Besides melons, grapes, oranges, dates, and fruits of other climes; the pine-apple, the plantain, banana, papaws, yams, mameis, sapotes, &c., grow here in great luxuriance, and afford, during the whole year, a great part of the nourishment of the people. The banana is a fruit something resembling in shape and appearance a cucumber; they are roasted, sliced, and served with brandy and sugar. The papaws resemble a lemon with a green rind, very juicy, and of a gentle acid taste. This fruit grows on a tree. The banana and plantain, like the pine-apple, are the produce of a shrub. The guanabana resembles a melon in appearance and taste, but grows on a tree; the sapote is round, and about two inches in circumference, with a loose thin rind of a brown colour streaked with red; the inside of a bright red, and containing a little juice of a viscid nature; but as this fruit consists in its edible parts of many tough fibres, it is far from excellent. The mameis are of the same colour with the sapotes, only rather lighter; their rind adheres more firmly; they also contain a hard stone, and are in taste not unlike a plum. The sutiles, or limes, are well known; their chief use is in cooking, the meat used by the settlers being always soaked in their juice, if intended to be roasted, or the juice is put into the water, if it is to be boiled; by which means the flesh is so softened, that it can be thoroughly done in an hour at farthest. The country abounds in tamarinds, and produces all the other fruits common to the West Indies. The want of oil is felt occasionally in Carthagena, as well as that of wine, when the supply from Spain does not arrive at the expected times. The inhabitants always make use of tallow-candles instead of lamps, and hogsʼ-lard for most of the things which oil and butter are required for. The tables of the higher classes are served with great splendour. The inhabitants of this class usually make two meals a day, and a slight repast. Their breakfast generally consists of fried meats, pastry made of maize-flour, with chocolate. The dinner is of a more substantial nature, consisting of several meats, birds, &c., all of which they season highly with pimento; fruits and wines finish that meal, whilst at night, the regale consists only of sweetmeats and chocolate. The Magdalena and the Cauca are the most important rivers in this province; but the great river Magdalena, dividing the province of Carthagena from that of Santa Marta, we shall have occasion to mention it more particularly in the description of the latter province. The Cauca flows partly through Carthagena, and joins the Magdalena below Mompox.