DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.634#0062
4°
A Twelve Month's Voyage
Letter I.
Nature of the
People amJ
Without the Town grows their Rice, which is nourissied by the
letting in of the Water to drown it: Round about it is bestrewed
with Gardens of the Englijb; where, besides Gourds of all sorts for
Stews and Pott3ge, Herbs for SiUad, and some few Flowers, as Jas-
samin, sor beauty and delight; fiourish pleasancTopsof Plantains,
Cocoes, Gaiavas, a-kind of Pear, Jawks, a Coat of Armour over it
like an Hedg-hog's, guards its wdghty Fruir, Oval wjchour for the
length of a Span, within in falliion like Squils parted , Mangos, the
delight of India, a Plum, Pomegranets, Bomnoes, which are a sort
of Plantain, though less, yet much more grateful, Beetle; which
last mull not be ssipt by in silence: It rises out of the Ground to
twelve or fourteen Feet height!), the Body of it green and ss'.-nder,
jointed like a Cane, the Boughs ssaggy and spreading, under whose
Arms it brings forth from its pregnant Womb (which bursts when
her Month is come) a Ciuster of Green Nuts, like Wailnuts in Green
Shells, but difserent in the Fruit; which is hard when dried, and
looks like a Nutmeg.
The Natives chew it with Chiasm ( Lime of calcined Oyster-
Shells ) and Aracb, a Convolvulus with a Leaf like the largest svv,
for to preserve their Teeth, and correct an unsavoury Breath : If
swailowed, it inebriates as much as Tobacco. Thus mixed, it is the
only Indian Entertainment, called Pawn.
These Plants set in a Row, make a Grove that might delude the
Fanatick Multitude into an Opinion of their being sacrcd ; and were
not the Mouth of that Grand Impostor Hermetically sealed up,
where Christianity is spread, these would (til! continue, as it is my
Fancy they were of old, and may (till be the Laboratories of his Fal-
lacious Oracles : For they masquing the face of Day, beget a so-
kmn reverence, and melancholy habit in them that resort to them;
by representing the more inticing Place of Zeal, a Cirhedral, with
all its Pillars and Pillasters, Walks and Choirs ; and so contrived,
that whatever way you turn, you have an even Prolpeet
But not lo run too far out of Mat/eras before I give you an Ac-
count of the People; know they are of the same Nation withMetcb-
lapatan, have the same unbelieving'Fairh, and under the same Bon-
dage with the Moors, were not that alleviated by the.Power of the
Englijb, who command as far as their Guns reach : To them there-
fore they pay Toll, even of Cow-dung (which is their chiefest Firc-
ing) a Prerogative the Dutch could never obtain in this Kingdom,
and by this means acquire great Estates without fear of being nio-
lestcd. Their only Merchants being Gentues, sorty Mssn having
hardly
A Twelve Month's Voyage
Letter I.
Nature of the
People amJ
Without the Town grows their Rice, which is nourissied by the
letting in of the Water to drown it: Round about it is bestrewed
with Gardens of the Englijb; where, besides Gourds of all sorts for
Stews and Pott3ge, Herbs for SiUad, and some few Flowers, as Jas-
samin, sor beauty and delight; fiourish pleasancTopsof Plantains,
Cocoes, Gaiavas, a-kind of Pear, Jawks, a Coat of Armour over it
like an Hedg-hog's, guards its wdghty Fruir, Oval wjchour for the
length of a Span, within in falliion like Squils parted , Mangos, the
delight of India, a Plum, Pomegranets, Bomnoes, which are a sort
of Plantain, though less, yet much more grateful, Beetle; which
last mull not be ssipt by in silence: It rises out of the Ground to
twelve or fourteen Feet height!), the Body of it green and ss'.-nder,
jointed like a Cane, the Boughs ssaggy and spreading, under whose
Arms it brings forth from its pregnant Womb (which bursts when
her Month is come) a Ciuster of Green Nuts, like Wailnuts in Green
Shells, but difserent in the Fruit; which is hard when dried, and
looks like a Nutmeg.
The Natives chew it with Chiasm ( Lime of calcined Oyster-
Shells ) and Aracb, a Convolvulus with a Leaf like the largest svv,
for to preserve their Teeth, and correct an unsavoury Breath : If
swailowed, it inebriates as much as Tobacco. Thus mixed, it is the
only Indian Entertainment, called Pawn.
These Plants set in a Row, make a Grove that might delude the
Fanatick Multitude into an Opinion of their being sacrcd ; and were
not the Mouth of that Grand Impostor Hermetically sealed up,
where Christianity is spread, these would (til! continue, as it is my
Fancy they were of old, and may (till be the Laboratories of his Fal-
lacious Oracles : For they masquing the face of Day, beget a so-
kmn reverence, and melancholy habit in them that resort to them;
by representing the more inticing Place of Zeal, a Cirhedral, with
all its Pillars and Pillasters, Walks and Choirs ; and so contrived,
that whatever way you turn, you have an even Prolpeet
But not lo run too far out of Mat/eras before I give you an Ac-
count of the People; know they are of the same Nation withMetcb-
lapatan, have the same unbelieving'Fairh, and under the same Bon-
dage with the Moors, were not that alleviated by the.Power of the
Englijb, who command as far as their Guns reach : To them there-
fore they pay Toll, even of Cow-dung (which is their chiefest Firc-
ing) a Prerogative the Dutch could never obtain in this Kingdom,
and by this means acquire great Estates without fear of being nio-
lestcd. Their only Merchants being Gentues, sorty Mssn having
hardly