SEPT, 1770 FAN-PALM AND SYRUP 345 
up no room, though they yield the treble advantage of fruit, 
liquor, and sugar, all, but especially the two last, in great 
profusion. The leaves also serve to thatch their houses, and 
to make baskets, umbrellas (or rather small conical bonnets), 
caps, tobacco pipes, etc. etc. The fruit, which is least 
esteemed, is also in the least plenty; it is a nut about as 
big as a child’s head, covered like a cocoanut with a fibrous 
coat under which are three kernels which must be eaten 
before they are ripe, otherwise they become too hard to chew. 
In their proper state they a good deal resemble in taste the 
kernel of an unripe cocoanut, and like them probably afford 
but a watery nutriment. The excellence of the palm wine 
or toddy which is drawn from this tree makes, however, 
ample amends for the poorness of its fruit. It is got by 
cutting the buds, which should produce flowers, soon after 
their appearance, and tying under them a small basket made 
of the leaves of the same tree; into this the liquor drips, 
and must be collected by people who climb the trees for that 
purpose every morning and evening. This is the common 
drink of every one upon the island, and a very pleasant one 
it was so to us, even at first, only rather too sweet; its anti- 
scorbutic virtues, as the fresh unfermented juice of a tree, 
cannot be doubted. 
Notwithstanding that this liquor is the common drink of 
both rich and poor, who in the morning and evening drink 
nothing else, a much larger quantity is drawn off daily than 
is sufficient for that use. Of this they make a syrup and a 
coarse sugar, both which are far more agreeable to the taste 
than they appear to the sight. The liquor is called in the 
language of the island dua or duac, the syrup and sugar by 
one and the same name, guia; it is exactly the same as the 
jagara sugar on the continent of India, and prepared by 
simply boiling down the liquor in earthenware pots until it 
is sufficiently thick. In appearance it exactly resembles 
‘molasses or treacle, only it is considerably thicker ; in taste, 
however, it much excels it, having, instead of the abominable 
twang which treacle leaves in the mouth, only a little burnt 
flavour, which was very agreeable to our palates. The 
