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Auguft.

fhore some cocoa-nuts, and the upper part of 1767.
the tree that bears them, which is called the
cabbage: this cabbage is a white, crifp, juicy
fubftance, which, eaten raw, taftes fomewhat
like a chefnut, but when boiled is fuperior to the
best parfnip; we cut it fmall into the broth that
we made of our portable foup, which was after-
wards thickened with oatmeal, and made a most
comfortable mess: for each of these cabbages
however we were forced to cut down a tree,
and it was with great regret that we destroyed,
in the parent stock, so much fruit, which per-
haps is the most powerful antifcorbutic in the
world; but neceffity has no law. This fupply
of fresh vegetables, and especially the milk, or
rather the water of the nut, recovered our fick
very fast. They also received great benefit and
pleasure from the fruit of a tall tree, that refem-
bles a plum, and particularly that which in the
Weft Indies is called the Jamaica plum; our
men gave it the fame name; it has a pleasant
tartifh tafte, but is a little woody, probably only
for want of culture: thefe plums were not
plenty, fo that having the two qualities of a
dainty, fcarcity and excellence, it is no wonder
that they were held in the higheft eftimation.

The shore about this place is rocky, and the country high and mountainous, but covered with trees of various kinds, fome of which are of an enormous growth, and probably would be ufeful

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1767. Auguft

useful for many purposes. Among others, we found the nutmeg tree in great plenty, and I gathered a few of the nuts, but they were not ripe: they did not indeed appear to be the best fort, but perhaps that is owing partly to their growing wild, and partly to their being too much in the fhade of taller trees. The cocoanut tree is in great perfection, but does not abound. Here are, I believe, all the different kinds of palm, with the beetle-nut tree, various fpecies of the aloe, canes, bamboos, and rattans, with many trees, fhrubs, and plants, altogether unknown to me; but no efculent vegetable of any kind. The woods abound with pigeons, doves, rooks, parrots, and a large bird with black plumage, that makes a noise fomewhat like the barking of a dog; with many others which I can neither name nor describe. Our people faw no quadruped but two of a small size that they took for dogs; the carpenter and another man got a tranfient glimpse of them in the woods as they were cutting fpars for the fhip's ufe, and faid they were very wild, and ran away the moment they saw them with great swiftness. We faw centipieds, fcorpions, and a few serpents of different kinds; but no inhabitants. We fell in however with feveral deferted habitations, and by the fhells that were fcattered about them, and feemed not long to have been taken out of the water, and fome sticks half burnt, the re

mains of a fire, there is reason to conclude that the people had but just left the place when we arrived. If we may judge of the people by that which had been their dwelling, they must stand low even in the scale of favage life; for it was the most miferable hovel we had ever seen.

While we lay here, having cleared and lightened the ship, we heeled her fo as to come at her leak, which the carpenter stopped as well as he could; we found the fheathing greatly decayed, and the bottom much eaten by the worms, but we payed it as far as we could get at it with a mixture of hot pitch and tar boiled together. The carpenter alfo cut down many fpars, for ftudding-fail booms, having but few left. of those which he had brought from England. English Cove lies N. E. N. three or four miles from Wallis's Ifland; there is a small fhoal on the starboard hand going in, which will be easily seen by the fea's breaking upon it. The water ebbs and flows once in four and twenty hours; the flood came in about nine or ten o'clock, and it was high water between three and four in the afternoon, after which it ebbed all night, and was low water about fix in the morning. The water rifes and falls between eight and nine feet, fometimes more, sometimes lefs; but I doubt whether this fluctuation is not rather the effect of the fea and land breeze, than of a regular tide. We anchored here

1767. Auguft.

1767. Auguft.

September. Monday 7.

with our best bower in twenty-feven fathom
water, with a bottom of fand and mud; we
veered into the cove a cable and a half from the
anchor, moored head and stern with the stream
anchor, and steadied with hawfers on each bow;
the ship then lay in ten fathom, at the distance
of a cable's length from the shore at the bottom
of the Cove, Wallis's Point bearing S. W.
S., diftant about three or four miles. At this
place there is plenty of excellent wood and wa-
ter, and good shingle ballaft. The variation
was 6o E.

On Monday the 7th of September, I weighed anchor, but before I failed, I took poffeffion of this country, with all its islands, bays, ports, and harbours, for his Majefty George the Third, King of Great Britain; and we nailed upon a high tree a piece of board, faced with lead, on which was engraved the English Union, with the name of the ship, and her commander, the name of the Cove, and the time of her coming in and failing out of it. While we lay here, I fent the boat out to examine the harbours upon the coast, from one of which expe ditions the returned with a load of cocoa-nuts, which she procured in a fine little harbour, about four leagues W. N. W. from the ftation we were in. The officer on board reported that the trees grew where he had gathered the fruit great plenty; but as he had observed that se

in

1767. September.

veral of them were marked, and that there were many huts of the natives near them, I did not think it proper that the boat fhould return: Monday 76 but the refreshment which now offered was of fuch importance to the fick, that I determined to go into the harbour with the ship, and place her fo as to protect the men who fhould be employed to fell the trees, and cut off the cabbages and the fruit. We failed from English Cove with the land breeze early in the morning, and in the evening secured the fhip a-breast of the grove, where the cocoa-nuts had been gathered, and at very little distance from the fhore. Here we procured above a thousand cocoa-nuts, and as many of the cabbages as we could use while they were good, and I would have staid long enough to have given my people all the refreshments they wanted, but the season of the year made the shortest delay dangerous. There was too much reason to fuppofe that the lives of all on board depended upon our getting to Batavia while the monsoon continued to blow from the eaftward; there was indeed time enough for any other ship to have gone three times the distance, but I knew it was fcarcely fufficient for the Swallow in her prefent condition; and that if we should be obliged to continue here another feafon, it would probably become impoffible to navigate her at all, especially as she had but a fingle sheathing, and her bottom was not filled

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