. The third sort, which, like the second,
was found only in the northern parts, was seldom more than ten feet
high, with small pinnated leaves, resembling those of some kind of fern:
It bore no cabbage, but a plentiful crop of nuts, about the size of a
large chesnut, but rounder. As we found the hulls of these scattered
round the places where the Indians had made their fires, we took for
granted that they were fit to eat; those however who made the experiment
paid dear for their knowledge of the contrary, for they operated both as
an emetic and cathartic with great violence. Still, however, we made no
doubt but that they were eaten by the Indians; and judging that the
constitution of the hogs might be as strong as theirs, though our own
had proved to be so much inferior, we carried them to the stye: The hogs
eat them, indeed, and for some time we thought without suffering any
inconvenience; but in about a week they were so much disordered that two
of them died, and the rest were recovered with great difficulty. It is
probable, however, that the poisonous quality of these nuts may lie in
the juice, like that of the cassada of the West Indies; and that the
pulp, when dried, may be not only wholesome, but nutricious. Besides
these species of the palm, and mangroves, there were several small trees
and shrubs altogether unknown in Europe; particularly one which produced
a very poor kind of fig; another that bore what we called a plum, which
it resembled in colour, but not in shape, being flat on the sides like a
little cheese; and a third that bore a kind of purple apple, which,
after it had been kept a few days, became eatable, and tasted somewhat
like a damascene.

Here is a great variety of plants to enrich the collection of a
botanist, but very few of them are of the esculent kind. A small plant,
with long, narrow, grassy leaves, resembling that kind of bulrush which
in England is called the Cat's-tail, yields a resin of a bright yellow
colour, exactly resembling gambouge, except that it does not stain: It
has a sweet smell, but its properties we had no opportunity to discover,
any more than those of many others with which the natives appear to be
acquainted, as they have distinguished them by names.

I have already mentioned the root and leaves of a plant resembling the
coccos of the West Indies, and a kind of bean; to which may be added, a
sort of parsley and purselain, and two kinds of yams; one shaped like a
radish,