20 
C 0 O IC ’a VOYAGE, 
Among the vegetable produ&ions of this country, the trees 
claim a principal place ; for here are forrefts of vaft extent, full 
of the llraiteft, the cleaned, and the lagged timber trees that 
we had ever fee'n ; their fize, their grain, and apparent dura- 
bility, render them fit for any kind of building, and indeed 
for every other purpofe except mails ; for which, as I have al- 
ready obferved, they are too hard, and too heavy : there is 
one in particular which, when we were upon the coaft, was 
rendered confpicuous by a fcarlet flower, that feemed to be a 
compendage of many fibres ; it is about as large as- an oak, 
and the w'ood is exceedingly hard and heavy, and excellently 
. adapted to the ufe of the rnill-wright. There is another which 
grows in the fwamps, remaikably tall and llrait, thick enough 
to make mails for velfels of any fize, and, if a judgment may 
be formed by the direction of its grain, very tough : this, ■ 
which, as has been before remarked, our carpenter thought to 
refemble the pitch-pine, may probably be lightened by tap- 
ping, and it will then make the fined mails in the world : it 
has a leaf not unlike a yew, and bears berries in Email bunches. 
Great part of the country is covered with a luxuriant ver- 
dure, and our natural hiftorians were gratified by the novelty, 
if not the variety of the plants, • Sow-thiille, garden night- 
lhade, one or two kinds of grafsl the fame as in England, and 
two or three kinds of fern, like thofe of the Well Indies, with 
a few of the plants that are to be found in alrnofi every part of ' 
the world, were all, out of about four hundred fpecies, that 
have hitherto been defcribed by any botanills, or had been * 
feen elfe where during the courfe of this voyage, except about 
five or fix which had been gathered at Terra del Fuego. 
Of eatable vegetables there are but few ; our people indeed, 
. who had been long at fea, eat, with equal pleafure and ad- 
vantage, of wild celery, and a kind of creffes, which grew in 
great abundance upon all parts of the fea-lhore. We alfo, 
once or twice, met with a plant like what the country people 
in England call Lamb's quarters, or Fat-hen, which we boiled 
inftead of greens ; and once we had the good fortune to find a 
cabbage tree, which afforded us a delicious meal ; and, ex- 
cept the fern-root; and one other -vegetable, totally unknown 1 
in Europe, and which, though eaten by the natives, was ex- 
tremely difagreeable to us, we found no other vegetable pro- 
duction that was fit for food, among thofe that appeared to be 
the wild produce of the country ; and we could find but three 
efculent plants among thofe which are raifed by cultivation , 
yams, fweet potatoes, and coccos. Of the yams and potatoes 
there are plantations confiding of many acres, and I believe 
that any fhip which Ihould happen to be here in the autumn, 
...when they are dug up, might purchafe them in any quantity. 
Gourds are alfo cidU’/ated by the natives of this place, the 
fruit'-' 
