XAYMACA; THE ISLAND OF MANY RIVERS 321 



Having established relations with Mr. M , 



the enterprising agent in Port Antonio of the 

 American Fruit Company, we were able to get 

 needed stores, flour of good quality, butter, and 

 bacon from the United States. Poultry, eggs, 

 vegetables, fruit, coffee, the latter home cured, 

 were supplied by higglers at the door. 



There is a monotony about tropical fare in a 

 country district. Ice is wanting, butter and cream 

 lack a proper consistency, and though the climate 

 suggests cooling beverages, sherbets and other 

 frozen compounds, one must adjust one's palate to 

 a lukewarm temperature. Meat must be eaten 

 before it is properly hung, and hence lacks savor ; 

 the same is true of poultry. Of our accustomed 

 vegetables, we had potatoes and tomatoes ; for the 

 rest we found the chou-chou, which grew like the 

 cocoa directly from the trunk of a tree, an admi- 

 rable substitute for squash. The aki, suggestive 

 of omelet, did not tempt us, one portion was said 

 to be poisonous. Fruits there were in endless 

 variety, sweet-sop, sour-sop, star-apple, custard 

 apple, sapodilla, avocado pear, mammee-sapota, 

 mango, in addition to the familiar pineapple, 

 orange, lime, shaddock, and cocoanut. The 

 Number Eleven Mango is a fruit to be remem- 

 bered, ranking, I fancy, with the famous durian 

 of Borneo. Of the other unfamiliar fruits I can 

 say little in praise ; all save the avocado pear are 



