the stomacke ; yet 

 some, yea many, holde, that the Indian pepper is not 

 hute, but colde, and well tempered. But I might say to 

 then, the like should be of pepper ; though they brought 

 me as many experiences as they would of the one and the 

 other : yet is it a very mockery to say it is not note, seeing 

 it is so in the highest degree. They vse salt to temper this 

 Axi, having great force to correct it, and so they moderate 

 one with the other by the contrarietie that is in them. 

 They vse also Tomates, which are colde and very wholesome. 

 It is a kinde of graine great and full of iuyce, the which 

 gives a good taste to sauce, and they are good to eate. 

 They have generally throughout the Indies of this Indian 

 pepper, at the Hands, New Spaine, Peru, and all the rest 

 that is discovered. As mays is the generall graine for 

 bread, so Ax-i is the most common spice for sauces. 



