Note 218-2 — JOURNAL OF THE FIRST VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS (continued 3)

Las Casas has “on the coast of Guinea where manequeta is gathered” (I. 430). Amomum Melequeta, an herbaceous, reedlike plant, three to five feet high, is found along the coast of Africa, from Sierra Leone to the Congo. Its seeds were called “Grains of Paradise,” or maniguetta, and the coast alluded to by Columbus, between Liberia and Cape Palmas, was hence called the Grain Coast. The grains were used as a condiment, like pepper, and in making the spiced wine called hippocras. (Markham.)