APR. 1769 LAGOON ISLAND 69 has something in it that puts me in mind of the scurvy, took up the lemon-juice put up by Dr. Hulme's direction, and found that that which was concentrated by evaporating six gallons into less than two has kept as well as anything could do. The small cag, in which was lemon-juice with one-fifth of brandy, was also very good, though a large part of it had leaked out by some fault in the cag: this, therefore, I began to make use of immediately, drinking very weak punch made with it for my common liquor. 4th. At ten this morning my servant, Peter Briscoe, saw land which we had almost passed by; we stood towards it, and found it to be a small island (Lagoon Island) about a mile and a half or two miles in length; those who were upon the topmast-head perceived it to be nearly circular, and to have a lagoon or pool of water in the middle, which occupied by far the largest part of the island. About noon we were close to it, within a mile or thereabouts, and distinctly saw inhabitants, of whom we counted twenty-four; they appeared to us through our glasses to be tall and to have very large heads, or possibly much hair upon them; eleven of them walked along the beach abreast of the ship, each with a pole or pike as long again as himself in his hand. Every one of them was stark naked, and appeared of a brown copper colour; as soon, however, as the ship had fairly passed the island they retired higher up on the beach and seemed to put on some clothes, or at least cover themselves with something which made them appear of a light colour. The island was covered with trees of many different verdures the palms or cocoanut trees we could plainly distinguish, particularly two that were amazingly taller than their fellows, and at a distance bore a great resemblance to flags. The land seemed very low; though at a distance several parts of it had appeared high, yet when we came near them they proved to be clumps of palms. Under the shade of these were the houses of the natives, in spots cleared of all underwood, so that pleasanter groves cannot be imagined, at least so they appeared to us, whose eyes had so long been unused to any other object than water and sky. After dinner, land was again seen, with which we came up at sunset; it proved a small island, not more than threequarters of a mile in length, but almost round. We ran within less than a mile of it, but saw no signs of inhabitants, or any cocoanut trees, or indeed any that bore the least resemblance to palms, though there were many sorts of trees, or at least many varieties of verdure. In the neighbourhood of both this and the other island were many birds, man-of-war birds, and a small black sort of Sterna with a white spot on its head, which the seamen called noddies, but said that they were much smaller than the West Indian noddies. While we were near the island a large fish was taken with a towing-line baited with a piece of pork rind cut like a swallow's tail; the seamen called it a king-fish (Scomber lanceolatus). 9th. It is now almost night, and time for me to wind up the clue of my this day's lucubrations; so, as we have found no island, I shall employ the time and paper which I had allotted to describe one in a work which I am sure will be more useful, if not more entertaining, to all future navigators, by describing the method which we took to cure cabbage in England. This cabbage we have eaten every day since we left Cape Horn, and have now good store remaining; as good, to our palates at least, and fully as green and pleasing to the eye as if it were bought fresh every morning at Covent Garden Market. Our steward has given me the receipt, which I shall copy exactly—false spelling excepted. Take a strong iron-bound cask, for no weak or woodenbound one should ever be trusted in a long voyage. Take out the head, and when the whole is well cleaned, cover the bottom with salt; then take the cabbage, and, stripping off the outside leaves, take the rest leaf by leaf till you come to the heart, which cut into four. Lay these leaves and heart about two or three inches thick upon the salt, and sprinkle salt freely over them; then lay cabbage upon the salt, stratum super stratum, till the cask is full. Then lay on the head of the cask with a weight which, in five or six APR. 1769 SCURVY AND LEMON JUICE 71 days, will have pressed the cabbage into a much smaller compass. After this, fill up the cask with more cabbage, as before directed, and head it up. N.B. The cabbage should be gathered in dry weather, some time after sunrise, so that the dew may not be upon it. Halves of cabbages are better for keeping than single leaves. 