date oven is used), the breadfruit is cut in three or four slices, and then 

 alternate layers of hot stones, leaves and cut fruit are well covered with 

 leaves and earth and left to cook in their own juices. Prepared in this 

 fashion the pulpy interior is a faintly sweet, starchy substance suggesting 

 the crumb of a wheaten loaf. I cannot say that I regard it as more than 

 a poor substitute for our white bread, but — de gustibus. However, Alfred 

 R, Wallace, in his Malay Archipelago, rates its food-value very high, and 

 says that with meat and gravy it seemed to him superior to any starchy pro- 

 duct in any temperate or tropical country. He also draws attention to the 

 delicious puddings that can be made from it - especially if one adds plenty 

 of sugar, milk and butter 1 Perhaps the most important consideration, as 

 Wallace also points out, is that a fair quality of flour can be manufactured 

 from the dried fruit, available for a decent variety of bread and biscuits, 

 I suppose there is no harm in adding that the bark, trunk and gum of this 

 tree is (or was) used by the natives of Polynesia for making all sorts of 

 things - canoes, baskets, etc. 



For me the chief attraction of this subject lies in the fact that 

 we have sailed relatively near the scene of the greatest breadfruit story 

 in all history. I cannot, therefore, resist speaking about it, although it 

 is to you a more than twice-told tale* I first ran across the story of the 

 Pacific Breadfruit, when, as a small boy I was eagerly reading that wonder- 

 ful story, more fascinating than any dime novel, the adventures of the crew 

 of H.M.S'. "Bounty". I owe my maternal grandfather, a naval captain, a con- 

 siderable debt for passing on to me when I was still a boy a collection of 

 books that included an account of this great adventure. 



Much of it was devoted to the exploits of ships and sailormen that are 

 the common heritage of all the Anglo-Saxon races. 



In 1772, William Bligh, then only 18 ygars of age, accompanied Captain 

 Cook on his second expedition to the South Seas (1772 - 1774) as sailing 

 master of the "Resolution". The young man was greatly interested in the 

 new world that was in this way opened up to him, and made a particular study 

 of the Polynesian flora and fauna. When the expedition reached Otaheite 

 (Tahiti) Bligh became acquainted with the wonderful Breadfruit, and talked 

 and vrate so much about it that his fellow officers nicknamed him 'Bread- 

 fruit Bligh'. At the end of 1787 he was sent to Polynesia in command of 

 H.M.S. "Bounty" to gather breadfruit and other plants for cultivation in the 

 West Indies. The expedition gained Otaheite in the spring of 1783. What 

 happened shortly afterwards is told by Lieut. Bligh in a small volume en- 

 titled "The Mutiny on Board "Bounty". - "We sailed from Otaheite April 4, 

 1788, having on board 1015 fine breadfruit plants besides many other valuable 

 fruits of that country which we had been collecting for three and twenty 

 weeks, and which were in the highest state of perfection." Two weeks later 

 he was seized in his cabin by the ship's master of arms and two others of 

 the crew, pinioned and threatened with death if he made resistance. The 

 crew also seized most of the other officers and gained control of the ship. 

 The captain and 17 others were forced into the ship's longboat, 25 mutineers 

 remaining on board. Lieut, Bligh and the seventeen, touching at several 

 Islands by ^he way, -finally reached Batavia and eventually England. The 

 Mutineers sailed the "Bounty" to Tahiti, where most of them elected to re- 

 main. Six of these were later apprehended, taken to England, placed on 

 trial and three xvere executed. Meantime, in 1790, Fletcher Christian, the 



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