CHAP, XXXVl,] 



SCARCITY OF FOOD. 



535 



\v;is vety rarely we could purchase a little fish ; fowk there 

 were none j and we wer-e reduced to live upon tough 

 pigeons and cockatoos, with our rice and sago, and sorne- 

 tiiiies we could not get these, Haviuf? been already eight 

 months on this voynge, ray st^ick of all (iondirnents, spices 

 and butter, was exhausted, and I found it impossible to 

 eat sufficient of ray tasteless and unpalatable food to 

 support health. I got very tbin and weak, and had a 

 curious disease known (I have since beard) as brow-ague. 

 Directly after bivakfast ever^ morning an intense pain set 

 in on a STnall spot on tlie right temple. It was a severe 

 burning ache, as bad as the worst tootbache, and lasted 

 about two hours, generally going ^M at noon. When this 

 finally ceiised, I had an attack of fever, winch left me so 

 weak and so unable to eat our regular food, that I feel 

 sure n^y life waa saved by a couple of tins of soup which 

 I had long Reserved for some such extremity. I used ofk'n 

 to go out searching after vegetables, and found a great 

 treasure in a lot of tomato plants run wild, and bearing 

 little fniits about the size of gooseberries. I also boiled 

 up the tops of pumpkin plants and of ferns, by way of 

 greens, and occasionally got a few green papaws. The 

 natives, when hard up for food, live upon a fleshy sea- 

 weed, which they boil till it is tender. I trit-d this also, 

 but found it too salt and bitter to be endured. 



Towards the end of Sei>tembcr it became absolutely 

 necessary for me to return, in order to make our home- 

 ward voyage before the end of the east monsoon. Jlost 

 of the men who had taken payment from nie had brought 

 the birds they liad agreed for. One poor fellow bad been 

 so unfortunate as not to get one, and be very honestly 

 brought back the axe he had received in advance; 

 another, who had agreed for six, brought me the fifth 

 two days before I was to start, and went otT immediately 

 to the forest again t-o get the other, lie did not return, 

 however, and we loaded our boat, and were just on the 

 point of starting, when he came running down after us 

 holding up a bird, which he handed to me, saying with 

 great satisfaction, *'Now I owe you nothing." These were 

 remarkable and quite imicxpected instances of honesty 

 among savages, where it would have been very easy for 



