Friendly advice to the gentlemen-planters of the East and West Indies In three parts. I. A brief treatise of the most principal fruits and herbs that grow in the East & West Indies; giving an account of their respective vertues both for food and physick, and what planet and sign they are under. Together with some directions for the preservation of health and life in those hot climates. II. The complaints of the negro-slaves against the hard usages and barbarous cruelties inflicted upon them. III. A discourse in way of dialogue, between an Ethiopean or negro-slave, and a Christian that was his master in America. By Philotheos Physiologus.

Of Ginger.

THis is an excellent Spice, of an hot dry tart Nature, endued with a stronger and more durable heat than Pepper, and every way more efficacious, so that where-ever this Spice is, there is no need of Pepper;

it is chiefly good for cold and moist Stomachs, and such as are troubled with cold windy Diseases; for it dis∣cusseth and helpeth Digestion, and in some degree consumeth crude phleg∣matick Humors: good especially for aged People in cold and moist Seasons of the year. But neither this sort of Spice, nor any other, is good to be used in hot Seasons or Climates, except in a Physical way, as I have else-where demonstrated. Particularly, in Young People and Chollerick Complexions the frequent use of such things does heat, dry and consume the purer Spirits and Radical Moisture and inflame the Blood, and in some Constitutions makes it sharp and keen; they are also injurious to the natural Heat of the Stomach and digestive Faculty, whence the Scurvey, Ioynt-Aches, and many cruel Distempers proceed, and assist not a little to the generation of the Stone, where-ever they meet apt matter for that purpose. The same is to be understood of all other things

in which heat and driness do too vio∣lently predominate; the frequent use of which is like the common drinking of Brandy; when once the Stomach is accustomed to them, it cannot digest its food without them; and yet the Remedy is as bad as the Disease, for as the natural heat is more debilitated, so more Brandy is craved for, till People utterly destroy themselves.