during the reaping of his Corn finds all the rest with Victuals The womens work is to gather up the Corn after the Reapers and carry it all together They use not Threshing but tread out their Corn with Cattel which is a far quicker and easier way They may tread out in a day forty or fifty Bushels at least with the help of half a dozen Cattel When they are to tread their Corn they choose a convenient adjoyning place Here they lay out a round piece Ground some twenty or five and twenty foot over From which they cut away the upper Turf Then certain Ceremonies are used First they adorn this place with ashes made into flowers and branches and round circles Then they take divers strange shells and pieces of Iron and some sorts oâ— Wood and a bunch of betel Nuts which are reserved for such purposes and lay all these in the very middle of the Pit and a large stone upon them Then the women whose proper work it is bring each their burthen of reaped Corn upon their heads and go round in the Pit three times and then fling it down And after this without any more ado bring in the rest of the Corn as fast as they can For this Labour and that of weeding the Women have a Fee due to them which they call Warapol that is as much Corn as shall cover the Stone and the other Conjuration-Instruments at the bottom of the Pit They will frequently carry away their new reaped Corn into the Pit and tread it out presently as soon as they have cut it down to secure it from the Rains which in some Parts are very great and often and Barns they have none big enough But in other places not so much given to Rains they will sometimes set it up in a Cock and let it stand some months They unshale their Rice from its outward husk by beating it in a Mortar or on the Ground more often but some of these sorts of Rice must first be boyled in the husk otherwise in beating it will break to powder The which Rice as it is accounted so I by experience have found to be the wholsomest This they beat again the second time to take off a Bran from it and after that it becomes white And thus much concerning Rice-Corn Besides this tho far inferior to it there are divers other sorts of Corn which serve the People for food in the absence of Rice which will scarcely hold out with many of them above half the Year There is Coracan which is a small seed like Mustard-seed This they grind to meal or beat in a Mortar and so make Cakes of it baking it upon the Coals in a potsheard or dress it otherwise If they which are not used to it eat it it will gripe their Bellies When they are minded to grind it they have for their Mill two round stones which they turn with their hands by the help of a stick There are several sorts of this Corn. Some will ripen in three months and some require four If the Ground be good it yields a great encrease and grows both on the Hills and in the Plains There is another Corn called Tanna It is much eaten in the Northern Parts in Conde Vda but little sown It is as small as the former but yieldeth a â—ar greater encrease From one grain may spring up two three four or five stalks according as the ground is on each stalk one ear that contains thousands of grains I think it gives the greatest encrease of any one seed in the World Each Husbandman sowes not above a Pottle at a Seeds-time It growes up two foot or two foot and an half from the ground The way of gathering it when ripe is that the Women whose office it is go and crop off the ears with their hands and bring them home in baskets They onely take off the ears of Coracan also but they being tough are cut off with knives This Tanna must be parched in a Pan and then is beaten in a Mortar to unhusk it It will boyl like Rice but swell far more the tast not bad but very dry and accounted wholsome the fashion flaâ—tish the colour yellow and very lovely to the Eye It ripens in four months some sorts of it in three There are also divers other sorts which grow on dry Land as the former and ripen with the Rain As Moung a Corn somewhat like Vetches growing in a Cod. Omb a small seed boyled and eaten as Rice It has an operation pretty strange which is that when it is new it will make them that eat it like drunk sick and spue and this only when it is sown in some Grounds for in all it will not have this effect and being old none will have it Minere a small seed Boumas we call them Garavances Tolla a seed used to make Oyl with which they anoint themselves and sometimes they will parch it and eat it with Iaggory a kind of brown Sugar And thus much of their Corn. CHAP. IV. Of their Fruits and Trees OF Fruits here are great plenty and variety and far more might be if they did esteem or nourish them Pleasant Fruits to eat ripe they care not at all to do They look only after those that may fill the Belly and satisfie their hunger when their Corn is spent or to make it go the further These onely they plant the other Fruits of Pleasure plant themselves the seeds of the ripe Fruits shedding and falling on the ground naturally spring up again They have all Fruits that grow in India Most sorts of these delicious Fruits they gather before they be ripe and boyl them to make Carrees to use the Portuguez word that is somewhat to eat with and relish their Rice Buâ— wheresoever there is any Fruit