1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 85 



ship ; we, therefore, immediately stuck them among 

 the rigging, at which they expressed the greatest 

 satisfaction. We then purchased their cargoes, con- 

 sisting of cocoa-nuts, and various kinds of fruit, 

 which, after our long voyage, were very acceptable. 



We stood on with an easy sail all night, with 

 soundings from twenty-two fathom to twelve, and 

 about seven o'clock in the morning we came to an 

 anchor in thirteen fathom, in Port-royal Bay, called 

 by the natives Matavai. We were immediately sur- 

 rounded by the natives in their canoes, who save us 

 cocoa-nuts, fruit resembling apples, bread-fruit, and 

 some small fishes, in exchange for beads and other 

 trifles. They had with them a pig, which they 

 would not part with for any thing but a hatchet, and 

 therefore we refused to purchase it j because if we 

 gave them a hatchet for a pig now, we knew they 

 would never afterwards sell one for less, and we 

 could not afford to buy as many as it was probable 

 we should want at that price. The bread-fruit 

 grows on a tree that is about the size of a middling 

 oak : its leaves are frequently a foot and a half 

 long, of an oblong shape, deeply sinuated like those 

 of the fig-tree, which they resemble m consistence 

 and colour, and in the exuding of a white milky 

 juice upon being broken. The fruit is about the 

 size and shape of a child's head, and the surface is 

 reticulated, not much unlike a truffle : it is covered 

 with a thin skin, and has a core about as big as the 

 handle of a small knife : the eatable part lies be- 

 tween the skin and the core : it is as white as snow, 

 and somewhat of the consistence of new bread : it 

 must be roasted before it is eaten, being first divided 

 into three or four parts : its taste is insipid, with a 

 slight sweetness, somewhat resembling that of the 

 crumb of wheaten-bread mixed with a Jerusalem 

 artichoke. 



Among others who came off to the ship was an 

 elderly man, whose name, as we learnt after wards, 



G 3 



