Page:Books from the Biodiversity Heritage Library (IA mobot31753000820123).pdf/92

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whom there is no Appeal. All they produce from the Earth, of Provisions (which they sell to the Men of War, and other Vessels trading on the Coast) is equally divided among the whole Family, only the Chief and his Wife have each two Shares. Were some Persons industrious to settle among them, and encourage them to plant, the richness of the Soil would easily, and advantageously produce any Commodity, especially Indico, but they will not permit any other Nation to settle among them but the English; they have some propensity to the Dutch, but the French they morally hate for their wanton behaviour towards their Wives. As to their Number, no sure account can be given, they being settled at such great distance, and uncapable to give a true Estimate of themselves, being wholly unlearned, only some that have been at Providence, have learned the Lords Prayer, the Creed and Ten Commandments, which they repeat with great Devotion.

One Captain Gough, who had lived there, told me they had thereabout much Cochineel-Tree planted both by the Indians and Spaniards, sometimes in Fields of Fifty or Sixty Acres of Ground: that they keep these Opuntia or Trees very clean, that the Insects may breed on them; that this sort grows very high like prickly Pears, only has no Prickles or very few: that the Insects come from another Tree, and that they appear on the Surface of these Plants, in form of little Bladders, which they sweep down into an Iron Pan, which afterwards being set on the fire, leaves something like a Spiders Web. Afterwards they put this Cochineel into Chests as cured; if it be not enough dried, it takes life and flies away. I shall have occasion to speak more of this hereafter.

He told me also Vaniglias grew here, and are cured by taking them off the Vine (which runs very far) at a certain ripeness, dipping them into hot Water, and drying them in the shade. If they be pulled too young they break, and are brittle; if too old they open, which they do of themselves on the Trees. Another Person told me the Vaniglias were cured after the following manner, and I am the more willing to publish it, because they are said to grow in Jamaica, and that they cannot be sent from thence to Europe, because of their Ignorance of the way of curing them.

Gather them when full ripe, prepare a Liquor, or Brine of Water and Salt, so strong as to bear an Egg, then put to it a fourth part of Chamber-ly, and a reasonable quantity of unflak'd Lime, and when that is incorporated, boil all together about half an Hour, then take it off, and put the Vaniglias into the Liquor, and let them re-