Ground provisions, Lima bean, Calalue (1794?, 1805-6, 1819)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

THE HISTORY, CIVIL AND COMMERCIAL, OF THE BRITISH WEST INDIES
by Bryan Edwards
in five volumes
London: T. Miller
1819
New York: AMS Press, Inc.
1966

   Another important book under-cited by the OED.
   This is the volume that's at NYU.  I had read also part of the 1805-6
edition on Saturday at the NYPL.  The first edition is 1794.
   OT:  I took a train home from NYU.  Half of the train contained ads for
"America's Caribbean," the U.S. Virgin Islands.  TAKE ME BACK!  GET ME OUT OF
NEW YORK!


VOLUME ONE
Pg. 255:  To my own taste, however, several of the native growths, especially
the chocho, ochra, Lima-bean, and Indian-kale, are more agreeable than any of
the esculent vegetables of Europe.  The other indigenous productions of this
class are plantains, bananas, yams of several varieties, calalue (a species of
spinnage), eddoes, cassavi, and sweet potatoes.  A mixture of these, stewed
with salt fish or salted meat of any kind, and highly seasoned with Cayenne
pepper, is a favourite olio among the negroes.
   (OED has 1819 for "Lima bean."  I just returned from Cayenne, in French
Guiana--ed.)

Pg. 256:  Perhaps no country on earth affords so magnificent a dessert; and I
conceive that the following were spontaneously bestowed on the island by the
bounty of nature:--the annana or pine-apple, tamarind, papaw, guava, sweet-sop
of two species, cashew-apple, custard-apple (a species of chirimoya),
cocoa-nut, star-apple, grenadilla, avocado-pear, hog-plum and its varieties,
pindal-nut, nesberry, mammec, mammee-sapota, Spanish-gooseberry, p[rickly-pear, and
perhaps a few others.  For the orange (Seville and CHina), the lemon, lime,
shaddock, and its numerous species, the vine, melon, fig, and pomegrante, the West
Indian islands were probably indebted to their Spanish invaders.

VOLUME TWO
Pg. 102:  This is in fact one of their chief musical instruments; besides
which, they have the _Banja_ or _Merriwang_, the _Dundo_ and the _Goombay_; all
of African origin.  The first is an imperfect kind of violincello; except that
it is played on by the finger like the guitar; producing a dismal monotony of
four notes.  The Dundo is precisely a tabor; and the Goombay is a rustic drum;
being formed of the trunk of a hollow tree, one end of which is covered with
a (Pg. 103--ed.) sheep's skin.
   (OED has 1774 nd 1789 cites for "banjo" and "goombay"--ed.)

Pg. 158:  This meal (breakfast--ed.) commonly consists of boiled yams,
eddoes, ocra, calalue and plantains, or as many of those vegetables as they can
procure; seasoned with salt, and cayenne pepper; and, in truth, it is an exceeding
palatable and wholesome mess.

Pg. 164:  ...a pail, an iron pot, _calabashes_* of different sizes (serving
very tolerably for plates, dishes, and bowls), make up the rest.
*A species of gourd.

Pg. 244:  Ratoons are the sprouts or suckers that spring from the roots, or
stoles of the canes that have been previously cut for sugar, and are commonly
ripe in twelve months.
   (OED has 1779, then 1818 for "ratoon"--ed.)

Pg. 370:  The usual method of forming a new piemento plantation, (in Jamaice
it is called a _walk_) is nothing more than to appropriate a piece of wood
land, in the neighbourhood of a planation already existing,...
   (OED has 1793 for "walk" meaning "a plantation"--ed.)

Pg. 347 (From Volume Two, 1805-6--ed.):  The misfortune is, that they trust
more to plantain groves, corn, and other vegetables, that are liable to be
destroyed by storms, than to what are called _ground provisions_; such as yams,
eddoes, (Pg. 348--ed.) potatoes, cassada, and other esculent roots;...
   (OED has 1827 for "ground provisions," under GROUND.  Under PROVISION, OED
has 1808 for "ground provisions"--ed.)

VOLUME THREE
Pg. 258:  Returning to the villa, we were greeted by a party which frightened
the boys.  It was the _Moco Jumbo_ and his suite.*
*Without doubt the _Mumbo Jumbo_ of the Mandengoes.

VOLUME FIVE
Pg. 202:  SOME ACCOUNT OF THE BRITISH SETTLEMENTS ON THE MUSQUITO SHORE.
Drawn up for the Use of Government in 1773.
   (OED has 1789 for "musquito shore," later "mosquito coast"--ed.)