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Cazabi seems to have been what is now called casada in the British West Indies, or prepared manioc root; and axi in some other parts of this voyage is mentioned as the spice of the West Indies; probably either pimento or capsicum, and used as a condiment to relish the insipidity of the casada.
Other varieties are set aside for the nobles, and certain others for the common people. When the juice has all run off, the pulp is spread out and cooked on slabs of earthenware made for the purpose, just as our people do cheese. This sort of bread is the most used and is called cazabi.
The best bread found in the island is that made from the yucca, and is called cazabi. It is most digestible, and the yucca is cultivated and harvested in the greatest abundance and with great facility. Whatever free time afterwards remains, is employed in seeking gold.
Yuca in the language of the country is the name of the plant used in the islands for bread, there named cazabi, and tale in the same language signifies the heap of earth on which it is planted.
Nevertheless, pressed by famine, they knocked at the door of a baker and asked him for cazabi, that is to say, for bread. The baker spit with such force upon the first who entered, that an enormous tumour was formed, of which he almost died.
Afterwards, when the admiral was on shore, the cacique invited him to eat axis and cazabi, which formed the principal diet of the Indians . He likewise presented him with some masks or vizors, having their eyes, noses, and ears, made of gold, and many pretty ornaments of that metal which the Indians wore about their necks.
These birds are often domesticated, and are then fed on cazabi, or casada, which is the Indian bread, and which is given them in pans of salt water. They saw cranes likewise, resembling those in Spain; also crows, and many kinds of singing-birds, and abundance of tortoises or turtles as large as bucklers.
In this state of distress and danger, the admiral arrived at Cape Santa Cruz on the 18th of July, where he was entertained in a very friendly manner by the Indians, who brought him abundance of their bread made from grated roots, which they name cazabi . They brought likewise a great deal of fish, and abundance of fruit, and other articles of their ordinary provisions, which proved a great relief to the exhausted mariners.
Only thirty companions remained with the Adelantado, all of whom were severely tried by these three months of fighting, during which they had eaten nothing but cazabi, that is to say, bread made of roots, and even they were not always ripe.
It finally came to be understood that the juice was poisonous; extracting this juice, they made from the cooked flour cazabi, a bread better suited to human stomachs than wheat bread, because it is more easily digested. The same was the case with other food stuffs and maize, which they chose amongst the natural products.
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