master; besides what I hinted before concerning the use of, Cordage in Husbandry, in plowing and carrying home the fruits of the Earth. The Uses indeed of the fore-named Plants are so universal, and take place so in every affair of Man, that if it were lawful to be a little merry in so serious a matter, a man might not unfittingly apply that verse of the Poet to this so general a commodity.
Omnia sumt homini tenui pendentia filo;
that all the businesses of Men do very much depend upon these little long fleaks or threds of Hemp and Flax. Or if you will say, that there may some scambling shift be made without them in long chains of Iron, or sails of Woollen, and the like; yet we seeing our selves provided for infinitely better, are in all reason to judge it to proceed from no worse a Principle then Divine Providence.
6. I might now reach out to Exotick Plants, such as the Cinnamon-tree, the Balsame-tree, the Tree that bears the Nutmeg invelloped with the Mace, as also the famous Indian Nut-tree, which at once almost affords all the Necessaries of life. For if they cut but the twigs at Evening, there is a plentiful and pleasant Juice comes out, which they receive into Bottles, and drink instead Wine, and out of which they extract such an Aqua vitæ as is very sovereign against all manner of sicknesses. The Branches and Boughs they make their Houses of; and the Body of the Tree, being very spongy within, though hard without, they easily contrive into the frame and use of their Canoes or Boats, The Kernel of the Nut serves them for Bread and Meat, and the Shells for Cups to drink in; and indeed they are not mere empty Cups, for there is found a delicious cooling Milk in them. besides, there is a kind of Hemp that incloses the Nut, of which they make Roaps and Cables, and of the finest of it Sails for their ships: and the Leaves are so hard and sharp-pointed, that they easily make Needles or Bodkins of them, for stitching their Sails, and for other necessary purposes. And that Providence may shew her self benign as well as wise, this so notable a Plant is not restrain'd to one Coast of the world, as suppose the East-Indies, but is found also in some parts of Africa, and in all the Islands of the West-Indies, as Hispaniola, Cuba, as also upon the Continent of Carthagena in Panama, Norembega, and several other parts of the New-found world.
But I thought fit not to insist upon these things, but to contain my self within the compass of such Objects as are familiarly and ordinarily before our eyes, that we may the better take occasion from thence to return thanks to him who is the bountiful Authour of all the supports of life.
