EXPEDITION TO SURINAM. 119 

 veiled purper-heart-tree by the rebel negroes (being the chap. 



XXI 



only contrivance ufed by them to feparate the rice from , 

 the hufk) this was however for us a moft laborious biiH- 

 nefs, the fweat running down our bodies as if we had 

 been bathing, w^hile water was at this time the only be- 

 verage in the camp. 



Among other vegetables we had the good fortune to 

 find here great quantities of zvild purjlane^ which only 

 differs from the common, by growing nearer the gro\md, 

 the leaves being lefs, and more of a blackifli green ; this 

 vegetable grows wild in the woods of Guiana, and may 

 be either eaten as a fallad, or ftewed, without referve^ 

 being not only a cooling and agreeable food, but reck- 

 oned an excellent antidote againil the fcurvy. 



Here were alfo great quantities of gourd or calebajfe 

 trees, which are very ufeful to the natives of the country. 

 This tree grows to the height of a common apple-tree,, 

 with large thick pointed leaves : the gourds it produces 

 are of different forms and dimenfions, fome being oval, 

 fome conical, and fome round, growing often to the lize 

 of ten or twelve inches in diameter the fliell is hard 

 and very fmooth, covered over with a Ihining ikin or 

 epidermis, which becomes brown when the gourd is dry ^ 

 and fit for ufe : the heart or pulp is a pithy fubftance,, 

 which is eafily extricated by the help of a crooked knife. 

 The ufes are various to which thefe gourds are applied,, 

 they furniOi bottles, powder-flaflis, cups, bafons, and 

 dilhes : I feldom travelled without one,, which ferved me 



