16 BREAD-FRUIT. 
sailing-master under Captain Cook, having 
been for four years with that great navigator 
in the Resolution. He was appointed in 
August, 1787, both commander and purser of 
the Bounty, which was stored and victualled 
for eighteen months. Besides this provision, 
he had supplies of portable soup, essence of 
meat, sour krout, and dried malt ; to which 
were added some articles of iron and steel, 
trinkets, beads, and looking-glasses, for traffic 
with the natives. The plants, the best he 
could obtain, he was to convey to the West 
Indies, in order to attempt their growth for the 
support of the slave population ; it having 
been the opinion of Sir Joseph Banks, who 
had visited Otaheite with Captain Cook in 
1769, that the bread-fruit-tree might be 
successfully cultivated in those colonies. 
The bread-fruit grows on a tree, which is 
about the size of a common oak, and, towards 
the top, divides into large and spreading 
branches. The leaves are of a very deep 
green. The fruit springs from twigs to the 
size of a penny loaf. It has a thick rind ; 
and before becoming ripe, it is gathered, and 
baked in an oven, when the inner part is like 
