1770. ROUND THE WORLD. 14*5 



The morning of the 26th was employed in getting 

 more casks ready for the same purpose, and in the 

 afternoon we lashed no less than eight and thirty 

 under the ship's bottom, but to our great mortifica- 

 tion these also proved ineffectual, and we found our- 

 selves reduced to the necessity of waiting till the 

 next spring-tide. 



This day, some of our gentlemen who had made 

 an excursion into the woods, brought home the leaves 

 of a plant, which was thought to be the same that in 

 the West Indies is called coccos ; but upon trial, the 

 roots proved too acrid to be eaten ; the leaves how- 

 ever were little inferior to spinnage. In the place 

 where these plants were gathered, grew plenty of the 

 cabbage trees which have occasionally been men- 

 tioned before, a kind of wild plantain, the fruit of 

 which was so full of stones as scarcely to be eatable ; 

 another fruit was also found about the size of a small 

 golden pippin, but flatter, and of a deep purple 

 colour : when first gathered from the tree, it was 

 very hard and disagreeable, but after being kept a 

 few days became soft, and tasted very much like an 

 indifferent damascene. 



The next morning we began to move some of the 

 weight from the after-part of the ship forward, to ease 

 her ; in the mean time the armourer continued to 

 work at the forge, the carpenter was busy in calk- 

 ing the ship, and the men employed in filling water 

 and overhauling the rigging : in the forenoon, I went 

 myself in the pinnace up the harbour, and made se- 

 veral hauls with the seine, but caught only between 

 twenty and thirty fish, which were given to the sick 

 and convalescent. 



On the 28th, Mr. Banks went with some of the 

 seamen up the country, to show them the plant which 

 in the West Indies is called Indian kale, and which 

 served us for greens. Tupia had much meliorated 

 the root of the coccos, by giving them a long dress- 

 ing in his country oven, but they were so small that 



VOL. II. L 



