17?4'« ROUND THE WOULD. 103 



great judgment, and cultivated with much labour. 

 Some of them were lying in fallow ; some seemingly 

 lately laid down, and others of longer date, pieces of 

 which they were again beginning to dig up. The 

 first thing I observed they did, was to set fire to the 

 grass, &c. which had over-run the surface. Recruit- 

 ing the J and by letting it lie some years untouched, 

 is observed by all the nations in the sea ; but they 

 seem to have no notion of manuring it, at least I 

 have no where seen it done. Our excursion was 

 finished by noon, when we returned on board to din- 

 ner ; and one of our guides having left us, we brought 

 the other with us, whose fidelity was rewarded at a 

 small expence. 



In the afternoon I made a little excursion along 

 shore to the westward, in company with Mr. Wales. 

 Besides making observations on such things as we 

 met, we got the names of several places, which I 

 then thought were islands ; but upon farther en- 

 quiry, I found they were districts upon this same 

 land. This afternoon, a fish being struck by one of 

 the natives near the watering-place, my clerk pur- 

 chased it, and sent it to me after my return on board. 

 It was of a new species, something like a sun-fish, with 

 a large, long, ugly head. Having no suspicion of 

 its being of a poisonous nature, we ordered it to be 

 dressed for supper ; but very luckily, the operation 

 of drawing and describing took up so much time, 

 that it was too late, so that only the liver and row 

 were dressed, of which the two Mr. Forsters and my- 

 self did but taste. About three o'clock in the morn- 

 ing, we found ourselves seized with an extraordinary 

 weakness and numbness all over our limbs. I had almost 

 lost the sense of feeling, nor could I distinguish be- 

 tween light and heavy bodies, of such as I had strength 

 to move ; a quart pot full of water and a feather being 

 the same in my hand. We each of us took an emetic, 

 and after that a sweat, which gave us much relief. 

 In the morning, one of the pigs which had eaten the 



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