ART 



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culture to diftant countries, the varieties may be ilill fartlier 

 jn^rcafed. Tlic parts of fruftHication in ihofe trees which 

 bear fruit without ilones, are fa'd to be defeftive, as the 

 ament never expand?, and the ftyles are alfo deficient. In 

 the variety !?, tlie fruit contains a confidcrab'.e number of 

 feeds, almoll as large as chefnuts, oblonjf, fomewhat angular, 

 produced into a point at each end. They are farinaceous 

 like the chefnul, and are eaten in fome places by the favage 

 inhabitants, either boiled, or roatted in embers. It will 

 eafily be fuppofed that this frait, abounding lefs in pulp, 

 and being both more fibrous and lefs juicy than that which 

 has no ieeds, mull be much inferior as an article of food; 

 and, accordingly, before the dilcovcry of the South Sea 

 iflands, the bread-fruit had not acquired that degree of repu- 

 tation which it is now found to deferve. It has been 

 long known in many parts of the Eaft Indies, but not 

 being wanted there for food, and confequcntly not having 

 received any degree of cultivation, it has continued nearly 

 iH its natural itatc, without receiving that improvement 

 from the care of men, which probably neeeffity firll urged 

 them to exercife. Accordingly, captain Cook remarked 

 the great inferiority of the Jocciim which he found at Batavia, 

 to the eoroo of the South Sea iOands. 



This mod ufeful tree is diftributed very extenfively over 

 the Eall Indian continent and iflands, as well as the innu- 

 merable iflands of the South Seas. It was found by Dam- 

 pier in the Ladrone iflands : it is a native of Amboina, 

 Banda, and others of the Molucca iflands : of Java and others 

 of the Maldivy iflands : of Timor, Balega, and Madura, of 

 Prince's ifland, &c. M. Sonnerat conveyed fome of the trees 

 from the ifland of Lujon to the ifle of France. M. Poivre 

 naturalized them both there and in the ifle of Bourbon : 

 and they are cultivated both in Malabar and Coromandel. 

 In the South Seas both varieties arc ftill found in the 

 Marian iflands, in the New Hebrides, and Friendly iflands ; 

 but moft abundantly in the Society, Marqueza, and Sand- 

 wich iflands. In Otaheite however, and fome others, the 

 evident fuperiority of the ieedlcfs variety for food, hascaufed 

 the other to be neglefttd, and it is confequently almoll 

 worn out. We are informed by captain King, that in the 

 Sandwich iflands thefetreesare planted and flourifli with great 

 luxuriance on rifing grounds ; that they are not indeed in 

 fueh abundance, but that they produce double the quantity 

 of fruit which they do on the rich plains of Otaheite ; that 

 the trees are nearly of the fame hiight, but that the branches 

 begin to ftrike out from the trunk m.uch lower, and with 

 greater luxuriance ; and that the climate of thefe iflands 

 differs very little from that of the Well Indian iflands, 

 which lie in the fame latitude. — This refleftion probably 

 firil fuggefted the idea of conveying this valuable tree to our 

 iflands in the Weil Indies. For this purpofc, his majelly's 

 fhip the Bounty -faikd for the South Seas, on the 23d of 

 December 17^7, under the command of lieutenant William 

 Bligh. But a fatal mutiny prevented the accompliftiment 

 of this bLuevolent defign. His majeily, however, not dif- 

 couraged by the unfortunate event of this voyage, and fully 

 imprtffed with the importance of fecuving fo uietul an article 

 of food as the bread-fruit to our Well Indian iflands, deter- 

 mined, in the year 1 79 1, to empV)y another fliip for a fecond 

 expedition on this ftrvice, and in order to fecure the fuccefs 

 of the voyage as much as pofllble, it was thought proper 

 that two veflels (iMuld proceed together on this important 

 buflnefs. Accordingly, a ftiip of four hundred tons, named 

 the Providence, was engaged for the purpofe, and the com- 

 mand of her given to Captain Bligh ; and a fmall tender called 

 the AfTillant, commanded by lieutenant Nathaniel Portlock. 

