APPENDIX. 
543 
starch ;— made into poye^ with raw fish, it is considered one of their 
greatest luxuries, and the natives say it occasions their corpulency. The 
islanders are subject to a disease of the skin which they call crawcraws 
— a species of leprosy, — and for which they undergo a course of the kava- 
root, which is a powerful alterative and narcotic. They are also much 
afflicted with ulcerations, which are very difficult to heal, in consequence 
of the torpor of the circulation. When the missionaries arrived, infanti- 
cide was of frequent occurrence : a drastic-purgative indigenous bean was 
used, which occasionally destroyed the mother, and seldom failed in pro- 
ducing abortion. This horrid practice has been discontinued through th& 
influence of the missionaries. The population of Honoruru is estimated 
at seven' thousand, and the town is healthy. 
Sailed for the Society Islands on the 15th of August, and crossed the 
equator on -the 5th of September, in 5° west longitude, with the ther- 
mometer at 80°, and tlie southeast tradewinds ; at this time there were 
twenty-four on the sick-list.. For several days previous we had calms 
and rains, with the thermometer at 90° ; the tradewinds continued until 
we arrived at Otaheite, after a passage of twenty-eighli days, during which 
time the sick-list averaged tv^renty-four ; there iiaving been twelve cases 
of intermittent fever ; the chronic cases of dysentery convalesced very 
slowly, and continued to crowd the sick-report. 
The Potomac remained six days at Otaheite, during which time the 
crew were kept hard at work on shore watering sliip. They indulged 
freely in tropical fruits ; yet they remained healthy, in consequence of their 
not being able to procure ardent spirits, which they drank to excess at 
Oahu. Here we lost one of the crew from concealed strangulated ingui- 
nal hernia. The latitude of this port is 16° south; dysenteries are more 
frequently met with here than at the Sandwich Islands. The natives are 
not so large, and the females more delicately formed : many whiten tlreir 
skin with 'the juice of the papa, an indigenous plant, and avoid the sun to^ 
improve their complexions. 
Those missionaries who remain some time- on the island seldom escape- 
being attacked with elephantiasis. I met witli several of them who were 
labouring under this disease, in air aggravated form ; the natives also suffer 
much from it. 
Tlieir diet consists of vegetables and fish ; the breadfruit constitutes a. 
large portion ; and as all the tropical fruits are here produced spontane- 
ously, labour is not necessary, and their lives are consequently inactive: 
and indolent. 
Sailed on the 20th ; our course was southeast until we arrived in the thir- 
ty-fifth degree of south latitude, where we met with fresh westerly winds that 
continued until our arrival on the west coast of South America. Through- 
out the passage we encountered much boisterous and wet weatlier ; the 
thermometer changed from 84° to 55°, whicli was lower than it had been 
since our sailing from New- York ; which, together witli the wet, uncom- 
fortable state of the ship, produced several cases of pleurisy, inflamed 
tonsils, rheumatisms, and intermittent fever. The average on the sick- 
list during the passage was thirty-six, of which twenty-two were admitted 
with rheumatism, and fifteen with pleurisy. 
We arrived at Valparaiso, after a passage of thirty-four days, on the 
