root, which, when first dug out of the ground, is liard and 

 fibrous, almost tasteless, and of a white or light yellow 

 colour. The natives bake it in large ovens underground, 

 in the same manner as they dress the arwn and other roots. 

 After baking it appears like a different substance altogether, 

 being of a yellowish brown colour, soft, though fibrous, and 

 saturated with a highly saccharine juice. It is sweet and 

 pleasant to the taste, and much of it is eaten in this state, 

 but the greater part is employed in making an intoxicating 

 liquor much used by the natives. They bruise the baked 

 roots with a stone, and steep them wdth water in a barrel, or 

 the bottom of an old canoe, till the mass is in a state of fer- 

 mentation. The liquor is then drawn off, and sometimes 

 distilled, when it produces a strong spirit ; but the greater 

 part of it is drank in its fermented state without any further 

 preparation. The root is certainly capable of being used for 

 many valuable purposes. A good beer may be made from 

 it ; and in the Society Islands, though never able to granu- 

 late it, we have frequently boiled its juice to a thick syrup, 

 and used it as a substitute for sugar when destitute of that 

 article. 



^' We should think it an excellent antiscorbutic, and as 

 such useful to ships in long voyages. Captains visiting the 

 Society Islands frequently procure large quantities of it to 

 make beer wdth during their voyage, as it wall keep good 

 six weeks or two months after it is baked. On my return 

 in the American ship Russell, Captain Coleman, we pro- 

 cured a quantity that had been baked at Rurutu, near the 

 Society Islands, and brought it round Cape Horn. It lasted 

 ^Ye or six weeks, and would probably have kept longer, as 

 the only change w-e perceived during that time w^as a slight 

 degree of acidity in the taste. Cattle, sheep, and goats are 

 fond of the leaves ; and as they contain more nutriment than 

 any other indigenous vegetable, and may be kept on board 

 ships several weeks, they are certainly the best provender 

 that can be procured in the Islands for stock taken to sea. 

 It is not so plentiful in the Sandwich Islands as it was before 

 the natives used it for the above purpose, but in some of the 



