Narrative, of a five years' expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana on the Wild Coast of South America; from the year 1772 to 1777 ... Volume 2 (of 2)Stedman, John Gabriel
History
Narrative, of a five years' expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana on the Wild Coast of South America; from the year 1772 to 1777 ... Volume 2 (of 2)
Stedman, John Gabriel
Indians of South America -- Guiana; Slavery -- Suriname -- History -- 18th century; Stedman, John Gabriel, 1744-1797 -- Travel -- Suriname; Suriname -- Description and travel; Suriname -- History -- To 1814
At the dessert, among many other excellent fruits, I observed one which
is here called the mammee apple: it grows on a tree about the size of
an orange-tree, with a grey-coloured bark; the wood is whitish, and
coarse; the leaf very thick, polished, and of a triangular form,
without fibres. This fruit is nearly round, and is about five or six
inches in diameter, covered with a rusty coarse skin: the pulp has the
colour and consistency of a carrot, enclosing two large stones with
bitter kernels, but the fruit is of a delicious taste, sweet mixed with
acid, and a smell superior in fragrance to almost any other fruit in
the colony. There were also nuts of two species, usually called
pistachios, and by the negroes pinda; one kind of them resembles small
chesnuts, and these grow in bunches on a tree. The others are produced
by a shrub, and grow under ground; both have sweet oily kernels: of the
last there are two in one pod; they are agreeable eating raw, but still
better when roasted in hot ashes. To illustrate the above descriptions,
I present the reader with the plate annexed, where A is a sprig of
limes in full ripeness; B, the Cayenne or cica pepper; C, the pimento
pepper or lattacaca; D, the capsicum called dago-peepee; E, the mammee
apple when it is fully ripe; F, the leaf above, of a beautiful green;
G, the leaf below, of a yellowish green; H, the pistachio nut in the
husk; I, the ground pistachio in its dried state; K, one of the kernels
belonging to the latter.
The whole of the above were taken from nature, though upon a small
scale; yet I flatter myself they will be found more perfect copies of
the originals than some of Mad. Merian’s, with all their boasted
reputation.—I cannot dismiss this subject without a few other remarks
on the incorrectness of this lady’s drawings. For instance, her leaf of
the lime-tree is evidently too round; and if by her palisade branch, in
plate XI. she means the manicole-tree, I must declare I never
discovered such a leaf among the many thousands I have helped to cut
down. Her cotton twig, and especially the pod containing the cotton,
are also no true representation of those which are produced in Surinam.
In another place she declares, that grapes are common in Guiana—which I
also must contradict; for it is well known, that no thin-skinned fruit
can ever come to perfection in a tropical climate, such as grapes,
cherries, currants, strawberries, plums, apricots, and peaches, nor
even common apples or pears.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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