Page:A voyage to New Holland - Dampier.djvu/73

Rh stead of Turnips, and is as much esteemed. The Papah-Tree is about 10 or 12 Foot high. The Body near the Ground may be a Foot and an half or 2 Foot Diameter; and it grows up tapering to the top. It has no Branches at all, but only large Leaves growing immediately upon Stalks from the Body. The Leaves are of a roundish Form and jag'd about the Edges, having their Stalks or Stumps longer or shorter as they grow near or further from the top. They begin to spring from out of the Body of the Tree at about 6 or 7 Foot heighth from the Ground, the Trunk being bare below: but above that the Leaves grow thicker and larger still towards its Top, where they are close and broad. The Fruit grows only among the Leaves; and thickest among the thickest of them; insomuch that towards the top of the Tree the Papah's springs forth from its Body as thick as they can stick one by another. But then lower down, where the Leaves are thinner, the Fruit is larger, and of the size I have describ'd: And at the Top, where they are thick, they are but small, and no bigger than ordinary Turnips; yet tasted like the rest.

Their chief Land-Animals are their Bullocks, which are said to be many; tho' they askt us 20 Dollars apiece for them: They have also Horses, Asses, and