Page:A voyage to New Holland - Dampier.djvu/109

 straight-bodied, and of a good height; clean from limbs till near the top, where there branches forth a small head. The rind is of a pale grey, and so is the fruit. We used of this tree to make helves or handles for axes (for which it is very proper) in the Bay of Campeachy; where I have seen of them, and nowhere else but here.

Besides these here are many sorts of fruits which I have not met with anywhere but here; as arisahs, mericasahs, petangos, etc. Arisahs are an excellent fruit, not much bigger than a large cherry; shaped like a catherine-pear, being small at the stem, and swelling bigger towards the end. They are of a greenish colour, and have small seeds as big as mustard seeds; they are somewhat tart, yet pleasant, and very wholesome, and may be eaten by sick people.

Mericasahs are an excellent fruit, of which there are 2 sorts; one growing on a small tree or shrub, which is counted the best; the other growing on a kind of shrub like a vine, which they plant about arbors to make a shade, having many broad leaves. The fruit is as big as a small orange, round and green. When they are ripe they are soft and fit to eat; full of white pulp mixed thick with little black seeds, and there is no separating one from the other till they are in your