J7?4. ROUND THE WORLD. 113 



victuals, is on the outside of each house, in the open 

 air. There are three or five pointed stones fixed in 

 the ground, their pointed ends being about six inches 

 above the surface, in this form : 

 Those of three stones, are only 

 for one jar, those of five stones, 

 for two. The jars do not stand 

 on their bottoms, but lie inclined 

 on their sides. The use of these stones is, obviously, 

 to keep the jars from resting on the fire, in order that 

 it may burn the better. 



They subsist chiefly on roots and fish, and the bark 

 of a tree, which I am told grows also in the West 

 Indies. This they roast, and are almost continually 

 chewing. It has a sweetish, insipid taste ; and was 

 liked by some of our people. Water is their only 

 liquor ; at least, I never saw any other made use of. 



Plantains and sugar-canes are by no means in 

 plenty. Bread-fruit is very scarce, and the cocoa-nut 

 trees are small and but thinly planted ; and neither 

 one nor the other seems to yield much fruit. 



To judge merely by the numbers of the natives 

 we saw every day, one might think the island very 

 populous ; but, I believe, that at this time, the inha- 

 bitants were collected from all parts on our account. 

 Mr. Pickersgill observed, that down the coast, to the 

 west, there were but few people; and we knew they came 

 daily from the other side of the land, over the moun- 

 tains, to visit us. But although the inhabitants, upon the 

 whole, may not be numerous, the island is not thinly 

 peopled on the sea-coast, and in the plains and val- 

 leys that are capable of cultivation. It seems to be 

 a country unable to support many inhabitants. Na- 

 ture has been less bountiful to it than to any other 

 tropical island we know in this sea. The greatest part 

 of its surface, or at least what we saw of it, con- 

 sists of barren, rocky mountains, and the grass, &c. 

 growing on them, is useless to people who have no 

 cattle. 



VOL. IV. i 



