relished by our natives, who prepare it by roasting and immersion in a
running stream, to free it from its poisonous qualities. The jibbong is
another tasteless fruit, as well as the _five-corners_, much relished by
children. The wild potato strongly resembles the species now in use in
Europe, but the stem and leaf are essentially different. It grows on the
loose flooded alluvial margins of the rivers, and at one period of the
year composes the chief sustenance of the natives, having the watery
look and taste of the yam. Of foreign fruits now climatized we possess a
great variety. Here are oranges, lemons, citrons, nectarines, apricots,
peaches, plums, cherries, figs, loquats, grenadillos, quinces, pears,
apples, mulberries, pomegranates, grapes, olives, raspberries,
strawberries, bananas, guavas, pineapples, and English and Cape
gooseberries and currants. Of shell-fruits we have the almond, walnut,
chestnut, and filbert; and of other garden fruits, strawberries, melons,
peppers, &c.

Melons and pumpkins will absolutely overrun you, if you do not give them
most bounteous scope, and you need want neither water nor musk-melons
for six or eight months yearly on an average, if you duly time the
sowings. Nothing can exceed their rich juiciness and flavour, and the
rapidity of their growth is almost miraculous, when a few showers of
rain temper the hot days. The pumpkin makes an excellent substitute for
the apple in a pie, when soured and sweetened to a proper temper by
lemons and sugar. The black children absolutely dance and scream when
they see one, pumpkin and sugar being their delight. To the half of a
shrivelled pumpkin hanging at the door of my tent on my first essay in
settling, one of our sooty satyrs could do nothing for some minutes but
fidget and skip; and with his eyes sparkling, and countenance beaming
with ecstacy, exclaim, "Dam my eye, _pambucan_; dam my eye, _pambucan_!"
such being the nearest point they can attain to the right pronunciation