48 FISHING. PECULIAR TORCHES. FRUITS. 
The fish-market, which is on the left-hand side of the 
road leading up from the Mole, appeared to be well sup- 
plied with a sort of mackerel and some species of bream, 
one of which is much esteemed. The former are tough 
and of indifferent flavour, they are called ‘ cavallos,’ 
which answers to our name of horse-mackerel, but they 
are only one-third the size. The fish is mostly pro- 
cured in the Bay during the night, and as lights are 
employed to allure them, the effect of the numerous 
flambeaux on all sides is very beautiful. 
These are made of a sort of pine, containing a large 
quantity of resinous matter, which emits a brilliant 
light, and are held on the gunwale of the boat. Lines 
and hooks are used, and not the spear, as in most 
countries where such methods of alluring the fish are 
practised. The wood just referred to, is also most 
serviceable for the torches of travellers at night, and 
possesses this valuable quality — the heavier the rain, 
the brighter it burns ; indeed it can scarcely be extin- 
guished by immersion in water. 
The gardens in the neighbourhood abound in good 
and delicious fruit ; the orange, banana, and pa-paw — 
Papaya carica; the green fruit of the last is used 
medicinally, a single drop of the milky fluid, which 
exudes on puncturing the young fruit, being esteemed a 
specific for the cure of worms. When quite ripe, it is 
a grateful, rich fruit. The black fig is met with every- 
where in the ravines, and appears to be in a wild state. 
There are several convents, that of San Francisco 
being the largest. They are no longer what they were, 
