J 



384 HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



at war with the Spaniards. They therefore resolved to go there f 

 and left Guam on the 2d of June. After seeing Luzon, (Matan,J 

 where Magellan was killed, they anchored off Mindanao, the 

 largest of the Philippines with the exception of Luzon. Though 

 mountainous, Dampier found its soil "deep, black, and extra- 

 ordinary fat and fruitful." The valleys were moistened with 

 pleasant brooks "and small rivers of delicate water, and in the 

 heart of the country were mountains that yielded good gold." 



Dampier's description of the plantain-tree is often quoted ns 

 a fine specimen of descriptive writing. "It is," he says, "the 

 king of all fruit, not excepting the cocoanut. The tree is three 

 feet round and twelve feet high : it is not raised from seed, but 

 from the roots of old trees. As soon as the fruit is ripe the tree 

 decays ; but suckers at once spring up and bear in a twelve- 

 month. It comes up with two leaves, within which, by the time 

 it is a foot high, two more spring up, and in a short time two 

 more, and so on. When full grown, the leaves are seven or 

 eight feet long and a foot and a half broad. The stem of the 

 leaf is as big as a man's arm. The fruit-stem shoots out at the 

 top of the full-grown tree, — first blossoming, and then bearing. 

 The Spaniards give it the pre-eminence over all other fruit, as 

 most conducive to life. It grows in a cod about seven inches 

 long and three inches thick. The shell or rind is soft, and, when 

 ripe, yellow. The fruit within is of the consistency of butter 

 in winter. It has a very delicate flavor, and melts in the mouth 

 like marmalade. It is pure pulp, without kernel, seed, or stone. 

 A large plantation of these trees will yield fruit throughout the 

 year, and will furnish the exclusive food of a family. The mar- 

 kets of Havana, Carthagena, Portobello, &c.,are full of the fruit; 

 and they are sold at the price of threepence a dozen. When 

 used as bread, it is roasted or boiled before it is quite ripe ; and 

 sometimes a roasted plantain is, as it were, buttered with a ripe 

 raw plantain. An English bag-pudding may be made wjth half 

 a dozen ripe fruit; and, again, plantains sliced and dried in the 