10th. Weather very hazy and thick: about nine it cleared up a little, and showed us Osnaburg Island, discovered by the Dolphin in her last voyage. About one o'clock land was seen ahead in the direction of George's Land; it was, however, so faint that very few could see it. 11th. Up at five this morning to examine a shark caught yesterday evening: it proves to be a blue shark (Squalus glaucus). To-day we caught two more, which were the common gray shark (Squalus carcharias), on which were some sucking-fish (Echeneis remora). men tell us that the blue shark is the worst of all to eat; indeed, its smell is abominably strong, so as we have two of the better sort it was hove overboard. one of The sea As I am now on the brink of going ashore after a long passage, thank God, in as good health as man can be, I shall fill a little paper in describing the means which I have taken to prevent the scurvy in particular. The ship was supplied by the Admiralty with sour-crout, of which I eat constantly, till our salted cabbage was opened, which I preferred: as a pleasant substitute, wort was served out almost constantly, and of this I drank a pint or more every evening, but all this did not check the distemper so entirely as to prevent my feeling some small effect of it. About a fortnight ago my gums swelled, and some small pimples rose on the inside of my mouth, which threatened to become ulcers; I then flew to the lemon juice, which had been put up for me according to Dr. Hulme's method, described in his book, and in his letter, which is inserted here. Every kind of liquor which I used was made sour 1 1 To J. BANKS, Esq., Burlington Street.-Sir-The vessels containing the orange and lemon juice, sent by Dr. Fothergill, were to be marked, that you might know their contents; but lest in the hurry of sending them that with the lemon juice No. 3, so that I took nearly six ounces a day of it; the effect of this was surprising, in less than a week my gums became as firm as ever, and at this time I am troubled with nothing but a few pimples on my face, which have not deterred me from leaving off the juice entirely. circumstance should have been neglected, I will take the liberty to explain them. The case No. 1 contains six gallons of lemon juice evaporated down to less than two gallons. The large cask, No. 2, contains seven gallons of orange juice and one gallon of brandy. The small cask, No. 3, contains five quarts of lemon juice and one of brandy. When you come to make use of the juice which is in the casks, do not open the bung-hole, but draw it off at the end of the cask by means of a wooden cock, and make a vent-hole with a peg in it at the top of the cask; and always observe this method when you draw off the juice you keep in casks. It would not be amiss if you were to take out with you several wooden cocks, lest any should be lost or broken; and perhaps two or three strong iron-bound casks, holding ten gallons apiece, might be very useful for taking in a quantity of orange, lemon or lime juice, when you touch at any place abroad where those fruits grow. Besides the juices I would recommend to you to carry out a quantity of molasses, and two or three pounds of the best Chio and Strasburg turpentine, in order to brew beer with for your daily drink when your water becomes bad. So small a quantity of molasses as two gallons, or two gallons and a half, are said to be sufficient for making an hogshead of tolerably good beer, and this method of brewing beer at sea will be peculiarly useful in case you should have stinking water on board; for I find by experiments that the smell of stinking water will be entirely destroyed by the process of fermentation. I sincerely wish you and your companions a most prosperous voyage and a safe return to old England, loaded with all the honours you so justly deserve,—and am, sir, your most humble servant, HATTON GARDEN, August 1, 1768. N. HULME. CHAPTER V OTAHITE APRIL 13-JULY 12, 1769 Reception by natives-Peace offerings and ceremonies-Thieving-Natives fired upon-Death of Mr. Buchan, the artist-Lycurgus and HerculesTents erected-An honest native-Flies-Music-A foreign axe found -Thefts- Names of the natives - The Dolphin's queen-Quadrant stolen - Dootahah made prisoner - Visit to Dootahah - WrestlingTubourai offended-Natives at divine service-Cask stolen-Natives swimming in surf-Imao-Transit of Venus-Nails stolen by sailorsMourning-Previous visit of foreign ships-Banks takes part in a native funeral ceremony-Travelling musicians-Canoes seized for thefts-Dogs as food-Circumnavigation of the island-Image of man made of basketwork-Gigantic buildings (marai)—Battlefield-Return to station-Breadfruit-Excursion inland-Volcanic nature of the island-Seeds planted -Dismantling the fort-Banks engages a native to go to England. 13th. This morning early we came to an anchor in Port-royal by King George-the-Third's Island. Before the anchor was down we were surrounded by a large number of canoes, the people trading very quietly and civilly, chiefly for beads, in exchange for which they gave cocoanuts, breadfruit both roasted and raw, some small fish and apples. They had one pig with them which they refused to sell for nails upon any account, but repeatedly offered it for a hatchet; of these we had very few on board, so thought it better to let the pig go than to give one of them in exchange, knowing, on the authority of those who had been here before, that if we did so they would never lower their price. As soon as the anchors were well down the boats were hoisted out, and we all went ashore, where we were met by some hundreds of the inhabitants, whose faces at least gave |