103 



From this period, which was about 325 

 years before Christ, little or nothing more 

 was known of the cocoa-nut by the Euro- 

 peans, for the space of 1 823 years, when the 

 discoveries of Columbus opening a wide field 

 of speculation for the naturalist as well as 

 the trader, this fruit became once more 

 known to the Old World ; but it is only of 

 late years that the cocoa-nut has been brought 

 to 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 be- 

 tween the casks and other packages in their 

 ships. The freightage of these large nuts 

 is consequently considered as of no charge : 

 they are therefore now become as common in 

 the shops and in the streets of London, as the 

 orange. 



The cocoa-nut is the produce of a tree 

 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, 

 from the size and useful product of this tree, 

 that from a single cocoa-nut tree and its fruit, 

 a ship might be built, equipped, and laden 

 with merchandise and provision. 



It is supposed to be a native of the Mai- 

 dive, and some desert islands in the East 



