OUR COMMISSARIAT DEPARTMENT. 37 



sculptor could desire to copy. Two yards of blue striped 

 calico was his simple garb. When I first took up my 

 abode under Captain Wilson's hospitable roof, Koytoo 

 could not even be termed a plain cook. He excelled 

 in boiling and roasting yam, and in frying pork in the 

 European fashion, but beyond that his acquirements did 

 not extend. It was I who gave him the benefit of the 

 culinary experience gained during my long travels, by ini- 

 tiating him into the mysteries of making coffee, tea, pan- 

 cakes (without eggs), fritters, chicken and turtle soup. 

 For a yard of calico the Queen would sell us six fowls in 

 the bush; but here we found how true was the old pro- 

 verb, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." As 

 will be explained in another place, the Fijian fowls are 

 far from being domesticated; they are to all intents and 

 purposes wild. Now and then they show themselves 

 near the dwellings, to pick up the offal, but as soon as 

 any one makes an attempt to catch them they are off, 

 and the only expedient to get them is by shooting. In 

 the tropics, to eat day after day pork and yam, the 

 usual food of Fiji, is not very tempting, and we there- 

 fore endeavoured to introduce some diversity into our 

 mode of living, by obtaining as many fowls as we could. 

 Often and often did Messrs. Storck and Coxon leave 

 their, I cannot say soft, couch at dawn to have a crack 

 at them ; but the birds were so cunning that no sooner 

 did they creep near the place whence the crowing pro- 

 ceeded, than they were silent or had decamped. Eggs 

 were but seldom seen. The Fijians consider it babyish 

 to eat them, and cannot be induced to look for them. 

 The turtle-flesh was always sent to us as a present, either 



