The voyage's Venetian chronicler Antonio de Pigafetta noted that "when these people saw the politeness of the captain, they presented some fish, and a vessel of palm wine, which they call in their language Uraca (arrak) figs more than a foot (banana) long, and others smaller and of a better savour, and two cochos (coconuts). At that time they had nothing to give him, and they made signs to us with their hands that in four days they would bring us Umai, which is rice, cocos, and many other victuals."
Pigafetta detailed how the natives extracted wine from the coconut:
"...wine proceeds from the said palm trees in the following manner. They make a hole at the summit of the tree as far as its heart, which is named palmito, from which a liquor comes out in drops down the tree, like white must, which is sweet, but with somewhat of bitter. They have canes as thick as the leg, in which they draw off this liquor, and they fasten them to the tree from the evening till next morning, and from the morning to the evening, because this liquor comes little by little. This palm produces a fruit named cocho, which is as large as the head, or thereabouts: its first husk is green, and two fingers in thickness, in it they find certain threads, with which they make the cords for fastening their boats. Under this husk there is another very hard, and thicker than that of a walnut. They burn this second rind, and make with it a powder which is useful to them. Under this rind there is a white marrow of a finger's thickness, which they eat fresh with meat and fish, as we do bread, and it has the taste of an almond, and if anyone dried it (the Milan edition mentions that it is dried and made into flour) he might make bread of it. From the middle of this marrow there comes out a clear sweet water, and very cordial, which, when it has rested a little, and settled, congeals and becomes like an apple. When they wish to make oil they take this fruit, the coco, and let it get rotten, and they corrupt this marrow in the water, then they boil it, and it becomes oil in the manner of butter. When they want to make vinegar, they let the water in the cocoa-nut get bad, and they put it in the sun, when it turns to vinegar like white wine. From this fruit milk also can be made, as we experienced, for we scraped this marrow and then put it with its water, and passed it through a cloth, and thus it was milk like that of goats. This kind of palm tree is like the date-palm, but not so rugged."
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| Coconut as illustrated in Fr. Manuel Blanco's Flora de Filipinas |
The coconut tree and all it gives seem to be valued by the native family, as Pigafetta noted that "two of these trees can maintain a family of ten persons."
He also observed that the natives were weary to exhaust the coconut - a lesson on sustainability we could learn from:
"but they do not draw wine as above-mentioned always from one tree, but draw from one for eight days, and from the other as long. For if they did not, otherwise the trees would dry up. In this manner they last a hundred years."
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