The Ghost Apple (26 page)

But tho I have said that on this day I was Seek, and hardlie expect’d to see the Sun rise, but the next day I was well and now survey’d all that I saw about me, being well-pleased by Saint Reynard that greene isle, esp. by the
Coco Tree
which grew there in abundance. But hardlie had I collect’d my Wits and roused my companions /, tho two had died in the night, and were sweld like Drown’d Carion by the heat of the Climate / but we had Guests, viz. about 10 of the
Carwak Indians
, who live upon this the iland of
Saint Reynard
tho they be all but extinct on many of the other West India illands. They were quite naked with not even that strip of linnen to conceal what decency forbids us to expose. We held our posishun, as indeede we must, for wee were cutt off in our retreat by the See, and the waves, & by seekness, but wee gave evidence of our extreame weakness by the circumstance that a
Young Sailor
/, being the verry same Hapless Youth who on board shippe was punish’d for his part in the Mutiny by having all his teeth brok’n out / chanc’d to
dye
at that instant tumbling into the sand so that our whole number was now melted down to about 8, and most of us in a verry weakly condition indeed.

In as little time as a Girl might lose her Maidenhead we were surrounded & all things being hopeless I suddenly took hart & thanked Heaven in the expectation of now being dispatch’d to Eternity, my sufferings end’d at last, for which end I now in eagerness heartily composed my soul. Yet now I had a great Surprize, namely that the Carwak chief address’d me in my own tongue, and bid me well-come to
Guanahani
, which is how the Carwak call Saint Reynard. He had learnt English I know not how, and also spoak French which he had learnt off the
boucaniers
who infest the iland at a sertain season. Also as I must not omit to mension that one of our number /, a Sailor nam’d Brigg /, being Extremely Fat, & Corpulent, & no more able to support the fatigues and Excessive heat than snow the sunshine, dyed as we spoke with this Carwak chief, his Desolution hasten’d by that dreadfull Distemper the bloody flux, which was now come among us, and our hole number now reduc’d to I think about 7.

The Carwak are now grown verry few, because of the Inhuman Cruelties inflict’d upon them by the Spaniard, and in the worst of tymes are reduc’d to these theyr onlie amusements, namely,
Lamentation
and
Toaping
. Firstly, they drink
Perino
, which is a spirituous liquor made from the
Cassavie
/ the
Cassavie
as I have discribed is a Poysonus Shrub or Bush, but from the rut can be obtained a farinaceous substance which is also theyr chief food, and supplys the want of bread /, and secondly they have a grate love for
Kildevil
, this being a strong liquor which is made from the dregs and feculence of the sugar boylers and which they have from the
Boucaniers
, who bringe it from the other ilands to trade with them for the Ghost Apple, of which I will say much in time. Also they drink
Mobbie
and
Oui-cou
.

Despite the grate bounty of the iland, where, as it seem’d to me, Nothing is wanting that Nature can afford, many of the Carwak do truly die of affamation, if not of Ilnness, for they say that the iland is all over run by Annimals of all kinds, viz the Goat, Wild Hogge, and others, which trampel theyr gardens wherein they produse the
Cassavie
, and dye from eating of it, and further, these Annimals not having existed in the island before the European came, the Carwak do not believe them eatable, tho I believe
all
Quadrepedes are eatable, tho they be frivivorous or Man-eaters. Another thing I will say upon this subject, is that, tho the Carwak profess’d themselves hungrie, yet I did find myself well-nourish’d during my days with them, for often there was spred out before me such Frutes, namely the
prickled apple
, queene pine, &
Zapote
, that made one composition of Charm and Ambrosia.

