232 THE CRUISE OF THE • GUBAQOA.' 



food ; as also the yam, the common taro, water melons, 

 pumpkins, cabbage, bananas, and plantains. There is a tree, 

 the leaf of which is used as a vegetable ; and a large species 

 of taro, to which the natives have recourse whenever there 

 happens to be a scarcity of other food. There, is, it is said, 

 a great variety of ferns, some of which are of unusual beauty. 

 The articles offered or obtained in barter are, on the 

 one hand, mats, baskets, yams, taro, pigs, dogs, native arras ; 

 on the other, clothes, pipes, tobacco, muskets powder, lead, 

 beads, knives, &c. 