better than ordinary the Ponudecarso or Officers of the Countrey will tie a string about the Tree in the Kings Name with three knots on the end thereof and then no man not the Owner himself dares presume under pain of some great punishment if not death to touch them And when they are ripe they are wrapped in white cloth and carried to him who is Governour of that Countrey wherein they grow and if they be without any defect or blemish then being wrapped up again in white cloth he presents them to the King But the owner in whose Ground they grow is paid nothing at all for them it is well if he be not compelled to carry them himself into the bargain unto the King be it never so far These are Reasons why the People regard not to plant more than just to keep them alive But to specifie some of the chief of the Fruits in request among them I begin with their Betel-Nuts the Trees that bear them grow only on the South and West sides of this Island They do not grow wild they are only in their Towns and
their Rice or for want of it and of these there is no want to those that will take pains but to set them and cheap enough to those that will buy There are two sorts of these Alloes some require Trees or Sticks to run up on others require neither Of the former sort some will run up to the tops of very large Trees and spread out very full of branches and bear great bunches of blossoms but no use made of them The Leaves dy every year but the Roots grow still which some of them will do to a prodigious bigness within a Year or two's time becoming as big as a mans wast The fashion of them somewhat roundish rugged and uneven and in divers odd shapes like a log of cleft wood they have a very good savoury mellow tast Of those that do not run up on Trees there are likewise sundry sorts they bear a long stalk and a broad leaf the fashion of these Roots are somewhat roundish some grow out like a mans fingers which they call Angul-alloes as much as to say Finger-Roots some are of a white colour some of a red Those that grow in the Woods run deeper into the Earth they run up Trees also Some bear blossoms somewhat like Hopps and they may be as big as a mans Arm. For Herbs to boyl and eat with Butter they have excellent good ones and several sorts some of them are six months growing to maturity the stalk as high as a man can reach and being boyled almost as good as Asparagus There are of this sort some having leaves and stalks as red as blood some green some the leaves green and the stalk very white They have several other sorts of Fruits which they dress and eat with their Rice and tast very savoury called Carowela Wattacul Morongo Cacorehouns c. the which I cannot compare to any things that grow here in England They have of our English Herbs and Plants Colworts Carrots Radishes Fennel Balsam Spearmint Mustard These excepting the two last are not the natural product of the Land but they are transplanted hither By which I perceive all other European Plants would grow there They have also Fern Indian Corn. Several sorts of Beans as good as these in England right Cucumbers Calabasses and several sorts of Pumkins c. The Dutch on that Island in their Gardens have Lettice Rosemary Sage and all other Herbs and Sallettings that we have in these Countreys Nor are they worse supplyed with Medicinal Herbs The Woods are their Apothecaries Shops where with Herbs Leaves and the Rinds of Trees they make all their Physic and Plaisters with which sometimes they will do notable Cures I will not here enter into a larger discourse of the Medicinal Vertues of their Plants c. of which there are hundreds onely as a Specimen thereof and likewise of their Skill to use them I will relate a Passage or two A Neighbour of mine a Chingulay would undertake to cure a broken Leg or Arm by application of some Herbs that grow in the Woods and that with that speed that the broken Bone after it was set should knit by the time one might boyl a pot of Rice and three carrees that is about an hour and an half or two hours and I knew a man who told me he was thus cured They will cure an Imposthume in the Throat with the Rind of a Tree called Amaranga whereof I my self had the experience by chawing it for a day or two after it is prepared and swallowing the spittle I was well in a day and a Night tho before I was exceedingly ill and could not swallow my Victuals Of Flowers they have great varieties growing wild for they plant them not There are Roses red and white scented like ours several sorts of sweet smelling Flowers which the young Men and Women gather and tie in their hairs to perfume them they tie up their hair in a bunch behind and enclose the Flowers therein There is one Flower deserves to be mentioned for the rarity and use of it they call it a Sindric-mal there are of them some of a Murry colour and some white It s Nature is to open about four a clock in the Evening and so continueth open all Night until the morning when it closeth up it self till four a clock again Some will transplant them out of the Woods into their Gardens to serve them instead of a Clock when it is cloudy that they cannot see the Sun There is another white Flower like our Iasmine well scented they call them Picha-mauls which the King hath a parcel of brought to him