t?74*
March.
being probably no other land-birds on the ifland than the
common fowl» which were tame and extremely fcarce. We
followed one of* the paths which the natives had made, till
we came to a cultivated fpot, confiding of feveral fields
planted with fweet potatoes, yams, and - eddoes, together
with a fpecies of night-fhade, which is, made ule of at Tat-
heite-e and the neighbouring id&nds as a vulnerary remedy,.
(folanum. nigrum?•). and, may, for ought I, know,, be culti,
vated here for the fame purpofe. The grafs, which comr
monly fprings up among- the ftones on the uncultivated
foil, was here carefully- plucked up, and fpread over the,:
whole plantation as a manure, or perhaps to preferve.it in
fome meafure from the parching beams-of the fun- It
fhould feem from thefe circumdances that, the natives are
not altogether ignorant of rural ceconomy, . and' till, the
ground at a great expence of time and labour.. At a little-
didance from thefe fields we met with two huts, condruct-
ed exadlly like that which I-have mentioned page 5.6.9, but
much fmaller. The entrance was- fiopped up with a great
quantity of fmall brufhwood, and we at-fird imagined: that ;
we heaid the voices of women within, but. after lidening
for fome time we heardmothing farther to confirm us in
this belief. We rambled from thence to the top o f a hil-
lock covered with Ihrubberies, which we found to -confift
of nothing but a fpecies of mimofa, that:fearedy attained .the
height of eight feet„and afforded us very little fhelter from,
the-
5 7 9
the fun. Here we reded a while, and then defeended M’ ” 4.p
by a different route into another fet of fields, which were
treated in the fame manner as the red. None of them had
any fort of enclofures, though the hidorians of Rogge-
wein’s voyage, who feem to have confulted fancy more
than truth, make mention of them. The encreafing heat
of the day had entirely exhauded us, when we had dill a
condderable way to make down to the fea-fide. Fortunately
we palfed by a native who was at work, gathering potatoes
in one of the fields. We complained of great third to
him, upon which, though he was on old man, he immediately
ran to a large plantation of fugar-canes, and brought
us a great load of the bed and juicied on his back. We
made him fome prefents in return for them, cut them into
walking-dicks, and, as we went along, gradually peeled
and fucked them, finding their juice extremely refrefhing.
At our return to the landing-place we found captain
Cook dill occupied in trading with the inhabitants, who
brought him fome fowls ready dreffed, and fome matted
bafkets full of fweet potato*es, but fometimes deceived him
by filling the bafket with ftones, and only laying a few
potatoes at the top. The mod valuable article of trade on
our part were empty coco-nut fhells, which we had received
at the Society and Friendly Idands; but they were
not current, unlefs the hole in them was very fmall, or un-
lefs they had a cover. The Taheitian and European cloths
4 E 2 were