The mandioc is the root of the little plant mandiò, which is about the
height of a middle-sized man. It is supported by a very straight,
slender trunk, the thickness of a man's thumb, knotty like a reed, with
bark resembling that of a hazle, and pith, spungy, like the elder's, and
full of milk. At the top it is crowned with branches and little boughs,
with elegant, long, narrow leaves, of a beautiful green colour. The
flowers are yellow. The want of fruit is compensated by the roots, which
are sometimes three feet long, fragile, thicker than a man's arm, and
covered with a dusky skin like the bark of a hazle. Their very white
pith is full of a milky, glutinous, and poisonous liquid. As in the
cinnamon shrub the bark is alone made use of; so in the mandiò, the root
is the only serviceable part. The Americans are acquainted with more
than twenty species of this tree, differing in form and virtues. The
mandiò bears seed not unlike that of the piñon del Paraguay; but it is
quite useless in propagating the plant, for which purpose the trunk or
stalk of the shrub is cut into stocks, about a span long, three of which
are always stuck into heaps of mould, so that they project about the
length of a span from the surface of the earth. In a short time they
take root, put out leaves, and grow up. Neither do they require to be
watered, for this plant detests moisture and shade, and loves dry soils,
and sunny situations. It must be planted in the summer, in ground that
has been well dried. Six months after it has been laid in the earth, you
will find roots fit for eating; but in reality it is a year before they
are fully mature, and attain to their ordinary size; at the end of which
time, although they be not dug up, they will remain a long while under
ground uninjured, but if taken out of the earth, grow rotten in the
space of three days. The roots, therefore, should be carefully cleansed
without delay, the little skin being first stripped off them; they
should then be cut into small pieces, and laid upon the floor to dry for
two days. After being pounded in a mortar, they are reduced to flour,
and made into bread baked in various shapes, which, though wholesome, is
relished by none but persons unacquainted with the taste of wheat. These
American loaves are round, flat, and rather hard, like the bark of the
cork tree. They look like those cakes made of flour and honey in
Germany, but are devoid of all taste. In other places they squeeze a
juice from the roots of the mandiò, which, when left in a vessel for two
hours, deposits a white settlement at the bottom. This, when dried, is
made into flour, and that into small cakes, balls, and other things. The
same juice is boiled on the fire, and makes a kind of paste, which is
not only used as victuals, but likewise for starch to stiffen clothes
with, and sometimes for glue to fasten paper together. There is another
kind of mandiò, the roots of which, after being softened by lying for
some days in water, are roasted on the ashes, and eaten without
prejudice. It would take up a long time to relate all the different
methods by which the mandioc is converted into meat, drink, and
medicine, mixed with butter, barley, and sugar. Happy are the Americans
who can deceive and appease their stomachs by so many artifices! For my
part, though I have often, in travelling, been exceedingly hungry, I
could never prevail upon myself to satisfy the cravings of appetite with
the mandioc, in whatever way it were dressed. If the Americans like it,
that is sufficient: _haud equidem invideo, miror magis_. I confess,
however, that the root of the mandioc properly cleaned, and eaten plain
with boiled beef, was by no means disagreeable to me. I never doubted
either that these roots, when prepared in other ways, though insipid to
Europeans, create good blood and juices; for, to omit other arguments,
the American mothers, whenever they find their milk fail, after
recruiting themselves with boiled mandioc, find their breasts filled,
which a little while ago were quite exhausted. The Portugueze in Brazil
perform arduous journeys of many months, on foot, through immense wilds,
furnished generally with no other provision than the flour of the
mandioc. The Portugueze sailors also, when they are detained many months
in the Brazilian ports, and when they sail back to their native land,
feed principally upon the mandioc, and most part of the natives do the
same; for as the continual rain prevents the cultivation of wheat, the
higher ranks only eat wheaten bread, the flour being conveyed at a great
expense from Lisbon. The North Americans also greatly esteem, and
carefully cultivate the mandioc. The Brazilian and Paraguayrian Indians
account this plant one of the greatest blessings of Providence, as being
frequently the only support of life; for although locusts, ants, or a
long drought, should entirely destroy maize, pot-herbs, pulse, melons,
and fruits; the mandioc alone, surviving under ground, would supply the
place of all these things; for when the boughs, and leaves of this tree
are, by some means, destroyed, the roots flourish, increase, and remain
uninjured. Drought, which destroys other plants, is favourable and
salutary to this. But now the resemblance of the name admonishes me to
pass from the esculent mandiò, to the woolly mandiyù.