ULLOA's voyage to south AMERICA. 



355 



prefent ; but they foon return to the fame excefles, not remembering, or rather choof- 

 ing to forget, the melancholy confequences. 



By what we could difcover, it is not the quality of the brandy which proves fo per- 

 nicious, but the quantity ; fome of our company making the experiment of drinking 

 fparingly of this liquor after eating the guineos, and repeating it feveral times without 

 the lead inconvenience. One method of dreffmg them, among feveral others, is to 

 road them in their rind, and afterwards flice them, adding a little brandy and fugar to 

 give them a firmnefs. In this manner we had them every day at our table, and the 

 Creoles themfelves approved of them. 



The papayas are from fix to eight inches in length, and refemble a lemon, except 

 that, towards the ftalk, they are fomewhat lefs than at the other extremity. Their 

 rind is green, the pulp white, very juicy, but ftringy, and the tafte a gentle acid, not 

 pungent. This is the fruit of a tree, and not, like the pine-apple and platano, the pro- 

 du6l of a plant. The guayaba, and the following, are alfo the fruit of trees. 



The guanabana approaches very near the melon, but its rind is much fmoother, arid 

 of a greenifh colour. Its pulp is of a yellowifh call, like that of fome melons, and not 

 very different in tafte. But the greateft diftindion between thefe two fruits is a naufeous 

 fmell in the guanaba. The feed is round, of a fhining dark colour, and about two lines 

 in diameter, v It oonfifts of a very fine tranfparent pellicle, and a kernel folid and juicy. 

 The fmell of this little feed is much ftronger and more naufeous. The natives fay, that, 

 by eating this feed, nothing is to be apprehended from the fruit, which is other wife 

 accounted heavy and hard of digeftion j but, though the feed has no ill tafte, the fto- 

 mach is offended at its fmell. . ^ 



The fapotes are round, about two inches in circumference, the rind thin and eafily 

 feparated from the fruit ; the colour brown, ftreaked with red. The flefh is of a bright 

 red, with little juice, vifcid, fibrous, and compadt. It cannot be clafled among deli- 

 cious fruits, though its tafte is not difagreeable. It contains a few feeds, which are 

 hard and oblong. 



The mameis are of the fame colour with the fapotes, except that the brown is fome- 

 thing lighter. Their rind alfo requires the afliftance of a knife, to feparate it. The 

 fruit is very much Hke the brunion plum, but more folid, lefs juicy, and, in colour, more 

 lively. The ftone is proportioned to the largenefs of the fruit, which is betwixt three 

 and four inches in diameter, almoft circular, but with fome irregularities. The ftone 

 is an inch and a half in length, and its breadth, in the middle, where it is round, 

 one inch. Its external furface is fmooth, and of a brown colour, except on one 

 fide, where it is vertically crofTed by a ftreak refembling the flice of a melon in 

 colour and ftiape. This ftreak has neither the hardnefs nor fmoothnefs of the reft 

 of the furface of the ftone, which feems in this place covered, and fomething 

 fcabrous. 



The coco is a very common fruit, and but little efteemed ; all the ufe made of 

 it being to drink the juice whilft^ fluid, before it begins to curdle. It is, when firft 

 gathered, full of a whitifti liquor, as fluid as water, very pleafant and refrefliing. 

 The fliell which covers the cocoa nut, is green on the outfide, and white within ; full 

 of ftrong fibres, traverfing it on all fides in a longitudinal direi9:ion, but eafily feparated 

 with a knife. The coco is alfo whitifti at that time, and not hard ; but, as the con- 

 fiftency of its pulp increafes, the green colour of its ihell degenerates into yellow. As 

 foon as the kernel has attained its maturity, this dries and changes to brown j then be- 

 comes fibrous and fo compact, as not to be eafily opened and feparated from the coco, 



z z 2 to 



