Volume 3

A collection of voyages and travels, some now first printed from original manuscripts, others now first published in English. To which is prefixed, an introductory discourse (supposed to be written by the celebrated Mr. Locke) intitled, the whole history of navigation from its original to this time / Illustrated with maps and cuts, curiously engraved.

  • Awnsham Churchill
Date:
1744-1746
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A collection of voyages and travels, some now first printed from original manuscripts, others now first published in English. To which is prefixed, an introductory discourse (supposed to be written by the celebrated Mr. Locke) intitled, the whole history of navigation from its original to this time / Illustrated with maps and cuts, curiously engraved. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    60/940 (page 52)
    OvALLE. Let US end with the tree called murtilla; 1646. though, if we believe the authors who treat Thel^- deferves to be ranked in the firft tilla, place. Ant.onio de Herrera fpeaks fo well of this tree in the ninth Decade ot his hifto- ry of the Indies, book IX. and folio 247. that I will relate only what he lays, and that in his own words, which are as fol- Ant. de low: [fllere is a kind of fruit of trees that Herrera, grow on the mountains, which grozu from thirty feven degrees upwards, and in thofe countries'tis a common food', the natives call it Uni, and the Caftillans, Murtilla. It is red, and like a fmall grape, fomething bigger than a fwolen pea ; its fhape and colour is like the pomegranate grains, its fmell and tafte agreeable, and not unlike a grape. It has lit¬ tle grains like a fig, which are almofi imper¬ ceptible to the tongue its temperature is hot and dry: of this they make a wine, which exceeds all other liquors, even that of the Ealt- India coco, or palm-tree: neither cyder, mead, nor. beer, nor all the other drinks de- feribed by Andres de Laquuna, are to be preferred to it. Hhis wine is clear, fine, warm, and very agreeable to the tafte, as well as profitable to the Jiomach. It confumes all vapours in the head, its heat warming the ears without going any further: it comforts and cherifioes the Jiomach, increafes appetite, and never takes it away. It never offends the head, or makes it heasuy, or burthens the jiomach •, and it bears as much zvater again as wine will do. Ahofe who have tafled it, commend its colour and favour, as much as that of grapes. Its colour is golden, and migh¬ ty bright', and it is as fweet and good as the wine of Ciudad Real. ‘There is little of it made, and fo it lofts but eight months •, for zvhich reafon 'tis not known how many years it would keep. It takes up as _ much labour and care as wine, in the making: if it be left to itfelf, and without fire, \tis forty days be¬ fore it ferments. It cajis down a lee, and works out the frothy part at the top of the vef- fel; and for that reafon care is taken to feum it as it boils, and then ’tis drawn off into an¬ other veffel. When 'tis turned to vinegar^ its vinegar has a better tafte and colour than wine vinegar -, for it retains the colour of the fruit, which is very odoriferous and fweet.'] Thus far this author: from whence it may be inferred, that this land had good wine of Its own; and it had alfo very good oil made of a feed called Madi; it is extreme¬ ly well relifhed; but now ’tis not much in ufe, bccaufe that of olives is fo common. It is not poflible to deferibe particularly, one by one, all the various forts of trees that are bred in the woods and mountains of Chile; and it would take up a very large treatife, which is not my purpofe; yet when we come to treat of the freights of Magellan, we Vv'ill fpeak of the cinnamon- tree, which is to be found there, and of the barks of lome other trees of that foil, which have the fame tafle as the Eaft-India pepper. All that I can fay at prefent, is, that there are few of thefe trees that lofe their leaves in winter, particularly thofe which grow wild in the woods, which are generally aro- matick, and of a very fragrant fmell; and of them, all the finefl of this kind are bred in the territory of the Conception. I would not have believed it, if I had not feen it; for in travellings I met with lovely groves, which bordered the highways, and caft put fo rich ^ fmell from their leaves,, that the flowe,rs,pf jafmin did not appear fweeter. There are alfo abundance of myrtles and laurels, which grow in great groves natu- _ rally; and yet among them there are trees wKofe leaves exceed them infinitely in the perfume of their fmell; infomuch that paf- Ting one’s hand over them, one would think one had amber gloyes on. i. ' - ' ■ ■ : ■ ). ' ft ; ? • -.di B O 'O K