yb A V O Y A G E T O Book I. 



fruit. The colour of it is brown, ftreaked with red. 

 The flefh is of a bright red, with little juice, vifcid, 

 fibrous, and compad:. It cannot be clafTed among de- 

 licious fruits, though its tafte is not difagreeable. It 

 contains a few feeds, which*are hard and oblong. 



The mameis are of the fame colour with the fapotes, 

 except that the brown is fomething lighter. Their 

 rind alfo requires the afTiftance of a knife, to feparate 

 it. The fruit is very much like the brunion plum, 

 but more folid, lefs juicy, and, in colour, more lively. 

 The (lone is proportioned to the largenefs of the fruit, 

 which is betwixt three or four inches in diameter, al- 

 moft circular in fhape, but with fome irregularities. 

 The done is an inch and a half in length, and its breadth 

 in the middle, where it is round, one inch^ Its exter- 

 nal furface is fmooth, and of a brown colour, except on 

 one fide, where it is vertically crofTed by a ftreak rc- 

 fembling the flice of a melon in colour and fhape. 

 This ftreak has neither the hardnefs nor fmoothnefs of 

 the reft of the furface of the ftone, which feems in this 

 place covered and fomething fcabrous. 



The coco is a very common fruit, and but little 

 efteemed ; all the ufe made of it being to drink the 

 juice whilft fluid before it begins to curdle. It is, 

 when firft gathered, full of a whitifh liquor, as fluid as 

 water, very pleafant and refrefliing. The fliell which 

 covers the coco nut, is green on the outfide, and white 

 within full of ftrong fibres, traverfing it on all fides 

 in a longitudinal dire(5lion, but are eafily feparated 

 with a knife. The coco is alfo whitifh at that time, 

 and not hard but, as the confiftency of its pulp in- 

 creafes, the green colour of its fliell degenerates into 

 yellow. As foon as the kernel has attained its ma- 

 turity, this dries and changes to a brown colour 5 then 

 becomes fibrous, and fo compa6l, as not to be eafily 

 opened and feparated from the coco, to which fome of 

 thofe fibres adhere. From the pulp of thefe cocos 



