COCOA-NUT. 99 



England as an article of commerce. It is now used by 

 the West-India captains instead of wedges of timber, to 

 fill up the vacua between the casks and other packages in 

 their ships. The freightage of these large nuts is conse- 

 quently considered as of no charge: they are therefore 

 now become as common in the shops and streets of 

 London, as the orange. 



We learn from the Travels of two Mahomedans who 

 visited India in the years of the Hegira 831 and 851, and 

 which have been translated from the Arabic by Eusebius 

 Renaudot, a learned member of the French Academy, that 

 there were then some Indians, who, making profession of 

 piety, went in search of unknown islands, or those newly 

 discovered, on purpose to plant cocoa-nut trees and to 

 sink wells for the use of ships. These travellers farther 

 tell us, " there are people at Oman who cross to these 

 islands that produce the cocoa-nut trees, from the planks 

 of which they build ships, sewing them together with the 

 yarn made from the bark of the tree. The mast is made 

 of the same wood, the sails are formed from the leaves, 

 and the bark is worked up into cordage : and having thus 

 completed their vessel, they load her with oocoa-nuts, 

 which they bring to Oman for sale." 



The tree which produces this fruit is, indeed, of the 

 first importance to the Indians, as it furnishes them with 

 meat, drink, physic, clothing, lodging, furniture, and 

 fuel. Chambers states, that many travellers aver, that 

 from a single cocoa-nut tree and its fruit, a ship might 

 be built, equipped, and laden with merchandize and pro- 

 vision. 



It is supposed to be a native of the Maldive, and some 

 desert islands in the East Indies, and from thence to have 

 been transported to all the warmer parts of America. 

 The largest cocoa-nut trees grow on the river Oroonoko, 

 which reach to the height qf sixty feet, and, bearing all 



