266 LOSS OF A JAMAICA SLOOP. 
gers, taking out the strings and mixing it well together, 
till it is of a thinness fit to drink, and then hand it to the 
people sitting round, which the}^ all drank of, first to the fa- 
thers of the families, then to the younger men, and so to the 
favorite wives, and then to the children. They often sat at 
these drinking bouts a day and a night, if the liquor lasted so 
long, and drank it till they were intoxicated; it is unpleasant 
to the taste. They have another drink that they sometimes 
make, which they call cassave mishlaw ; they first boil the 
sweet cassave, and then cause it to be chewed by their young 
women that have the cleanest mouths ; and putting it into a 
vessel with water, they let it stand two or three days, in which 
time it ferments, and then drink it in the same m.anner as the 
plantain mishlaw. The Indians invited me to taste of their 
mishlaw ; and my padrone assuring me it was of plantains 
without any mixture of cassave, I was prevailed upon to drink 
a calabash of it, which I was the rather induced to, that the 
Indians might not be out of humor for my refusing their civi- 
lity ; though I must confess I had no great liking to it, seeing 
how the women managed it. When I had almost emptied 
my calabash, I found in it some strings of the cassave root; 
upon which I told my padrone that I believed he had deceived 
me, and that there was cassave mishlaw mixed with the plan- 
tain. He laughed, and so did the Indians; and then 1 per- 
ceived it was plantain and cassave mishlaw mixed together, 
which made me not very fond of it, and I refused to drink 
any more. My padrone drank very plentifully of it, though 
he knew their manner of making it. We staid with them 
about three hours, and then took our leave ; and in returning 
home and talking with my padrone about the manner that 
we might make it, and drink it, he said that it would not fer- 
ment except it was chewed : however, I prevailed Avith him to 
try, and having boiled some cassave roots, and bruised them 
in a mortar, I put them into a jar with a sufficient quantity of 
water, and let it stand three or four days, but it would not fer- 
■ rtcn',, which made me think that the salivial juice, which 
f'^Aed with the roots while the Indians were chewing it, was 
5'*'^ cause of the fermentation. My padrone had a great num- 
Vft» -)f pumpkins which grew about his house, and his Indian 
*.t>men used to make pumpkin mishlaw almost every day 
^^i>out four o'clock in the afternoon, which served us instead 
oTtea, and is made in the manner before described. The In- 
Hlians observe the text in Scripture, they take no care for to- 
morrow : but when their provisions are all expended, and they 
