264 Eeptemher i749» 



Frenchmen afiured me, that when people 

 born in Canada came to the Illinois, and eat 

 feveral times of the waier-m-elons of that 

 part, they immediately got a fever 1 and 

 therefore th^ Illinois advife the French not to 

 eat of a fruit fo dangerous to thetn. They 

 themfelves are fubjed: to be attacked by fe- 

 verSj if they cool their ftomachs too often 

 xvith water-melons. In Canada they keep 

 them in a room, which is a little heated ^ 

 by which means they will keep frefli two 

 months after they are ripe ; bat care muft 

 be taken, that the froft fpoil them not. In 

 the Englifi plantations they likewife keep 

 them freih in dry cellars, during part of 

 the winter. They aflured me that they 

 keep better when they are carefully broke 

 off from the ftalk, and afterwards burnt 

 with a red-hot iron, in the place where the 

 flalk was faftened. In this manner they 

 may be eaten at Chrijimas, and after. In 

 Penfyhania, where they have a dry fandy 

 earth, they make a hole in the ground, put 

 the water-melons carefully into it with 

 their (blks, by which means they keep 

 very frefli during a great part of winter. 

 Few people, however, take this trouble 

 with the water-melons ; becaufe they be^ 

 ing very coohng, and the winter being very 

 cold too, it feeras to be lefs neceffary to 



keep 



