HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



27 



of Ovicdo, Hernandez, and Bernal Dias, that they had 

 the cocoa from the Philippine Iflands, and the reft from 

 the Canaries (j) > ^ know there are many of ano- 



ther opinion, 1 decline engaging myfelf in any difpute; 

 becaufe, befides its being a matter of no importance to 

 me, it would force me to deviate from the line of my 

 hiftory. It is certain, that thefe trees, and all others 

 which have been imported there from elfewhere, have 

 fuccefsfully taken root, and multiplied as much as in 

 their native foil. All the maritime countries abound 

 with cocoa-nut trees. Of oranges, there are feven differ- 

 ent kinds, and of lemons only four. There are as many 

 of the plantain, or plat am ^ as the Spaniards call it (zj» 

 The largeft, which is the zapalot, is from fifteen to 



twenty 



(y) Ovledo, in his Natural Hiftory, attefts, that F. J. Bulangas, a Domini- 

 can, was the firft who brought the Mufa from the Canaries to Hifpaniola, in 

 1516; and from thence it was tranfplanted to the continent of America. Her- 

 nandez, in the third book, chap. 40. of his Natural Hiftory, fpeaks thus of the 

 cocoa : Nafcitur pajfim apud Orientales et jam quoque apud Occidentales Indos. 

 B. Dias in his Hiftory of the Conqueft, chap. 17. fays, he fowed in the country 

 of Coatzacualco, feven or eight orange feeds ; and thefe, he adds, were the firft 

 oranges ever planted in New Spain. With regard to the mufa, of the four 

 fpecies which there are of it, it is probable, one of them only is foreign, which 

 is called Gu'ineo. 



(z) The mufa was not altogether unknown to the ancients. Pliny, in cit- 

 ing the account which the foldiers of Alexander the Great gave of all that they 

 faw in India, gives this defcription of it : Major et alia (arhos) porno et fuamtati 

 pracellent'wr^ quo fapientes Indorum vivunt. Folium avziifn alas imitatiiff lofKyitudifts 

 cubitorum trium, latitudine duiim. FruSlian cortice etnittit admirabilem fucci dulcedine^ 

 lit uno quarterns fatiet. Arbori nomen palce^ porno aniena. Hift. Nat. lib. xii. cat). 

 6. Befides thefe fpecific charadlers of the mufa he fubjoins further, that the 

 name Palan^ which was given to the mufa inthofe remote times, is ftill preferv- 

 cd in Malabar, as Garzia dell' Orto, a learned Portuguefe phyfician, bears 

 witnefs, who refided there many years. It is to be fufpeded whether Platano 

 or plantain has been derived from the word Palan. The name Bananas, which 

 the French give it, is the fame as it bears in Guinea, and the name Mufa, v/hich 

 the Italians give it, is taken from the Arabic. By Ibme it has been called the 

 Fruit of Paradife, and even feme are perfuaded it is the very fruit which made 

 our firft parents tranfgrcfs. 



