verings of malediction appear these monuments of truth, as
argue well their worth, and proves them not without judgment,
though without Greek and Latin."

* * * * *

"To speak somewhat of these islands, being called, in old time,
_Insulae fortunae_, by the means of the flourishing thereof. The
fruitfulness of them doth surely exceed far all other that I have
heard of. For they make wine better then any in Spain: and they
have grapes of such bigness that they may be compared to damsons,
and in taste inferior to none. For sugar, suckets, raisons of the
sun, and many other fruits, abundance: for rosin, and raw silk,
there is great store. They want neither corn, pullets, cattle,
nor yet wild fowl.

"They have many camels also: which, being young, are eaten of the
people for victuals; and being old, they are used for carriage of
necessities. Whose property is, as he is taught, to kneel at the
taking of his load, and the unlading again; of understanding very
good, but of shape very deformed; with a little belly; long
misshapen legs; and feet very broad of flesh, without a hoof, all
whole saving the great toe; a back bearing up like a molehill, a
large and thin neck, with a little head, with a bunch of hard
flesh which Nature hath given him in his breast to lean upon.
This beast liveth hardly, and is contented with straw and
stubble; but of strong force, being well able to carry five
hundredweight.

"In one of these islands called Ferro, there is, by the reports
of the inhabitants, a certain tree which raineth continually; by
the dropping whereof the inhabitants and cattle are satisfied
with water: for other water have they none in all the island. And
it raineth in such abundance that it were incredible unto a man
to believe such a virtue to be in a tree; but it is known to be a
Divine matter, and a thing ordained by God: at Whose power
therein, we ought not to marvel, seeing He did, by His Providence
(as we read in the Scriptures) when the Children of Israel were
going into the Land of Promise, feed them with manna from heaven,
for the space of forty years. Of these trees aforesaid, we saw in
Guinea many; being of great height, dropping continually; but not
so abundantly as the other, because the leaves are narrowe