Note 18 — Chapter II · TRINIDAD AND THE ORINOCO
Reading edition
The reader, I am sure, will be interested in the following paragraph from Peter Martyr on the plantain.
Speaking of the fruit of the Cassia tree (as he calls the plantain), he, in Michael Lok’s translation, says,—
“The Egyptian common people babble that this is the apple of our first created Father Adam, whereby hee ouerthrewe all mankinde. The straunge and farraine Marchantes of vnprofitable Spices, perfumes, Arabian Yseminating odours, and woorthlesse precious stones trading those Countries for gaine, call those fruites the Muses. For mine owne part I cannot call to minde, by what name I might call that tree or stalke in Latine,” p. 273. De Novo Orbe, the Historie of the West Indies, comprised in eight Decades whereof three haue beene formerly translated into English by R. Eden, whereunto the other fiue are newly added by the industrie and painfull Trauaile of M. Lok, Gent., London, 1612. ↑