Page:Books from the Biodiversity Heritage Library (IA mobot31753000820123).pdf/9



Another Use of this History may be, to teach the Inhabitants of the Parts where these Plants grow, their several Uses, which I have endeavour'd to do, by the best Informations I could get from Books, and the Inhabitants, either Europeans, Indians or Blacks. Jamaica had been, before it was taken by the English, in the possession of the Spaniards, almost from the time the West-Indies were discover'd: They had brought many Fruit-Trees from the Main-Continent, where they are Masters, and suffer no other Europeans to come; which throve wonderfully, and now grow as it were Sponte: These they made use of for Food, Physic, &c. And were forc'd to leave with their Habitations, to the English, and the Skill of Using them remain'd with the Blacks and Indians, many of whom came, upon a Proclamation that they should be Free, submitted peaceably, and liv'd with the English after the Spaniards'' had deserted it. There were among these, several which made small Plantations of their own, wherein they took care to preserve and propagate such Vegetables as grew in their own Countries, to use them as they saw occasion: I made search after these, and what I found, is related in this History. Besides these Helps, some of the Dutch who had liv'd in Brasil, came hither, and others of the Dutch and English from Surinam, where they had observ'd the Effects of some Plants they met with in Jamaica, and used them for the same Purposes they had done in Brasil and Surinam, towards the Relief of the Inhabitants. For this Reason the Reader will find herein, many of the Vertues of Plants to agree with the Observations of Authors, writing of other Parts of the'' West-Indies.

There is another Use to be made of this Book, which is this; In reading Voyages, and talking with Travellers to the West-Indies, &c. one shall meet with Words, and Names of Things, one has no Notion or Conception of: by looking for such Names in the Index of the Catalogue of Jamaica'' Plants, you are referr'd to the Page where you find a List of such as have treated of it; And in this History under the first Title of it in the Catalogue, is the History of it. If on the other hand, any Person desires to know who has written of such or such a Plant in Jamaica, let him look into the Catalogue, and under the first Title of the Plant, he will find Citations to direct him to the Pages of most of the Books wherein it is spoken of.''