EXPEDITION TO SURINAM. 231 



or the pine-tree ; and the fecond the nebees, called by the CHAP. 

 French liannes^ by the Spaniards bejucos^ and in Surinam , _ j , 

 tay-tay» 



The manicole^tree, which is of the palm-tree fpecies, 

 is moftly found in marfhy places, and is always a proof 

 of a rich and luxurious foil. It is about the thicknefs of 

 a man's thigh, very ftrait, and grows to the height of 

 from thirty to fifty feet from the ground : the trunk, 

 which is jointed at the diftance of two or three feet, is 

 of a light-brown colour, hard externally for the thick- 

 nefs of half an inch, but pithy, like the Englifh elder, 

 and good for nothing within, except near the top, where 

 the wood becomes green, and inclofes a delicious kind of 

 white fruit, called cabbage, and which, being peculiar to 

 all the palm-trees, I fhall on another occafion amply 

 defcribe. On the top of all this the manicole-tree fpreads 

 in beautiful green boughs, with leaves hanging flrait 

 downwards like filk ribbons, which form a kind of 

 umbrella. The manner of uling it for building huts 

 or cottages, is by cutting the trunk in pieces of as many 

 feet long as you wifh to have the partition high ; for 

 inftance, feven feet, which pieces are next fplit into fmall 

 boards, the breadth of a man's hand, and diverted of 

 their pithy fubftance, and then they are fit for immedi- 

 ate ufe. Having cut and prepared as many of thefe laths 

 as you wanted to furround the dwelling, nothing remains 

 but to lafh them in a perpendicular pofition and clofe 

 to each other to two crofs bars of the fame tree fixed to 



the 



