Charles Vernon (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1849 Excerpt: ... game, as it was handed out to them by the men, who now scattered to their different houses, leaving their wives to draw up the canoes, and put away the paddles and fish-spears. Carlos accosted the chief, the oldest looking of the party, and they talked long together, using much gesticulation; he then returned to his mother's hut. The chief, he said, had been afraid that the strangers had come to the camp to force them to take part in the civil war; and was so pleased to hear that they were not government agents, that he would give them a hospitable reception. "I told him," he added, "that my mother's cooking-pot was not filled for so large a party, and he has invited us to share his. Come, they will not wait for you." Carlos led the way to one of the largest of the huts. It was open on all sides, and four or five naked men, their tawny skin fresh oiled for the occasion, were squatting on the ground round a large black pot. They did not rise; but the chief grunted, and motioned to his guests to take places in the circle opposite to him. Two or three women stood behind to wait on their husbands, and handed round cassada cakes and wooden spoons. The chief then raised the lid of the pot, and let out a most savoury steam. Diving into its contents, he fished up the stew, and ladled it into earthen platters and calabash shells, which were handed round by the women to their lords. The mess consisted of venison, fish, land tortoises, guanas, crawfish, powies and ducks; all cut up and stewed together in cassareep, and well seasoned with wild pepper. It only wanted the addition of salt, which an Indian cannot get, to make it a feast for a London alderman. The rich brown cassareep (the juice of the cassada boiled down to a jelly-like consistency) not only imparts its o...