Click to view full screen
- Title:
- West & East Indias
- Date Created:
- 2021-03-20
- Description:
- The pirate Captain Swan gave his companion William Dampier (likewise considered a pirate at the time) reason to write a few years later as he regained respectability, “I have been the longer on this subject, to give the Reader a particular Account of the use and profit of a Vegetable, which is possibly of all others the most generally serviceable to the conveniences, as well as the necessities of humane Life. Yet this Tree, that is of such great use, and esteemed so much in the East Indies, is scare regarded in the West Indies, for want of the knowledge of the benefit which it may produce.” He found it, the coconut, growing in Guam’s dry ground. The nuts were of medium size and the sweetest he had tasted! Magellan’s men in the Philippines during 1521 likewise praised the coconut’s multiple uses. A botanical might be present in different parts of the world, yet its popularity may differ. In one area the plant’s culinary uses could be more common, varied and distinctive or unique than in another. (To be continued on Wednesday.)
- Subjects:
- Charles Swan William Dampier Guam Coconut palm
- Exhibition:
- Dampier 1686
- Source:
- Detail from The West Indian Atlas by Thomas Jefferys, 1775 in The British Library.
- Type:
- Image;Still Image
- Format:
- image/jpeg
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- "West & East Indias", Philippine Food History, Felice P. Sta. Maria
- Reference Link:
- felicepstamaria.net/items/coll196.html