168 CHIEF NUTRITIVE PLANTS OF THE TORRID ZONE 



South Sea Islanders no more trouble than plucking and pre- 

 paring it in the manner above described ; for, though the tree 

 which produces it does not grow spontaneously, yet, if a man 

 plants but ten of them in his lifetime, which he may do in 

 about an hour, he will, as Cook remarks, " as completely fulfil 

 }iia duty to his own and future generations, as the native of our 

 less' genial climate by ploughing in the cold of winter and reap- 

 injr in the summer's heat as often as the seasons return." 



The bread-fruit tree {Artocar'pus incisa) is useful to the 

 South Sea Islanders in several other respects, as they make a 

 kind of cloth of its bark or inner rind, and its soft light wood is 

 particularly serviceable for the building of their canoes. 



Though it has a far extended range over the islands and coasts 

 of the Indian and Pacific Ocean, yet its importance as an article 

 of food is chiefly confined to the Tahitian, Friendly, Samoan, 

 Fiji, and Marquesan groups, while in the Indian Archipelago 

 it is either neglected or only used for fuel. 



The celebrated navigator Dampier (1688) is the first English 

 writer that mentions the bread-fruit tree, which he found 

 growing in the Ladrones, and a few years later Lord Anson 

 enjoyed its fruits at Tinian, where they contributed to save the 

 lives of his emaciated and scurvy-stricken followers. It con- 

 tinued, however, to remain unnoticed in Europe, until the 

 voyages of Wallis and Cook attracted the attention of the 

 whole civilised world to the fortunate islands, whose inhabitants, 

 instead of gaining their bread by the sweat of their brow, 

 plucked it ready formed from the teeming branches of their 

 groves. 



What could be more natural than the desire of an enlightened 

 government to transfer a similar boon to the tropical countries 

 subject to its rule ; and thus Lieutenant Bligh, who had accom- 

 panied Cook in his last voyage, was sent in the " Bounty " — an 

 excellent name for a vessel destined for such a mission — to 

 transport a number of young bread-fruit trees from Tahiti to 

 the West Indies. 



On October 26, 1788, Bligh landed at Tahiti, and was cor- 

 dially welcomed by the inhabitants, to whom he brought the 

 citron and the orange as a return for their valuable artocarpus. 



Between the roomy decks, where the open port-holes admitted 

 a constant current of fresh air, more than 1000 bread-tree sap- 



