260 ' LOSS OF A JAMAICA SLOOP. 
creature; both these are reckoned the best food the country 
affords. The deer are small and seldom fat. Monkeys are 
the same as those already described, which are generally fat. 
The corriso is near as big as a middling turkey, the color in- 
clined to black; it has a yellow bill, and the cock has a fine 
tuft or plume of feathers on his head of several colors, which 
makes it a beautiful bird ; but their flesh is not quite so good 
as the turkey. The quam is not so big as the corriso, but 
the flesh is better tasted, and is generally fatter. I am in- 
formed these fowls lay but two eggs before they set. The 
inhabitants always take care to bury their bones to prevent 
the dogs from eating them, it will make them run mad. Their 
bread kind is sweet cassave and green plantain roasted, Avhich 
we had mostly from old Indian plantations up the river. This 
shows the country has been full of inhabitants, though there 
are so few now; beside the old Indian plantations, each white 
man has a small plantation of plantain and banana trees; and 
w'hen they had a mind to increase their number, after gather- 
ing the fruit, they dug up the roots, and divided each of them 
into three or four parts, and planted them again; and from 
each part there sprung a tree. 
'' On Christmas eve my padrone went out a hunting in order 
to provide against the festival, and had the good luck to bring 
home both warree and corrisos. He invited his neighbor to 
dine with us on Christmas day; we had both boiled and roast, 
on which we feasted very plentifully; and to regale after 
dinner, instead of punch or wine, we had pumpkin mishlaw, 
which is made thus: the pumpkins are cut into small pieces 
and boiled ; the inside is mashed to a pulp in the liquor it is 
boiled in, and being served out in calabashes when it is hot, 
we drank it with a good gust, and passed the day very cheer- 
fully. In two or three days after my padrone took it into his 
head to visit the white men at Plantain river, he, leaving about 
three days' provision for the family, said he would return again 
by the time it was expended, in order to provide us more. 
Having made an end of our provisions the third day, and no 
padrone appearing the next morning, I took a gun and our 
fishing tackle, and the Indian boy with me: we went up the 
river with our canoe to the plantation, designing to kill a cor- 
riso or quam, w^hich were often there devouring the fruit : 
and if that failed, we intended to fish in the river. As soon 
as I landed I heard the cherupping of a corriso, which I en- 
deavored to shoot ; but fluttering from tree to tree, I could 
not get within reach of it ; and in the pursuit lost the bird 
