366 



A DISCOURSE 



KOOK IV. thread, cloth, cups, dishes, spoons, and other vessels and utensils ; 

 '"^''^f''^*^ baskets, mats, umbrellas, paper, brooms, ropes, sails, and almost all that 



t!ie Palm-tree called Coco : the natives distinguish them by particular names, and reckon 

 up eight sorts, all different in their trunks, leaves, fruit, profit, and appearance, yet enjoy 

 the general name of Palm-trees, having I know not what likeness, by which they lay claim 

 to it, besides the proper name of each species. 



" The chiefest and most famous, and which best retains the property of the Palm-tree, is 

 that which bears Cocoas ; of these some are wild, some cultivated, some, but few, called 

 Barcas, which amongst them, signify excellent ; and when they knavishly put off any thing 

 for excellent, they say it is Barca. The nut Barca is savoury, wholesome, not to be sur- 

 feited on, though eaten in never so great a quantity ; but as all trees are not Barcas, so 

 not all the nuts ; and the same tree bears Barcas and others : the natives distinguish and 

 very much value them. The nut Barca, when crude and unripe, is called lanha taugi 

 (i. e.) excellent and sweet ; is refreshing, wholesome, and of great use in fevers. If the roots 

 of this tree touch the sea, or any brackish water, the bearing is very much improved. 

 Of the other seven sorts, some are esteemed wild, from their fruit, soil, and the little 

 manuring they require. The tree called Cajura, is the peculiar one which bears dates ; 

 though in India this tree yields none, but affords a certain liquor which they distil, and of 

 it make wine. Another sort named Trefulim, from her fruit of the same name, arequeira, 

 of whose leaves are made great umbrellas, large enough to shelter one or two men from 

 the rigour of the sun or rain, without which none could travel : there are less, for the 

 same use, like our umbrellas, which also keep off the rain. This tree yields no fruit. 

 There is another tree (the name not much in use) which by the leaf, trunk, and make, is 

 of the race of Palm-trees ; the fruit is called the raposa, (i. e.) the foxes' fruit; eaten, of 

 no good taste, such a crab as never ripens, and if brought to maturity, would prove a wild 

 date, being so in the form, colour, bunch, or cluster. The tree called Berlim, bears no 

 fruit, only used for adorning churches; the boughs of so fit a size and proportion for this 

 use, as if solely created by God Almighty for his service, not of less esteem and value, be- 

 cause serviceable to divine worship ; this dedication supplies the defect of fruit for the 

 service of man, and may reasonably rank the tree above the fruitful. The last the earth 

 produceth, called Macomeira, is, without doubt, a species of the Palm-tree ; her fruit in 

 clusters of thirty or more, every one as big as an ordinary apple ; when ripe, of a date- 

 colour, and very grateful, the rind as hard as tow, oftener sucked than eaten ; if swallowed, 

 of very hard digestion ; in scent, exceeding the camoesa * : the stone, called coquinho, 

 very hard, though green, is sovereign against many diseases. 



" These are the Palm-trees the earth produceth, which challenge a right in that name. 

 The sea affords one, which, though at the bottom of the deep, and so undiscovered, the fruit 

 called Coco, and surnamed Maldiva, (because the sea about those islands affords that 

 plant in greatest abundance,) gives us the information. The Maldives are a ridge of great 

 and small islands, reaching near two hundred leagues, are counted from north to south 

 distant from the shore, thirty or forty leagues ; the natives affirm them to be eleven thou- 



* Esteemed the best apple in Portugal. 



