MY FRIENDS POMONA AND CERES. 91 



cassava {manihot). One day, while hunting along a 

 lowland grove, I came to an opening looking out to 

 the sea, where the land seemed to have been culti- 

 vated at some time in the past. This sea valley was 

 fertile and sheltered from the gales of the hurricane 

 season, and I found here many remains of early culti- 

 vation. One tract contained shrubby plants with 

 knotty stems six or eight feet high, which I at once 

 saw was cassava. Pulling up one of the plants I 

 found a large tuber attached to the woody stem, and 

 then knew that I was looking upon a plant known to 

 the aborigines of these islands before the advent of 

 the white man. 



The Indians prepare the cassava by grating the 

 tuber and making from it a fine meal which is baked 

 into thin cakes. As the bitter cassava is deadly poison 

 in a raw state, and the poison is dissipated by heat, 

 the meal is heated over a fire before it is stored away 

 for use. 



My stock of flour was nearly half gone at the end 

 of the second month, and 1 knew that something 

 must be done soon or I should be without bread. 

 The cassava would yield a supply of farinaceous food, 

 at a pinch, and I held it in reserve for the future. 



Behind my cocoa grove was a small tract of rich 

 soil which 1, with infinite labor, dug up with a spade 

 and here planted some shoots of the manihot. This 

 was done by merely cutting off sections of the stems 

 and sticking them in the ground — quite in the old 

 and easy aboriginal way, with the least trouble pos- 

 sible. 



