148

• And all the morbid share;—so heaven will bless,

• With manifold encrease, thy costly care.

• SUFFICE not this; to every slave assign [445]
• Some mountain-ground: or, if waste broken land
• To thee belong, that broken land divide.
• This let them cultivate, one day, each week;
• And there raise yams, and there cassada’s root:
• From a good daemon’s staff cassada sprang, [450]
• Tradition says, and Caribbees believe;
• Which into three the white-rob’d genius broke,
• And bade them plant, their hunger to repel.
• There let angola’s bloomy bush¹ supply
• For many a year, with wholesome pulse their board. [455]
• There let the bonavist,² his fringed pods

VER. 449. cassada] To an antient Carribean, bemoaning the savage uncomfortable life of his countrymen, a deity clad in white apparel appeared, and told him, he would have come sooner to have taught him the ways of civil life, had he been addressed before. He then showed him sharp-cutting stones to fell trees and build houses; and bade him cover them with the palm leaves. Then he broke his staff in three; which, being planted, soon after produced cassada. See Ogilvy’s America.³

VER. 454. angola] This is called Pidgeon-pea, and grows on a sturdy shrub, that will last for years. It is justly reckoned among the most wholesome legumens. The juice of the leaves, dropt into the eye, will remove incipient films. The botanic name is Cytisus.

VER. 456. bonavist] This is the Spanish name of a plant, which produces an excellent bean. It is a parasitical plant. There are five sorts of bonavist, the green, the white, the

---