Ella Nguyen ’23: Book VIII, Chapter XXXIX (Of a fruit they call yaguaraha, which grow on some cactuses, and another that is called agoreros)

Book VIII, Chapter XXXIX

Of a fruit they call yaguaraha, which grow on some cactuses, and another that is called agoreros.

Translated by Ella Nguyen ’23

Most of the island of Cubagua is a thick grove of cactuses as tall as one and a half or two estados, as thick as the calf of the leg. At a certain time each year, they bear fruit in two ways, both in the form of figs; some are crimson or red, and the others are white: the red ones have very small seeds, like mustard seeds, and the Indians call this fruit yaquaraha. It tastes very good and is a healthy and fresh fruit, and in the thistle, where it grows, this fruit is covered with thorns like chestnuts, and when it ripens, the thorns fall off, the fruit opens, and what remains is like figs. The other kind of fruit, which grows in cactuses in the same way, is green outside and looks like dates (but they are fatter), the inside is white, and the seed is like fig granules: and when they are eaten, fully ripened, a musky odor, or something softer, rises to the nostrils. The Indians call this fruit agoreros.

Image retrieved from John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.