Page:A voyage to New Holland - Dampier.djvu/71

Rh tugal for Sugar, their other Manufacture, and returns with it directly thither: For 'tis reported that there are several small Sugar-works on this Island, from which they send home near 100 Tun every year; and they have plenty of Cotton growing up in the Country, wherewith they cloath themselves, and send also a great deal to Brazil. They have Vines, of which they make some Wine: but the European Ships furnish them with better; tho' they drink but little of any. Their chief Fruits are, (besides Plantains in abundance) Oranges, Lemons, Citrons, Melons, (both Musk and Water-melons) Limes, Guava's, PomgranatesPomegranates [sic], Quinces, Custard-Apples, and Papah's, &c.

The Custard-Apple (as we call it) is a Fruit as big as a Pomegranate, and much of the same colour. The out-side Husk, Shell or Rind, is for substance and thickness between the Shell of a Pomegranate, and the Peel of a Sevil-Orange; softer than this, yet more brittle than that. The Coat or Covering is also remarkable in that it is beset round with small regular Knobs or Risings; and the inside of the Fruit is full of a white soft Pulp, sweet and very pleasant, and most resembling a Custard of any thing, both in Colour and Tast: From whence probably it is called a Custard-Apple by our English. It has in the mid-