COCOA-NUT TREE. 337 



But, however, that sort of liquor had so chilled 

 and benumbed their nerves, that they could 

 neither go nor stand ; nor could they return 

 on board the ship, without the help of those 

 who had not been partakers in the frolic ; nor did 

 they recover it under four or five days' time." 



The continued use of the water contained in 

 the young or green cocoa-nuts, is one of the 

 causes attributed, (although I am inclined to 

 consider it an erroneous opinion,) to produce 

 the scrotal enlargements, &c. so often seen among 

 natives of intertropical regions, more particu- 

 larly those resident on the coast. 



In a letter published in the Sydney Herald, 

 of January 14th 1833, it is said, " The natives 

 of Tahiti alone, make forty or fifty tons of cocoa- 

 nut oil in the year, and all the other islands of 

 the groups make an equal proportion. They sell 

 it for calico, that costs about twopence-halfpenny 

 per yard in England, and receive a fathom for 

 four or five gallons. But the owners of vessels 

 from this colony, (New South Wales,) find some- 

 thing more lucrative for their shipping than 

 sending them to the islands, and the natives are 

 discouraged at having no trade. The indigenous 

 arrow-root remains undug, and the cocoa-nuts 

 fall to the ground, and rot." That the quantity 



VOL. II. z 