In the Carwak village I now again relapsed, and was verry Seek, as before, but the Chief gave me to drink the ground dried pisle of the
Green Turtle
, and by this I was cured, at least for the day. The girls treat’d me kindly also and I was much taken with theyr charms. They nursed me & bathed me & never in all my time in the West India ilands was I so happy, for who would not undergo a little Pain to see the Pretty Girls sigh for their sufferings? I will also say, that, though they are call’d in Englande the
Troublesome Sex
, on the iland they are the most gracious & smiling Angeles, and trulie the
most
beautiful I had seen since leaving
Englande
, having been none too favourbly impress’d by the Pumpkin-colour’d whores I had seen upon other ilands in that tropick Sea. Let prudes and Coquets say what they will, but I b’lieve there are grate practical arguments to plead in favour of going Quite Naked, as they do, for to a Natural State is annex’d a superior
mobility
.

One thing I ought not to omit which is very remarkable viz that one morning I saw a Carwak man who keep’d as a pet to a Silver Chain one monkie, which was a most noble and dignified Creatur, like to a
Judge
in manners, except that he was as great a Toaper as the Carwak Indian himself, who is the greatest toaper of all the species of
Man
, drinking of the Kildevil as he dos from morning til night. I have never seen a monkie so drunken as this one upon Saint Reynard.

Sleeping in the
Carrbet
, which is the Carwak Hutt, & lieying about all Day, & finding my needs all provided for by the
Grayshus Indian
, I now descended in a
Vortex of Dissipation
, being nearlie as full of
Despaire
as the Carwak, for I knew not how to get off the iland, and lament’d my verry distress’d Situation. Yet all in all I was us’d well, and found each day many several ways I mite beguile the tyme, so that I was happie indeede, in spite of my despayr.

One evening tho the
Muskitos
be inconceivable numerous we went down to the See, which in the darkness flickers with a thousand lites, and there I fell to talking with a young sailor / Copplestone was his name, / and recalling with him Merrie Englande. Soon we were joyned by a marine Bamfield was his name and all together with the Carwak we empty’d a dozen Calabashes of the Kildevil & weep’d such teares as evidently weaken’d poor Copplestone beyond hope of recoverie, for he now had a verry stiff way of walking, as I notic’d /, like a Gouty Puritan /, & this I took to be an Evil Omen, for so it was, and the next moment he was lying upon his face in the sand, dead. Yet here I tolde myself, & determin’d, that I would Forcibly keep my spirits from sinking, by Laughing, and Singing, while all my companions were dying around me.

So I now joyned Bamfield, and some of the Carwak girlles, who stood upon the shoare looking out to See. Bamfield offer’d them the Calabash, thinking they must refuse, for onlie the Carwak men, by custome, are permitted to drink of spirituous liquors, & yet they took it from him and eatch drank, for the Carwak live in dailie expectation of the
World’s End
, and none of them now carres for what in older dayes was the custom among them. I will not omit another observashun I made upon Carwak girls viz. that many of them are marvelously possessed of that anterior extuberance which is so wanting in the Lacker-fac’d Creolans I had known elsewhere in the ilands.

Thus we disported ourselves all that night with these 3 girlles and I in particklar with one lovely Girl
Yarico
/, for such was her name, and this indeede was my first meeting with Yarico my true hart’s love / and verily it was as debauched a tyme as we had yet had in the iland, tho I must draw a Sable curtain over it.

Next morning Bamfield was gone without any conjecture could be formed what was come of him. Yet soon I found him in a grove of
Coco-trees
where he lay upon his face in the sand, & when I levered him to his backe I saw a
Horrible Thing
, namely, that his skin was stretched tight as a jacket to a Dutch-man, & he had been
absolutely castrated
by the Land Crabs, but of course this Misfortune would not trouble him now, for he was
dead
. There being nothing more I could do for him, I now went for my Breakfast of Maize or Indian Wheat, which Yarico cook’d for me over the smoak of a swinging fire, the grain being of a shining yellow or orange, as large as Marrow Peas, and also theyr was fishe of a lubricative texture. This ended our gratest Revel, and heare I put an end to the Chapter.

