120 CAPTAIN TUCKETS NARRATIVE. 



the liquor is extracted as in the West Indies. The sweet 

 wine is allowed to ferment, and produces an intoxicating 

 beverage : when quite fresh it is very pleasant and whole- 

 some, taken moderately, keeping the body open. The 

 Masongoi tree also affords a palm wine, considered of supe- 

 rior quality ; an inebriating liquor is also produced from 

 Indian corn, and named baaniboo. 



The cultivation of the ground is entirely the business of 

 slaves and women, the King's daughters and princes' wives 

 being constantly thus employed, or in collecting the fallen 

 branches of trees for fuel. The only preparation the ground 

 undergoes is burnins: the grass, rakino: the soil into little 

 ridges with a hoe, and dropping the Indian corn grains 

 into holes. The other objects of cultivation that we saw 

 near the banza, were tobacco and beans of two sorts. Fruits 

 are very scarce at this time, the onl}- ones being long- 

 plantains, small bitter oranges, limes and pumpkins. There 

 are no cocoa nut trees, nor, according to the natives, is this 

 tree found in the country. The only root we saw is the 

 sweet cassava, w hich the natives eat raw and roasted. Sugar 

 cane of two kinds was seen. 



The only vegetable production of any consequence in 

 commerce is cottcm, which grows wild most luxuriantly; 

 •but the natives have ceased to gather it, since the English 



