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ÉooK
VHI.
Royal
Commentariú.
And
firíl:
as
to
tha~Fruit which the
Spaniard1
call
Guayava1,
and the
Indians Sa–
vint1/;
we fay, that they are of a round faíhion like the common, Apple, and.with
a skin or paring like them :
In
the mear, or pulp of ir, are many little rnund feeds,
lefs than Grape-íl:ones; fóme .of which are yellow without, and red within, and
are of two kinds, fome are fo fowet, cbat they cannot be eaten, others are fweec,
and very.pleafant coche palate -; fome are green wichout, and white within, and
are much better than che red ; though in fome Councries on ch~ Sea-cqaíl: they e–
fieem che red rnuch better than che white. The
Spaniards
make a Conferve of
them, as alfo of other Fruits, whi1=h -hath been praétifed fince my departure om
of
Peru.
At
Sevil!e
I faw fome Fruit of the
Savintu,
which a Paífenger, a friend
of mine, brought from
N ombre de Dio1
;
and becaufe it was a Fruit of my own
1
Countrey, he ~nvited me to che eating of it.
.
Anoth~r Fruit che
Indians
call
Pacay,
and che
Sp-aniards Guavas,
which grow
ilt
green Pods, of about a quarter of a Yard long, and two fingers broad ; within
the
pod, or íhell, there is a kind ofhairy fubíl:ance, like cotton ; and
fo
mm;:h re–
fembles ic, cpat· fome New-comers out of
Spain
have quarrelled with che
Indians
for giving chem Cotton to eat; but when they taíl:ed them, they found them
fweet and pleafant; being dried
in
che Sun, tney w.ill keep a long time: withia
the Pod rhey have
~
black Seed, like fmall Beans, but thofe áre not to be
eaten.
The Fruit which che
Spaniards
call Pears, becaufe they refeinble them in the
greennefs of their colour and íhape, the
Indians
call
Palta,
becaufe they
firíl:
grew
in
a Province of that name. They are two or three times bigger than .the largeft
fize of Pears in
Spain
;
they have a fine skin, or rine; which q:,vers them, under
whkh is che pulp; or meat, ofabout a finger thick, :withinwhich there
is
a
íhell, or
ftone; .they are of 'the fame formas che common Pears with us; there hath been
no experiment, whether they be Medicinal, or not; onely 'tis certain, they are
()leafant to che taíl:e, and wholfome for the fick ; and being eaten with Sugar,
they are a rare confeét.
They have alfo another fort of wild Fruic, which the
Indians
call
luicma;
and
the
Spaniards Lucma;
it
is
in no manner pleafant to the taíl:e, thorigh it be rather
(weet,
than íharp or bitter ; howfoever, it
is
a grofs kind of feeding, che Fruit
being about the bignefs of a common Orange ;
in
thé meac of it, it eontains a
kernel or feed of a Cheíl:nut-colour, which is
fo
bitter, that it cannot be eaten.
Moreover the
Jndians
had a fort of Plums which they called
Vf{un,
which are red~
a~d
f
weec s and being eáten, they turn the Urine foto a colour like bloud.
L'
tt
CH -A P.