every morning wrapt in a white cloth hanging upon a staff and carried by people whose peculiar office this is All people that meet these Flowers out of respect to the King for whose use they are must turn out of the Way and so they must for all other things that go to the King being wrapt up in white cloth These Officers hold Land of the King for this service their Office is also to plant these Flowers which they usually do near the Rivers where they most delight to grow Nay they have power to plant them in any mans Ground and enclose that ground when they have done it for the sole use of their Flowers to grow in which Inclosures they will keep up for several years until the Ground becomes so worn that the Flowers will thrive there no longer and then the Owners resume their own Lands again Hop-Mauls are Flowers growing upon great Trees which bear nothing else they are rarely sweet scented this is the chief Flower the young people use and is of greatest value among them CHAP VI. Of their Beasts Tame and Wild. Insects HAving spoken concerning the Trees and Plants of this Island We will now go on to speak of the Living Creatures on it viz. Their Beasts Insects Birds Fish Serpents c. useful or noxious And we begin first with their Beasts They have Cowes Buffaloes Hogs Goats Deer Hares Dogs Iacols Apes Tygers Bears Elephants and other Wild Beasts Lions Wolves Horses Asses Sheep they have none Deer are in great abundance in the Woods and of several sorts from the largeness of a Cow or Buffalo to the smalness of a Hare For here is a Creature in this Land no bigger but in every part rightly resembleth a Deer It is called Meminna of colour gray with white spots and good meat Here are also wild Buffalo's also a sort of Beast they call Gauvera so much resembling a Bull that I think it one of that kind His back sâ—ands up with a sharp ridg all his four feet white up half his Legs I never saw but one which was kept among the Kings Creatures Here was a Black Tygre catched and brought to the King and afterwards a Deer milk white both which he very much esteemed there being no more either before or since ever heard of in
and so draw the Water by little and little as they have occasion for the watâ—ring their Corn. These Ponds in dry weather dry up quite If they should dig these Ponds deep it would not be so convenient for them It would indeed contain the Water well but would not so well nor in such Plenty empty out it self into their Grounds In these Ponds are Aligators which when the Water is dried up depart into the Woods and down to the Rivers and in the time of Rains come up again into the Ponds They are but small nor do use to catch People nevertheless they stand in some fear of them The Corn they sow in these Parts is of that sort that is soonest ripe fearing lest their Waters should fail As the Water dries out of these Ponds they make use of them for Fields treading the Mud with Buffeloes and then sowing Rice thereon and frequently casting up Water with Scoops on it I have hitherto spoken of those Rices that require to grow in Water There is yet another sort of Rice which will ripen tho' it stand not alway in Water and this sort of Corn serves for those places where they cannot bring their Waters to overflow this will grow with the Rains that fall but is not esteemed equal with the others and differs both in scent and taste from that which groweth in the watery Fields The ordinary Season of seed time is in the Months of Iuly and August and their Harvest in or about February but for Land that is well watered they regard no Season the Season is all the year long When they Till their Grounds or Reap their Corn they do it by whole Towns generally all helping each other for Attoms as they call it that is that they may help them as much or as many days again in their Fields which accordingly they will do They Plough only with a crooked piece of Wood something like an Elbow which roots up the Ground as uneven as if it were done by Hogs and then they overflow it with water But if any be so curious as to know more particularly how they order and prepare their Lands and sow their Corn take this account of it But before we go to work it will be convenient first to describe the Tools To begin therefore with their Plough I said before it was a crooked piece of Wood it is but little bigger than a Man's Arm one end whereof is to hold by and the other to root up the Ground In the hollow of this Plough is a piece of Wood fastned some three or four Inches thick equal with the bredth of the Plough and at the end of the Plough is fixt an Iron Plate to keep the VVood from wearing There is a Beam let in to that part of it that the Ploughman holds in his hand to which they make their Buffaloes fast to drag it These Ploughs are proper for this Countrey because they are lighter and so may be the more easie for turning the Fields being short so that they could not turn with longer and if heavier they would sink and be unruly in the mud These Ploughs bury not the grass as ours do and there is no need they should For their endeavour is only to root up the Ground and so they overflow it with VVater and this rots the Grass They Plough twice before they sow But before they begin the first time they let in VVater upon