SEPT. 1769 CONDITION OF SHIP'S PROVISIONS 181 



good, little, if at all, inferior in taste to fresh lemon juice. 

 We also to-day made a pie of the North American apples 

 which Dr. Fothergill had given me, and which proved very 

 good ; if not quite equal to the apple pies which our friends 

 in England are now eating, good enough to please us who 

 have been so long deprived of the fruits of our native country. 

 In the main, however, we are very well off for refreshments 

 and provisions of most sorts. Our ship's beef and pork are 

 excellent ; peas, flour, and oatmeal are at present, and have 

 been in general, very good ; our water is as sweet and 

 has rather more spirit than it had when drank out of the 

 river at Otahite ; our bread, indeed, is but indifferent, occa- 

 sioned by the quantity of vermin that are in it. I have 

 often seen hundreds, nay, thousands, shaken out of a single 

 biscuit. We in the cabin have, however, an easy remedy for 

 this, by baking it in an oven, not too hot, which makes them 

 all walk off ; but this cannot be allowed to the ship's people, 

 who must find the taste of these animals very disagreeable, 

 as they every one taste as strong as mustard, or rather 

 spirits of hartshorn. They are of five kinds, three Tenebrio, 

 one Ptinus, and the PJialangium canchroides ; this last, how- 

 ever, is scarce in the common bread, but vastly plentiful in 

 white meal biscuits, as long as we had any left. 



Wheat has been boiled for the breakfasts of the ship's 

 company two or three times a week, in the same manner as 

 frumenty is made. This has, I believe, been a very useful 

 refreshment to them, as well as an agreeable food, which I 

 myself and most of the officers in the ship have constantly 

 breakfasted upon in the cold weather. The grain was origin- 

 ally of a good quality, and has kept without the least damage. 

 This, however, cannot be said of the malt, of which we have 

 plainly had two kinds, one very good, which was used up 

 some time ago. What we are at present using is good for 

 nothing at all; it was originally of a bad light grain, and 

 so little care has been taken in making it that the tails are 

 left in with innumerable other kinds of dirt ; add to all 

 this that it has been damped on board ship ; so that, with all 

 the care that can be used, it will scarce give a tincture to 