 Sir Jofeph Banks, as in the former voyage, directed the 



I 



equipment of the (hip for this particular pnrpofc. Two 

 fliilful gardeners were appointed to fuperinteud the trees ;.nd 

 plant?, fromtheir tranfplantation at Otaheite, to their delivery 

 at Jamaica, and Captain Bligh fet fail on the fecond of 

 Augull 1791. He arrived at Tenerift'e on the twenty- 

 eighth, at St. Jago on the thirteenth of September, and at 

 the cape of Good Hope on the fixth of November. He 

 failed from ther.ce on the nineteenth of December ; arrived 

 at Adventure's bay on the ninth of February 1792, and at 

 Otaheite on the eighth or ninth of April. The buflnefs of 

 procuring and embarking the bread-fruit tree?, &c. took up 

 three months and nine days ; th.ough the natives of Otahe'te 

 gave all poffib'e affiilance to Capt:.'n Bligh and the gar' 

 deners. They failed ou the eighteenth or nineteenth of 

 July ; arrived at Coupang in Timor on the fecond of Oclo— 

 btr ; at St. Helena on the feventeenth of December, and 

 at St. Vincent's on the twenty-fecond of January 1793- 

 Here they ftayed feven days, to leave a part of their cargo, 

 and on the fifth of Fcbruarj' they arrived at Jamaica, and 

 delivered the remainder. The number of plants taken ou 

 board at Otaheite, wzs 2634, in 1 28 1 pots, tubs and cafes ; 

 and of thefe 1151 were bread-fruit trees. When they arri- 

 ved at Coupang, 200 plants were dead, but the reft were 

 in good order. Here they procured ninety-two pots of the 

 fruits of that country. They arrived at St. Helena with- 

 S30 fine bread fruit-trees, befides other plants. Here they 

 left fome of them, with difi"erent fruits of Otaheite and Ti- 

 mor, befides mountain rice and other feeds ; and from henoa 

 the Eafl. Indies may be fupphed with them. On their ar- 

 rival at St. Vincent's, they had 551 cafes, containing 

 fix hundred and feventy-eight bread fruit-trees, befides a 

 great number of other fruits and plants to the number of 

 1245. Near half this cargo was dcpofited here under the 

 care of Mr. Alexander Anderfon, the fuperintendant of his 

 majelly's botanic garden, for the ufc of the Windward 

 Iflands ; and the remainder, intended for the Leeward 

 Iflands, was conveyed to Jamaica, and diilributed as the go- 

 vernor and council of Jamaica pleafed :o diretl. The exaift 

 number of bread-fruit trees brought to Jamaica was 352, 

 out of which five only were referved for the botanic gar- 

 den at Kew. Though the principal object of this voyage 

 was to procure the bread-fruit tree, yet it was not confined . 

 to this only, for the defign was to furnilh the Weil Indian 

 ifles with the moll valuable produftions of the South Seas 

 and the Eafl; Indies. Accordingly, the gardeners were in- 

 ftruited to procure plants of fweet plantain called tneia, the 

 Otaheitean apple or avee, the root called ^cfl/;, of which the 

 iflnnders make a kind of pudding, and a fpecies of yam 

 much larger and better than any in the Well Indies. 

 They were alfo to obtain at Timor and other places in 

 the Eafl; Indies fuch plants and fruits as are uied for food 

 or otherwife by the natives, as the /an/a, matijn//a/r, diiyiori., 

 jamboo, isatica. tchampadhti. hi'imhing, jamlolan, hoi.il'tclarra,falac, 

 hkck, long pepper, &c. together with fome bulhels- of dry or 

 mountain rice, which is cultivated without being overflowed 

 with vrater ; and they were to make themfelvesacquainted 

 with the mode of managing it in order to communicate the 

 fame to the inhabitants of the Well Indiesi Cr.ptain Bligh 

 had the fatisfaclion, before he qtiitted Jamaica, of feeing the 

 trees which he had brought with fo much inccefs, in a 

 moll flourifliing flirte ; ii'.fomuch that no doubt remained 

 of their growing well and ipeedily producing fruit ; an 

 opinion which fubfequent reports have confirmed. But 

 though the fruit has been produced in great abundance, it 

 is faid not yet to have arrived at that high fl;ate of perfec- 

 tion rn which it is defcribed to be at Otaheite. Thunberg 

 fent feeds of the Eall Indian bread-fruit tree from Batavia 



to 