their Land to make it more fost and pliable for the Plough After it is once Ploughed they make up their Banks For if otherwise they should let it alone till after the second Ploughing it would be mere Mud and not hard enough to use for Banking Now these Banks are greatly necessary not only for Paths for the People to go upon through the Fields who otherwise must go in the Mud it may be knee deep but chiefly to keep in and contain their VVater which by the help of these Banks they overflow their Grounds with These Banks they make as smooth with the backside of their Houghs as a Bricklayer can smooth a VVall with his Trowel For in this they are very neat These Banks are usually not above a Foot over After the Land is thus Ploughed and the Banks finished it is laid under water again for some time till they go to Ploughing the second time Now it is exceeding muddy so that the trampling of the Cattel that draws the Plough does as much good as the Plough for the more muddy the better Sometimes they use no Plough this second time but only drive their Cattel over to make the Ground the muddier Their Lands being thus ordered they still keep them overflowed with Water that the Weeds and Grass may rot Then they take their Corn and lay it a soak in Water a whole night and the next day take it out and lay it in a heap and cover it with green leaves and so let it lye some five or six days to make it grow Then they take and wet it again and lay it in a heap covered over with leaves as before and so it grows and shoots out with Blades and Roots In the mean time while this is thus a growing they prepare their Ground for sowing which is thus They have a Board about four foot long which they drag over their Land by a yoke of Buffaloes not flat ways but upon the edge of it The use of which is that it jumbles the Earth and Weeds together and also levels and makes the Grounds smooth and even that so the Water for the ground is all this while under water may stand equal in all places And wheresoever there is any little hummock standing out of the Water which they may easily see by their eye with the help of this Board they break and lay even And so it stands overflown while their Seed is growing and become fit to sow which usually is eight days after they lay it in soak When the Seed is ready to sow they drain out all the Water and with little Boards of about a foot and a half long fastned upon long Poles they trim the Land over again laying it very smooth making small Furrows all along that in case Rain or other Waters should come in it might drain away for more Water now would endanger rotting the Corn. And then they sow their Corn which they do with very exact evenness strewing it with their hands just as we strew Salt upon Meat The Manner of their Ploughing The Manner of Smoothing their Feilds The Manner of treading out their Rice At reaping they are excellent good just after the English manner The whole Town as I said before as they joyn together in Tilling so in their Harvest also For all fall in together in reaping one man's Field and so to the next until every mans Corn be down And the Custome is that every man
is full time now that we relate what course of life the People take and what means they use for a livelihood This has been in part already related As for Commerce and Merchandize with Foreign Nations there is little or nothing of that now exercised Indeed in the times when the Portugueze were on this Island and Peace between them and the King he permitted his People to go and Trade with them The which he would never permit them to do with the Hollander tho they have much sought â—or it They have a small Traffic among themselves occasioned from the Nature of the Island For that which one part of the Countrey aâ—â—ords will not grow in the other But in one part or other of this Land they have enough to sustain themselves I think without the help of Commodities brought from any other Countrey exchanging one Commodity for another and carrying what they have to other parts to supply themselves with what they want But Husbandry is the great Employment of the Countrey which is spoken of at large before In this the best men labour Nor is it held any disgrace for Men of the greatest Quality to do any work either at home or in the Field if it be for themselves but to work for hire with them is reckoned for a great shame and very few are here to be â—ound that will work so But he that goes under the Notion of a Gentleman may dispence with all works except carrying that he must get a man to do when there is occasion For carrying is accounted the most Slave-like work of all Under their Husbandry it may not be amiss to relate how they geld their Cattel They let them be two or three years old before they go about this work then casting them and tying their Legs together they bruise their Cods with two sticks tied together at one end nipping them with the other and beating them with Mallets all to pieces Then they rub over their Cods with fresh Butter and Soot and so turn them loose but not suffer them to lye down all that day By this way they are secured from breeding Maggots And I never knew any die upon this Whensoever they have occasion to use Glew they make it aâ—ter this fashion They take the Curd of