Page:Books from the Biodiversity Heritage Library (IA mobot31753000820123).pdf/98

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eaten by the Spaniards. The Pearls are sold by the Indians to the Spaniards by the Shell full. They are dark more or less, and are not of so clear a colour as the Oriental Pearls are. When the Indians find very large Pearls, they keep and hide them till they find a better Merchant, which are often others than the Spaniards. This Pearl fishery was farmed of the Spaniards by English Merchants of Jamaica when I was there.

New-England Horses are frequently brought to Jamaica, they are bought for Five Pound apiece in New England, and kept by the way on Bran, they usually are sold in Jamaica at Fifteen Pounds, they are rougher than the Horses in the Island usually Pace, and lose their Hair at first coming.

The Inhabitants of New-England Pickle Pork and Beef either dry or wet, the first is done in bad Cask, the other in good Cask, and is much the better, the first proving ordinarily rusty.

Fish preferv'd and cur'd, both dry and wet, come from thence.

One half-Barrel of Irish Pork is worth about Twenty two Shillings, and a Barrel of Beef as much, which is in Provision, to be distributed for the support of Servants and Slaves, reckoned equivalent to it.

Salt wet Mackerel comes from New-England, and is much used in this Island for the support of Slaves and Servants.

The true way of fatting Cattle, as I was inform'd by the Grasiers of Jamaica, is by bleeding them in the Jugular Vein (which will stop of its self) and then purging them with Aloe or Sempervive Leaves clear'd of their outward Skins, and thrust down by Gobbets till a whole Leaf is swallowed.

The same has been effectual in a Man, in restoring the tone of his Stomach lost by drinking. It purges Cattle and Men of Worms, and may make them fat that way.

The less Nourishment the Grass affords, the greater the Paunch of the Beast feeding on it, so that the Bellies of Cattle are so large in dry times in hot Countries, as if they were big with young.

On Hispaniola, at Samana are many French Hunters. They go out Twelve in a Company, for fear of the Spaniards. The Hogs they take have sometimes Stones in their Bladders; one of these Stones I had brought me thence was long, of divers Tunicles, the outward white, those within it reddish, and smelling very strong of Urine. I had two others bigger than any Pease, round, and set about with protuberant Prickles they were taken out of the Urethra of Hogs. They were shining and Crystalline, and exactly resembled those taken out of Human Bodies.