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Pigafetta says that the natives, in order to obtain palm-wine, cut the top of the tree through to the pith, and then catch the sap as it oozes out of the incision. According to Regnaud, Natural History of the Coco-tree, the negroes of Saint Thomas pursue a similar method in the present day, a method that considerably injures the trees and produces a much smaller quantity of liquor.
But, without noticing all these beautiful specimens of Papuan flora, the Canadian abandoned the agreeable for the useful. He discovered a coco-tree, beat down some of the fruit, broke them, and we drunk the milk and ate the nut with a satisfaction that protested against the ordinary food on the Nautilus. "Excellent!" said Ned Land. "Exquisite!" replied Conseil.
In this country pepper grows, being trained up a tree or pole. It is like our ivy berry, but something longer, like an ear of wheat. At first the bunches are green, but as they become ripe they are cut off and dried. The leaf is much smaller and thinner than that of ivy. The houses of the inhabitants are very small, and are covered with the leaves of the coco-tree.
They found likewise Corall on this land, and many trees which we call Palmitos, whereout droppeth wine as out of the Coco-tree: which wine being kept hath his operation as our new prest wine, but after some time it commeth vnto the ful vertue and perfection. The said Palmitos they esteemed to bee a kinde of wilde date-trees.
Thomson mentions that coco-trees growing by the sea-side are wont to incline their stems over the ocean, the waters of which bear their fruit to desert shores and islands, and render them habitable for mankind. Thus the coco-tree would seem to play an essential part in the ocean vagabondage of Malaysia and Polynesia. Sugar, brandy, and vinegar are manufactured from their sap.
Their houses are very little, made of the branches of the palmer or coco-tree, and couered with the leaues of the same tree. The eleuenth of March we sailed from Ceylon, and so doubled the cape of Comori. Not far from thence, betweene Ceylon and the maine land of Negapatan, they fish for pearles.
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