j2o AVOYAGETO 



>779- Here are alfo owls, plovers of two forts, one very like 



March. . r J 



■ y. — v—^j the whittling plover of Europe ; a large white pigeon ; a 

 bird with a long tail, whofe colour is black, the vent 

 and feathers under the wing (which is much longer 

 than is ufually feen in the generality of birds, except the 

 birds of paradife) are yellow ; and the common water or 

 darker hen. 



Their vegetable productions are nearly the fame with the 

 reft of the South-fea illands. I have before mentioned, that 

 the tarroiv root is much fuperiourto any we had before tafted, 

 and that we attributed this excellence to the dry method of 

 cultivating it. The bread-fruit trees thrive here, not in fuch 

 abundance, but produce double the quantity of fruit they 

 do on the rich plains of Otaheite. The trees are nearly 

 of the fame height, but the branches begin to ftrike 

 out from the trunk much lower, and with greater luxu- 

 riance. Their fugar-canes are alfo of a very unufual fize. 

 One of them was brought to us at Atooi, meafuring eleven 

 inches and a quarter in circumference ; and having fourteen 

 feet eatable. 



At Oncehcow they brought us feveral large roots of a 

 brown colour, fhaped like a yam, and from fix to ten pounds 

 in weight. The juice, which it yields in great abundance, 

 is very fwect, and of a pleafant tafte, and was found to be 

 an excellent fubftitiue for fugar. The natives are very fond 

 of it, and ufc it as an article of their common diet ■, and our 

 people alfo found it very palatable and wholefome. We could 

 not learn to what fpecics of plant it belonged, having never 

 been able to procure the leaves ; but it was fuppofed, by our 

 botanifts, to be the root of fome kind of fern. 



Agreeably 



