Note 164-2 — JOURNAL OF THE FIRST VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS (continued 2)

Rather, “He went up a mountain and then he found it all level and planted with many things of the country and gourds so that it was glorious to see it.” De Candolle believes the calabash or gourd to have been introduced into America from Africa. Cf. his Origin of Cultivated Plants, pp. 245 ff. Oviedo, however, in his Historia General y Natural de Indias, lib. VIII., cap. VIII., says that the calabaças of the Indies were the same as those in Spain and were cultivated not to eat but to use the shells as vessels.