1769 FOOD 135 



their brow, when their chief sustenance, bread-fruit, is pro- 

 cured with no more trouble than that of climbing a tree 

 and pulling it down. Not that the trees grew here 

 spontaneously, but, if a man in the course of his life planted 

 ten such trees (which, if well done, might take the labour 

 of an hour or thereabouts), he would as completely fulfil his 

 duty to his own as well as future generations, as we, natives 

 of less temperate climates, can do by toiling in the cold of 

 winter to sow, and in the heat of summer to reap, the 

 annual produce of our soil ; which, when once gathered into 

 the barn, must again be re-sowed and re-reaped as often as the 

 colds of winter or the heats of summer return to make such 

 labour disagreeable. 



fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint 



may most truly be applied to these people; benevolent 

 nature has not only provided them with necessaries, but 

 with an abundance of superfluities. The sea, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of which they always live, supplies them with 

 vast variety of fish, better than is generally met with 

 between the tropics, but these they get not without some 

 trouble. Every one desires to have them, and there is not 

 enough for all, though while we remained in these seas we 

 saw more species perhaps than our island can boast of. 

 I speak now only of what is more properly called fish, but 

 almost everything which comes out of the sea is eaten and 

 esteemed by these people. Shell-fish, lobsters, crabs, even 

 sea insects, and what the seamen call blubbers of many 

 kinds, conduce to their support ; some of the latter, indeed, 

 which are of a tough nature, are prepared by suffering them 

 to stink. Custom will make almost any meat palatable, 

 and the women, especially, are fond of this, though after 

 they had eaten it, I confess I was not extremely fond of 

 their company. 



Besides the bread-fruit the earth almost spontaneously 

 produces cocoanuts ; bananas of thirteen sorts, the best I have 

 ever eaten ; plantains, but indifferent ; a fruit not unlike an 

 apple, which, when ripe, is very pleasant ; sweet potatoes ; 



