Antonio Pigafetta Describes the Coconut and Its Many Uses
Antonio Pigafetta’s account of the Magellan-Elcano voyage gives us both first-hand historical detail and color — the human aspects of the journey.
The Italian scholar learned all he could about the cultures that Ferdinand Magellan’s fleet encountered, even sitting down and recording samples of languages.
An excellent example of Pigafetta’s curiosity and fascination is his description of the coconut and the palm tree, which they encountered when the fleet arrived in the Philippines. Like the pineapple Magellan sampled in Rio, the coconut was an unknown.
“Cocoanuts are the fruit of the palmtree. Just as we have bread, wine, oil, and milk, so those people get everything from that tree.
“They get wine in the following manner. They bore a hole into the heart of the said palm at the top called palmito [i.e., stalk], from which distils a liquor which resembles white must. That liquor is sweet but somewhat tart, and [is gathered] in canes [of bamboo] as thick as the leg and thicker. They fasten the bamboo to the tree at evening for the morning, and in the morning for the evening.
“That palm bears a fruit, namely, the cocoanut, which is as large as the head or thereabouts. Its outside husk is green and thicker than two fingers. Certain filaments are found in that husk, whence is made cord for binding together their boats.
“Under that husk there is a hard shell, much thicker than the shell of the walnut, which they burn and make therefrom a powder that is useful to them.
“Under that shell there is a white marrowy substance one finger in thickness, which they eat fresh with meat and fish as we do bread; and it has a taste resembling the almond. It could be dried and made into bread.
“There is a clear, sweet water in the middle of that marrowy substance which is very refreshing. When that water stands for a while after having been collected, it congeals and becomes like an apple.
“When the natives wish to make oil, they take that cocoanut, and allow the marrowy substance and the water to putrefy. Then they boil it and it becomes oil like butter.
“When they wish to make vinegar, they allow only the water to putrefy, and then place it in the sun, and a vinegar results like [that made from] white wine.
”Milk can also be made from it for we made some. We scraped that marrowy substance and then mixed the scrapings with its own water which we strained through a cloth, and so obtained milk like goat’s milk.
“Those palms resemble date-palms, but although not smooth they are less knotty than the latter.
“A family of ten persons can be supported on two trees, by utilizing them week about for the wine; for if they did otherwise, the trees would dry up. They last a century.”
Image: Agnieszka Kwiecień, Nova, CC BY-SA 3.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0.
© 2021 by John Sailors. All rights reserved.
