410 MANUAL OF TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL FRUITS 



of the voyage, "that, in an open boat so poorly provided, 

 we should have been able to reach the coast of Timor in forty- 

 one days after leaving Tofoa, having in that time run, by our 

 log, a distance of 3618 miles; and that, notwithstanding our 

 extreme distress, no one should have perished in the voyage.'' 



Undaunted by the failure of the first attempt, a second was 

 fitted out, again under the command of Bligh, who was pro- 

 moted to the rank of Captain in the Royal Navy. This 

 expedition, which sailed in 1792, secured 1200 breadfruit 

 plants, as well as other valuable trees, and safely brought 

 them to the West Indies. 



The seeded breadfruit, which is much less valuable than the 

 seedless variety, was introduced into the West Indies by the 

 French ten years previous to Bligh's successful voyage. 



At the present day the breadfruit is cosmopolitan in its 

 distribution. Regarding its occurrence in Hawaii, Vaughan 

 MacCaughey l says : 



"At the time of the coming of the first European explorers the 

 breadfruit was plentiful around the native settlements and villages on 

 all the islands: more plentiful than it has been at any subsequent 

 period. It thrives in the humid regions of Kona and Hilo, on the 

 island of Hawaii, and to-day there are many abandoned trees in these 

 districts, marking the sites of once-populous Hawaiian villages. The 

 extensive breadfruit groves of Lahaina, on Maui, were long famous for 

 the excellence of their fruit. In humid valleys on Molokai, Oahu, and 

 Kauai, the tree was also abundant, rearing its splendid dome of glossy 

 foliage high above the surrounding vegetation. 



"It is distinctly a tree of the valleys and lowlands in Hawaii, and 

 with the decadence of the Hawaiian population, and the utilization of 

 fertile lowlands for sugar plantations, the majority of these fine old 

 trees were sacrificed to make way for the white man's agriculture." 



In some of the Polynesian Islands, the tree is of such ancient 

 cultivation, and plays such an important part in the life of the 

 people, that the natives are unable to conceive of a land where 

 the breadfruit is not found. 



1 Torreya, March, 1917. 



