Hans Sloane

“ It may be objected, that there is no end of such Discoveries, that every Country, and distant Climate, has different Plants, not to be found in England. I answer it is not so, for tho' England be very remote, both in Longitude and Latitude, from Jamaica, yet I found there many Plants, which grow Sponte, which also I found to grow wild in England, and more I observ'd to be common to that Place, and the South Parts of France. ”

“ In reading Voyages, and talking with Travellers to the West-Indies, &c. one shall meet with Words, and Names of Things, one has no Notion or Conception of: by looking for such Names in the Index of the Catalogue of Jamaica Plants, you are referr'd to the Page where you find a List of such as have treated of it; And in this History under the first Title of it in the Catalogue, is the History of it. ”

“ Another Use of this History may be, to teach the Inhabitants of the Parts where these Plants grow, their several Uses, which I have endeavour'd to do, by the best Informations I could get from Books, and the Inhabitants, either Europeans, Indians or Blacks. Jamaica had been, before it was taken by the English, in the possession of the Spaniards, almost from the time the West-Indies were discover'd: They had brought many Fruit-Trees from the Main-Continent, where they are Masters, and suffer no other Europeans to come ”

“ Piso who was a Physician, and Marcgrave an Industrious Scholar, going out of Holland thither, were very curious, and took great care to observe what they thought worth Notice, and had Marcgrave liv'd to have publish'd his own Observations, that Work would have been much more considerable; but his Papers falling into the Hands, first of John de Laet, who, tho' a Learned Man, yet was ignorant of Natural History; and then of Piso, who, tho' he was a Practical Physician, yet had no great Knowlege of Natural things ”

“ This is not only so in Jamaica, but in all places where I have been; when the Leaves or Tops of Plants have not been exposed to the Light and Sun, they are not only whiter, but tenderer, and often digestible by our Stomachs. This appears by the Tops of the Palm [in Jamaica and the West-Indies] call'd Cabbage-Trees the Germen, Sprout, Top, Bud or unexpanded Leaves of which, are boil'd, and eat like our Cabbage, or pickl'd. The tops of the Ghamæriphe or Dwarf-Palm (of the Leaves of which are made Brooms) are likewise eaten in Spain and Italy. ”

“ The principal Design of them was, that the Inhabitants of those Places, might understand what Uses the Plants they have growing Sponte or in Gardens with them, are put to in any of the Countries wherever they grow, that so they may have recourse to them in Cases that require them. It is very hard to carry thither such European Simples as are proper for the Cure of all sorts of Diseases, and People are put to it to find such as are effectual in some of them, and yet will keep their Vertues. ”

“ I have great reason to value; And considering that these sorts of Men, have been in all Ages ready to do the like, not only to ordinary Persons, and their Equals, but even to abuse their Princes, and blaspheme their Maker ”

“ It has puzzl'd the Philosophers of all Ages, to give an Account how Parts of Vegetables and Animals, Real Sea-Shells and Substances should be found remote from the Seas, wherein they seem to have been produced and bred. ”

“ Some Men seem to have a great desire to be the first Authors of discovering such or such Plants, and to have them carry their Names in the first Place, but I endeavour'd rather to find if any thing I had observ'd was taken Notice of by other Persons ”

“ The only Account we have of him, is in Peter Martyr's Decads, wherein that Elegant Writer acquaints the Pope, what News they then had in Spain, from the West-Indies. Hernandez was sent by the King of Spain, to search after Natural Productions about Mexico; He design'd and describ'd many of the things he met with, at the Expence of 60000 Ducats; his Papers were put into the hands of Nardus Antonius Recchus, from whose Manuscripts they were by the Lyncei Publish'd at Rome, Anno 1649. They were chang'd from their first order, as appears by the Spanish-Copy, Printed at Mexico ”

“ According to the Division of the New-discover'd World, between the Spaniards and Portuguese, the last possess'd themselves of Brasile; Amongst others of that Nation who went thither, was one, suppos'd to be a Jesuit of Elvas, whose Name is ghess'd to be Tr. Manoel, who had the care of the Sick of the College of Baya, made Observations of that Country, and wrote them in a Book in the Portuguese Language: This Book was taken by Mr. ”