Page 203
An.1685
Avogato Pear. Mammee Sappota-tree.
gathered 2 or 3 days, it grows soft and juicy, and then the juice is clear as Spring-water, and very sweet: In the midst of the Fruit are 2 or 3 black stones or feeds, about the bigness of the Pumkin seed. This is an excellent Fruit.
The Avogato Pear-tree is as big as most Pear-trees, and is commonly pretty high; the skin or bark black and pretty smooth; the leaves large, of an oval shape, and the Fruit as big as a large Lemon. It is of a green colour, till it is ripe, and then it is a little yellowish. They are seldom fit to eat till they have been gathered 2 or 3 days; then they become soft, and the skin or rind will peel off. The substance in the inside is green, or a little yel- lowish, and as soft as Butter. Within the substance there is a stone as big as a Horse-plumb. This Fruit hath no taste of its self, and therefore 'tis usu- ally mixt with Sugar and Lime-juice, and beaten together in a Plate, and this is an excellent dish. The ordinary way is to eat it with a little Salt and a rosted Plantain, and thus a man that's hungry, may make a good meal of it. It is very wholsome eaten any way. It is reported that this Fruit provokes to lust, and therefore is said to be much esteemed by the Spaniards; and I do believe they are much esteemed by them, for I have met with plenty of them in many places in the North Seas, where the Spaniards are settled, as in the Bay of Campechy, on the Coast of Cartagena, and the Coast of Carraccos; and there are some in Jamaica, which were planted by the Spaniards, when they possessed that Island.
The Mammee-Sappota Tree is different from the Mammee described at the Isle of Tabago in this Chapter. It is not so big or so tall, neither is the Fruit so big or so round. The rind of the Fruit is thin and brittle; the inside is a deep red, and it has a rough flat long stone. This is accounted the prin- cipal