Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 07.djvu/134

PALMA 92 PALMAS, CAPE Great Macaw tree of the West Indies (Ac7'oco7nia sclerocarfM) is a native of Jamaica, Trinidad, and the adjacent is- lands and continent. In Brazil it is called Macahuba, and in Guiana Macoya. The fruit yields an oil of yellow color, sweetish taste, and having the odor of violets, which is employed by the na- tives as an emollient for painful affec- tions of the joints; and in Europe it is used in the manufacture of toilet soaps. The Tucum palm {Astrocaryum tu- cuma), a native of the Rio Negro and the upper Amazon, yields a very supe- rior fiber. The fleshy outer covering of the fruit is eaten by the natives. The Murumuru palm (A. murumuru) pro- duces a very agreeable fruit with the fragrance of musk. Cattle eat it with avidity. Attalea funifera furnishes the whalebone-like fiber now so much used for making brooms and brushes. The tree attains the height of 20 or 30 feet. At the base of the leaves, which are used for thatching, the fiber known in com- merce as piassava fiber, is employed in the countries in which it grows to make coarse but strong and durable cables. The fruit is the well-known Coquilla nut, much used in turnery for the making of knobs to walking sticks and umbrellas, handles to bell pulls, etc. The print of A. cohune yields from its kernel a valua- ble oil called cohune oil. It is a native of Honduras and the Isthmus of Panama. The trunk, which attains the height of about 40 feet and is crowned with leaves some 30 feet long, yields by tapping a kind of^ palm vsrine. The palm oil of Africa is the product of the fruit of Elseis giiineensis. The tree is cultivated now in the West Indies and tropical South America for the sake of the oil. It is used by the natives universally as butter is in Europe. The quantity of palm oil now exported is enormous. It is employed in the manufacture of can- dles,_ toilet and common soaps, and as a lubricant of railway carriage wheels, etc. The Coquito of Chile is Jubsea spectabilis. From its trunk a syrup is extracted, called miel de pahna, which is much es- teemed by the Chileans and Europeans. PALMA. (1) The capital of the island of Majorca (q. v.) and of the Balearic Islands, on the Bay of Palma, on the S. coast. The cathedral, a Gothic edi- fice (1322-1601), contains the tomb of King Jayme^ II. of Aragon and a valu- able collection of church ornaments. The tomb of Raymond Lully is in the church of St. Francis. There are, fur- ther, a beautiful exchange (1426-1446), an old Moorish palace, and a 16th-cen- tury town hall, with pictures. Its in- habitants weave silks and woolens, make jewelry, and various articles of com- mon use. The port is protected by a mole, and the town by a wall and bat- teries. Pop. about 70,000. (2) A town of Sicily, pop. 12,000. (3) The name of one of the larger of the Canary Islands. PALMA, TOMAS ESTRADA, a Cuban statesman and soldier, called the "Frank- lin of Cuba"; born in Bayamo, Santiago de Cuba, July 9, 1835. He was educated at Havana and studied law at the Uni- versity of Seville, Spain. In 1867 he al- lied himself with the patriots working for Cuban independence, became a leader and the bosom friend of Cespides and Aguilera, the first president and first vice-president. When Cespides raised the standard of revolt, Oct. 10, 1868, Palma freed his slaves and aided the movement to the utmost. He took the field and his devoted mother shared the dangers of camp life with him. During his absence one day his detachment was surprised by the Spanish and his mother captured. She was compelled to walk behind the troops till she fell from ex- haustion, and was abandoned in the woods, where her son found her, two weeks later, starving. She died a few days later. After the capture of Bayamo, Palma was elected to the Cuban assembly and became secretary of the republic under the presidency of Spoturno. On the resignation of Spoturno, the Cuban As- sembly elected Palma president, March 29, 1876. He performed the duties of the office with ability, but was, through the treachery of a Cuban, captured by a force of Spanish soldiers while on a journey. He was sent to Spain and im- prisoned for a year in the castle of Fieuras. On the subsequent surrender of the revolutionists he was set at liberty and went first to Paris, and from there to New York. Later he went to the republic of Honduras, where he began work as a schoolmaster and became post- master-general. He there married the daughter of President Guardiola and re- turned to the United States, where he settled in Orange co.. New York. In July, 1895, he was elected delegate or president of the Associated Cuban clubs in the United States, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Jose Marti. In September of the same year he was made minister or delegate plenipotentiary abroad of the republic of Cuba. On Dec. 31, 1901, he was elected first president of the new Cuban republic, was re-elected in 1906, but resigned. He died Nov. 4, 1908. PALMAS, CAPE, headland of west- ern Africa, on the Guinea coast, lat. 4*