11 &< 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
of the interior one will serve as a sewing thread. It appears indeed that it might 
be woven into linen, if the filaments were properly prepared. The wine drawn 
from the latanier does not differ,-either in the taste or other qualities, from that of 
the palm tree: but it is necessary to apply it to immediate use; as on the third or 
fourth day it begins 'to be sour, and on the seventh or eighth it acquires as sharp 
an acid as the strongest vinegar, without any change in its colour. 
“ The dates of the latanier are of a larger size than those of the palm tree; but 
as there was plenty of better things, such as flesh, fish, fruits, See. we abandoned 
the dates to the doves and other birds, of which a future description will be given. 
fi Around the lower part of the cabbage of the latanier, and between the stalks 
of its large leaves, there grows a kind of cotton of a light lemon colour, which is 
known throughout the Indies by the name of Capoe, of which we made excellent 
matrasses: this cotton may be spun and employed to every purpose of the weaver, 
See. We should indeed have endeavoured to manufacture the capoe, as well as the 
fibres or filaments of the leaves of the lataniers, into some kind of useful fabric, 
but we were well furnished with linen and cloth; and the air withal was so mild, as 
to render our clothes in a great measure unnecessary. 
44 This island also produces several other kinds of wholesome fruit trees: that 
which bears a species of pepper, is about the size of a plumb tree, and has a leaf 
like that of the jessamine ; the fruit grows in small bunches, and served to heighten 
our culinary preparations. 
4 ‘ The sea having brought some cocoa nuts to our shore, whose germ began to 
appear, we planted one of them some months after our arrival, and when we quitted 
the island it had risen into a tree of four feet in height. 
4t There is every reason to conjecture that these cocoa nuts, which sometimes 
weigh five or six pounds, and are thrown upon the coast of this island without suf¬ 
fering the least injury, come from the Isle St. Brandon, which is from sixty to eighty 
leagues to the north and windward of Rodriguez. The sea never brings any thing 
but on that side; which justifies the opinion, that we were indebted for these presents 
to the currents, as well as to the wind and tide. It is very probable, that in the 
hurricane season, the whirlwind may have blown these fruits from the Isle St. 
Brandon to a considerable distance in the sea, when they became subject to the 
course of the waves. 
*, c . There is also in the Isle Rodriguez the Indian Fig tree (Ficus indlca), its 
