337 / 1060
·.
BooK
VIII.
Royal
Commentaries.
And
firft
as to that Fruit which the
Spttniard.J
call
GuayavM,
and the
Indians Sa–
vintu;
we fay, that they are of a round fa!hion
like
~he
common_Apple, and
wich
a skin or paring like them
:
In
the meat, or pulp of
it,
are many little rGund feeds,.
lefs than Grape-fiones ; fome of which are yellow without, and red within , and
are of two kinds ; fome are
fo
fower, that they cannot be eaten, others are
[
weec,
and very pleafant
to
the palate ; fome are green without, and white within, and
are much better than the red ; though in foJDe Countries on the Sea-coaft they e–
fteem the red much better than the white. The
Spaniards
make a Conferve of
them, as alfo of other Fruits, which hath been praffifed fince my departure out
of
Peru.
At
Seville
I
faw
fome Fruit of the
Savintu,
which a Paffenger, a friend
of mine, brought from
Nombre de
DioJ
;
and becaufe
it
was a
ruic of my own
Councrey,
he
invited me to the eating of
it.
. .
·Another Fruit the
Indians
call
Pacay,
and the
Spaniard.J Guav11.s,
which grow
in
green Pods, of about a quarter of a Yard long, and two fingers broad ; within
the pod, or fhell, there
is
a kind ofhairy fubfiance, like cotton; and fo much re–
f
embles
it,
that fome New-comers out of
Spain
have quarrelled with the
Indians
for giving them Cotton to eat ; but when they rafted them, they found chem
{
weet and pleafaat; being dried
in
the Sun, they will keep a long time
:
within
the
Pod they have
a .
black Seed,
like frnall Beans, but
thofe are not
co be
eaten.
The Fruit
which
the
Spaniards
call Pears, becaufe they refemble chem
in
the
greennefs of their co1our and iliape, the
Indians
call
Pa/ta,
becaufe they
firfi
grew
in
a
Province of that name. Tliey are two or three
times
bigger than the
la!geft
ftze of Pears
in
Spain;
they have a fine skin, or rine, which covers them, under
which
is
the pulp, or meat, ofabout
a
finger thick, within which there
is
a
!hell, or
fione ; they are of the fame form as the common Pears with us ; there hath been
no experiment, whether they be Medicinal, or not; oaely
'tis
certain, they are
~leafa~t
to the tafie, and wholfome for the fick; and being eaten with Sugar,
they are
a
rare confeet.
They have alfo another fort
of wild Fruit, which
the
Indians
call
&cma,
and
the
Spaniards Lumia;
it
is
in
no
manner pleafant to the tafie, though
it
be rather
f
weer, than fharp or bitter ; howfoever,
it
is
a grofs kind of feeaing, the
Fmin
being about the bignefs of a common Orange ;
in
the meat of it,
it
contains a
kernel
or
feed
of
a
Chefinut-colour, which is
fo
bitter, that
it
cannot be eateno
Moreover the
Indians
had a fort of Plums which they called
Vf{un,
which are red
· and
f
weet;
and being
eaten, they turn
the
Urine into a colour like
bloud.
'
•
Tt
CH AP.
321