milk and strain the water from it through a cloth Then tying it up in a cloth like a Pudding they put it into boyling water and let it boyl a good while Which done it will be hard like Cheese-curd then mixing it with Lime use it If it be not for present use they will roul up these Curds into a Ball which becomes hard and as they have occasion will scrape some of it off with a Knife and so temper it with Lime This Lime with them is as soft as Butter Their Manufactures are few some Callicoes not so fine as good strong Cloth for their own use all manner of Iron Tools for Smiths and Carpenters and Husbandmen all sorts of earthen ware to boil stew fry and fetch water in Goldsmith's work Painter's work carved work making Steel and good Guns and the like But their Art in ordering the Iron-Stone and making Iron may deserve to be a little insisted on For the Countrey affords plenty of Iron which they make of Stones that are in several places of the Land they lay not very deep in the ground it may be about four or five or six â—oot deep First They take these Stones and lay them in an heap and burn them with wood which makes them more soft and fitter for the Furnace When they have so done they have a kind of Furnace made with a white sort of Clay wherein they put a quantity of Charcoal and then these Stones on them and on the top more Charcoal There is a back to the Furnace like as there is to a Smith's Forge behind which the man stands that blows the use of which back is to keep the heat of the fire from him Behind the Furnace they have two logs of Wood placed fast in the ground hollow at the top like two pots Upon the mouths of these two pieces of hollow wood they tie a piece of a Deers Skin on each pot a piece with a small hole as big as a man's finger in each skin In the middle of each skin a little beside the holes are two strings tied â—ast to as many sticks stuck in the ground like a Spring bending like a bow This pulls the skin upwards The man that blows stand with his feet one on each pot covering each hole with the soles of his feet And as he treads on one pot and presseth the skin down he takes his foot off the other which presently by the help of the Spring riseth and the doing so alternately conveys a great quantity of wind thro the Pipes into the Furnace For there are also two Pipes made of hollow reed let in to the sides of the Pots that are to conduct the wind like the nose of a Bellows into the Furnace For the ease of the Blower there is a strap that is fastned to two posts and comes round behind him on which he leans his back and he has a slick laid cross-ways before him on which he lays both his hands and so he blows with greater ease As the Stones are thus burning the dross that is in them melts and runs out at the bottom where there is a slanting hole made for the purpose so big as the lump of Iron may pass thro out of this hole I say runs out the dross like streams of fire and the Iron remains behind Which when it is purified as they think enough so that there comes no more dross away they drive this lump of Iron thro the same sloping hole Then they give it a chop with an Ax half thro and so sling it into the water They so chop it that it may be seen that it is good Iron for the Satisfaction of those that are minded to buy For a â—arewel of their labours let it not be unacceptable to relate here a piece of their Housewifry and tell you how they make Butter First They boil the Milk then they turn it into a Curd the next morning they skim off the Cream and drill it in an earthen Vessel with a stick having a cross at the bottom of it somewhat like a Chocolate stick When the Butter is come they put it in a pan and fry it to get all the water dry out of it and so put it into an earthen pot for use There are no Markets on the Island Some few Shops they have in the Cities which sell Cloth Rice Salt Tobacco Limes Druggs Fruits Swords Steel Brass Copper c. As to the Prices of Commodities they are sold after this rate Rice in the City where it is dearest is aâ—ter six quarts for fourpence half-peny English or a small Tango or half a Tango six
secure Guard at the Watches that no suspitious persons might pass This he did to prevent the Relations of these imprisoned persons from making an Escape who thro fear of the King might attempt it This always is the Kings custome to do But it put us into an exceeding fear lest it might beget an admiration in these Soldiers to see White men so low down which indeed is not customary nor allowed of and so they might send us up again Which doubtless they would have done had it not been of God by this means and after this manner to deliver us Especially considering that the King's Command came just at that time and so expresly to keep a secure Guard at the Watches and that in that very Way that alwayes we purposed to go in so that it seemed scarcely possible for us to pass afterwards tho we should get off fairly at present with the Soldiers Which we did For they having delivered their Message departed shewing themselves very kind and civil unto us And we seemed to lament for our hard fortune that we were not ready to go upwards with them in their good company for we were Neighbours dwelling in one and the same County However we bid them carry our