1769. The produce of this illand is bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, ba-
•nanas, .of. thirteen forts, the beft we had ever eaten; plantains
; a fruit not unlike an apple, which, when ripe, is very
pleafant; fweet potatoes, yams, cocoas, a kind o f Arum; a fruit
known here by the name of Jamba, and reckoned moll delicious
; fugar cane, which the inhabitants eat raw ; a root of
the falop kind, called by the inhabitants Pea; a plant called
dithee, of which the root only is eaten; a fruit that grows in
a pod, like that of a large kidney-bean, which, when it is
roafled, eats very much like a chefnut, by the natives called
Ahee; a tree called Wharra, called in the Eaft Indies Pandanes,
which produces fruit, fomething like the pine-apple ; a fhrub
called .Norm-, the Morinda, which alfo produces fru it ; a fpecies
o f fern, of which the root is eaten, and fometimes the
leaves; and a plant called Theve, o f which the root alfo is
eaten : but the fruits of the Norn, the fern, and the Theve,
are eaten only by the inferior people, and in times of fcar-
city. All thefe, which ferve the inhabitants for food, the
earth produces fpontaneoufly, or with fo little culture, that
they feem to be exempted from the fird general curfe, that
“ man fhould eat his bread in the fweat of his brow.” They
have alfo the Chinefe paper mulberry, moms papyrifera,
which they call Aouta; a tree refembling the wild fig-tree of
the W edlndies; another fpecies of fig, which they call Matte-,
the .cordia febejlina orientalis, which they call Etou; a kind of
Cyperus grafs, which they call Moo; a fpecies of tournefortia,
which they call Taheinoo,; another of the convolvulus poluce
which they call Eurhe-, the folanum cent 'ifolium, which they call
Ebooa ; the calophyllum mophylum, which they call Tamannu-, the
hibifcus tiliaceus, called Poerou, a frutefcent nettle ; the urtica,
argentea, called Erowa; with many other plants which cannot
here be particularly mentioned: thofe that have been named
already, w ill be referred to in the fubfequent part of this work*
They have no European fruit, garden fluff, pulfe, or legumes,
nor grain of any kind.
Of tame animals they have only hogs, dogs, and poultry;
neither is there a wild animal in the illand, except ducks,
pigeons, paroquets, with a few other birds, and rats, there
being no other quadruped, nor any ferpent. But the fea
fupplies them with great variety of moll excellent fifh, to
eat which is their chief luxury, and to catch it their principal
labour.
As to the people they are of the larged fize of Europeans.
The men are tall, flrong, well-limbed, and finely fhaped.
The tailed: that we faw was a man upon a neighbouring
illand, called H u a h e i n e , who meafured fix feet three inches
and an half. The women of the fuperior rank are alfo in
general above our middle ftature, but thofe of the inferior
clafs are rather below it, and fome of them are very fmall.
This defect in fize probably proceeds from their early commerce
with men, the only thing in which they differ from
their fuperiors, that could poffibly affedt their growth.
Their natural complexion is that kind of clear olive, or
Brunette, which many people in Europe prefer to the fined
white and red. In thofe that are expofed to the wind and
fun, it is confiderably deepened, but in others that live under
fhelter, efpecially the fuperior clafs of women, it continues
of its native hue, and the fkin is mod delicately fmooth and
foft; they have no tint in their cheeks, which we difttnguilh
by the name of colour. The fhape of the face is comely,
the cheek bones are not high, neither are the eyes hollow,
nor the brow prominent: the only feature that does not cor-
refpond with our ideas of beauty is the nofe, which, in general,
is fomewhat flat; but their eyes, efpecially thofe of
the women, are full of expreflion, fometimes fparkling with
Vop. II, B b fire.
l769-
Perfons.