The Htjlory of BookIJ. 



particular fecretin the making of it .* There is more made at 

 S. Chrifiophers then any where elfe, by reafon of the abundance 

 of Canes planted there : The juice of thefe Canes is got out by 

 a Mill made purpofely for that ufe 3 afterwards it is purified by 

 fire in great Caldrons : It may be kept a Jong time in its perfe- 

 ction, and it hath a fweetnefs ■, and withal a certain picquancy, 

 which might make it pafs for Sack. Of the fame Canes there 

 is alfo made a certain Aquavits called Cane- Aquavits , which 

 keeps better then the Wine of thofe fame Reeds. 



There is not any thing in the fubftance of thefe ordinary Re- 

 pafts of our Caribbians, which feem to favour of the Savage, 

 unlefs it be haply the Lizards 3 But why may not they be as 

 good Meat as the Frogs and Snails eaten in fome parts of 

 France ? And who knows not that in Spain they eat abundance 

 of young Affes? Nay. compare the fuftenance of omCaribbi~ 

 ans with that of the Canadians, who, befides the skimmings of 

 the Pot, which we faid they eat, do commonly drink filthy 

 and nafty greafe, and prefer the flefti of Bears before any otherj 

 with that of the Inhabitants of the Ifland of Good-fortune^ 

 one of the Canaries, who eat abundance of Suet 3 with that 

 of the Tartars, the Perfians, the Chinefes, the Huancas^ a Nation 

 of Peru, of the Negroes of Angola, who commonly live on the 

 flefh of Horfes, Cammels , Mules, Wolves, Foxes, Afles, 

 Dogs, and drink the Blood of thofe Creatures 3 with that of 

 the Eafl-Indians, who think the Flefti of Bats and Mice as de- 

 licious as that of Partridges 3 with that of the Brazilians , who 

 feed on Toads, Rats, and Worms 5 or, laftly, with that of the 

 Tapujies, and fome other Barbarians, who eat hair mined very 

 fmall, and mixd with wild honey, andfeafbn all their Meat 

 with the aftesof the burnt Bodies of their deceas'd Relations, 

 and mix them with the meal they bake, which caufes horrour 

 only to reprefent, much more to do : Let there be, I fay, a 

 comparifon made between alkhefe infamous Ragouts,and thofe 

 of the Caribbian Nation, and it will be found, that in their or- 

 dinary Commons there is nothing barbarous : Yet are we not 

 to diflemble what fome of the French relate, to wit. That they 

 have feen the Caribbians eating the Lice and Chegoes they had 

 taken $ as it is reported of the Mexicans and Cumanefes : but 

 they do not make their Ordinary out of them, and it is parti- 

 cular only to fome among them 3 befides that they do it not 

 out of any delicacy they find in thofe Vermine, but only to 

 be revenged of them. 



Moreover;, the horrour which the Caribbians conceivd here- 

 tofore at the eating of Swines-flelh, Tortoifes, andLamantin, 

 for the pleafant reafons before alledged, was fo great, that if 

 any of the Europeans had got them to eat any of them by fur- 

 prize, and they came afterwards to know it, they would be 

 reveng'd of them one time or other 3 witnefs what happened to 