commendations to our Countrymen the English with whom they were acquainted at the City and so bad them farewel And glad we were when they were gone from us And the next day in the morning we resolved God willing to set forward But we thought not fit to tell our Host the Governor of it till the very instant of our departing that he might not have any time to deliberate concerning us That Night he being disposed to be merry sent for people whose trade it is to dance and shew tricks to come to his house to entertain him with their Sports The beholding them spent most part of the Night Which we merrily called our Old Host's Civility to us at our last parting as it proved indeed tho he honest man then little dreamed of any such thing The morning being come we first took care to fill our Bellies then we packed up those things which were necessary for our Iourney to carry with us and the rest of our Goods Cotton Yarn and Cloth and other things that we would not incumber our selves withall we bound up in a Bundle intending to leave them behind us This being done I went to the Governor and carried him four or five charges of Gunpowder a thing somewhat scarce with them intreating him rather than we should be disappointed of Flesh to make use of that and shoot some Deer which he was very willing to accept of and to us it could be no wayes profitable not having a Gun While we we told him would make a step to Anarodgburro to see what Flesh we could procure there In the mean time according as we had before layd the business came Stephen with the Bundle of Goods desiring to leave them in his house till we came back Which he was very ready to grant us leave to do And seeing us leave such a parcel of Goods tho God knowes but of little account in themselves yet of considerable value in that Land he could not suppose otherwise but that we were intended to return again Thus we took our leaves and immediately departed not giving him time to consider with himself or consult with others about us And he like a good natured man bid us heartily farewel Altho we knew not the way to this Town having never been there in all our lives and durst not ask lest it might breed suspition yet we went on confidently thro a desolate Wood and happened to go very right and came out directly at the place But in our way before we arrived hither we came up with a small River which ran thro the Woods called by the Chingulayes Malwat oyah the which we viewed well and judged it might be a probable guide to carry us down to the Sea if a better did not present Howbeit we thought good to try first the way we were taking and to go onward towards Anarodgburro that being the shortest and easiest way to get to the Coast and this River being as under our Lee ready to serve and assist us if other means failed To Anarodgburro therefore we came called also Neur Waug Which is not so much a particular single Town as a Territory It is a vast great Plain the like I never saw in all that Island in the midst whereof is a Lake which may be a mile over not natural but made by art as other Ponds in the Country to serve them to water their Corn Grounds This Plain is encompassed round with Woods and small Towns among them on every side inhabited by Malabars a distinct People from the Chingulayes But these Towns we could not see till we came in among them Being come out thro the Woods into this Plain we stood looking and staring round about us but knew not where nor which way to go At length we heard a Cock crow which was a sure sign to us that there was a Town hard by into which we were resolved to enter For standing thus amazed was the ready way to be taken up for suspitious persons especially because White men never come down so low Being entred into this Town we sate our selves under a Tree and proclaimed our Wares for we feared to rush into their Yards as we used to do in other places lest we should scare them The People stood amazed as soon as they saw us being originally Malabars tho Subjects of Cande Nor could they understand the Chingulay Language in which we spake to them And we stood looking one upon another until there came one that could speak the Chingulay Tongue Who asked us from whence we came We told him From Cande Vda But they believed us not supposing that we came up from the Dutch from Manaar So they brought us before their Governor He not speaking Chingulais spake to us by an Interpreter And to know the truth whether we came from the place we pretended he inquired about News at Court demanded Who were Governors of such and such Countreys and what was become of some certain Noble-men whom the King had lately cut off and also What the common people were employed about at Court for it is seldom that they are idle To all which we gave satisfactory answers Then he enquired of us Who gave us leave to come down so low We told him That priviledg was given to us by the King himself full Fifteen Years since at his Palace at Nellemby when he caused it to be declared unto us that we were no longer prisoners and which indeed was our own addition that we were free to enjoy the benefit of Trade in all his Dominions To prove and confirm the truth of which we alledged the distance of the Way that we were now come from home being near an hundred