CHAPTER 8th

Life Among the Carwak ~ The Ghost Appel ~ Their Method of Extract’ng Sap ~ Desire to Make an Ende ~ Pennington or Codrington ~ Diseases Peculiar to the Climate ~ These Wonderfull People the Carwak

Now I lived as the Carwak did, for eatch morning I bayth’d in the See, after which I sat to drie upon a log, & breakfast’d upon
Cassavie
, Indian Wheat, or it may be crabbes, and some tymes I shared this fud with the
Macaws
, which are a kind of Tropickal Crow. Then a girl often Yarico my love paynted me all over with a dark paynt, after the fashun of the Carwak /, and I hope the reader will forgive me that I did not speake of this custome before now, for it is a verry conspicuous circumstance, and not onlie protects against Insects, but preserves the skinne against the Sunne / and when this was compleated my next care was to walk about the Iland.

Now I must tell of a
Singular Item
which I knew upon the Iland, & that was the subtile liquor or as they say
Medisin
which is made from the
Ghost Apple
Tree, call’d also the Carwak Apple Tree. This tree is very like to the
Mantionell
, yet is not half so poyson, tho if the sap fly into the eyes as it is said it makes a man to be stone blinde for a month. Its frutes are round and greene, in bignesse very much like the Crab Appel of the old Continent, and yet in theyr vertues not so, for the Carwak make a drinke from it which is most Miraclous. How it is made, is this, viz. that the fruit, leaves, & it may be some small twigs or flours, are pounded till soft, then pressd in a wooden vessel below which is a kind of bucket, into which it dreeps, and heare the
Sap
is collect’d. Then it is boyld for some tyme, this being essenshal to destroye the poison which is in the Sap, for I have eaten of the frute which I pluck’d fresh from the tree, and, first, it is by nature so Restringent that it drew my mouth up like a Hen’s fundament, and, two, that it verily swept my Guts clean, from which circumstances I conclude that boyling is essenshial.

The Carwak have a grate
Reverence
for this drink of the Ghost Appel Tree, which they make in tyme of
Seekness
, or else when some one among them has died, but at other tymes they touch it not, for it is a
Slow Pernicious Poyson
& may not be consum’d but once in a fortnight. However, the circumstances being that the Carwak, not long after we came to the iland, grew seek them selves with the dreadfull
Bloody Flux
, this was when I observ’d them preparing the Sap. I must not omit to menshun that the Ghost Appel is also used for many other purposes, viz to whit’n the teethe, and extirminate the
Okoba
, whitch is an insecte which infests the
Cassavie
.

The Chief, who alone of the Carwak spoake Englishe, tho others made them Selves understood wel enough, gave us the juice in a calabash dipper, and we dranke. Tho I had been sicklie all that day, yet this drinke frighted away the ague & now I was as if strucke by a
Thunder Bolt
, the drink being so verry powerfull. Trulie my hed swam with lite, from which I conclude that with-in the sap is that verry substance which, in the darkness, causes the See to glowe with lite, many of these trees being plant’d on the beech, and the sap falling in the water.

This drinke had produs’d such an effect in me, that, I thought it would be meet to drowne my Self in the See, yet at this tyme I had grate difficultie in moving forward, as I want’d to do. Yet the sap or juice, tho it gave me feet of clay, and so too a
Desire
to make an ende, had here a quite diffrent effect on others of our number, who were now dwindl’d, I think, to 5 men. There was one Sailor, Pennington I think was his name, or Codrington, that was in a Hectick Feavor, and drinkeing of the juice he would not leave off talking:

Now
Rain
/ , said he / and other phenomena of which the Atmosphere is theatre, does owe its geniture, as the
Ringworm
does, Sir, which being an afflictshun consisting in scarllet patches upon the Under Parts, & at the same tyme gloweing with a Scrufulous Halo, dryves a man nearlly mad with the iytching, yet as I said Rain, my Friend, and Ringworm, tho I sense it will be difficult to obtane belief of this, both phenomena, &c. &c.