323 
Chap. XX.—B.P.} THE CORN ISLANDS. 
speak with the greatest respect. The pig, which I 
have so much abused in a former chapter, here attracts 
attention from the very different aspect he presents: 
comely, sleek, and short-legged, besides being of a 
fabulous cheapness, it is a real pleasure to eat him, fed 
as he is upon cocoa-nut and breadfruit. Excellent beef, 
goat (which takes the place of mutton to admiration), 
turkeys, fowls, ducks, and any quantity of eggs, are 
readily obtainable. The vegetable kingdom is no less 
generous; plantains, bananas, cassava, breadfruit, 
sweet potatoes, cocos; every sort of ground provisions 
except yams (which the natives seem unable to raise, 
attributing their failure to a wretched little ant, called 
by them a u wee-wee ”) can be had in abundance. As 
to fruit, there is any quantity in the shape of pine¬ 
apples, of the finest description, mamme-apple, avo¬ 
cado pear, oranges, limes, and guavas in profusion. 
The pigs, by the bye, devour great quantities of the 
latter; and their mistresses say it gives the flesh a 
particularly fine flavour. Then there are granadillos, 
and a heap of other fruits too numerous to mention. 
In short, what • Goldsmith says of Italy is equally 
applicable to this favoured spot:— 
“ Whatever fruits in different climes are found, 
That proudly rise, or humbly court the ground; 
Whatever blooms in torrid tracts appear, 
Whose bright succession decks the varied year; 
Whatever sweets salute the northern sky 
With vernal lives, that blossom but to die, 
These here disporting own the kindred soil, 
Nor ask luxuriance from the planter’s toil; 
While sea-born gales their gelid wings expand, 
To winnow fragrance round the smiling land.” 
Y 2 
