L I E U T E N A N T C O O K ’S V O Y A G E
at the fame time with great earneftnefs, which we did not
immediately underftand; at length we guelTed that they
wifhed thefe fymbols fhould be placed in fome confpicuous
part of the fhip; we, therefore, immediately ftuck them
among the rigging, at which they expreffed the greateft fa-
tisfadfion. We then purchafed their cargoes, confiding of
cocoa-nuts, and various kinds of fruit, which after our long
voyage were very acceptable.
We flood on with an eafy fail all night, with foundings
Thursday 13. from 22 fathom to 12, and about feven o’clock in the morning
we came to an anchor in 13 fathom, in Port-royal bay,
called by the natives Matavai. We were immediately fur-
rounded by the natives in their canoes, who gave us cocoa-
nuts, fruit refembling apples, bread-fruit, and fome fmall
filhes, in exchange for beads and other trifles. They had
with them a pig, which they would not part with for any
thing but a hatchet, and therefore we refufed to purchafe
it ; becaufe.if we gave them a hatchet for a pig now, we
knew they would never afterwards fell one for lefs, and we
could not afford to buy as many as it was probable we fhould
want at that price. The bread-fruit grows on a tree that is
about the fize of a middling oak: its leaves are frequently a
foot and an half long, of an oblong fhape, deeply finuated
like thofe of the fig-tree, which they refemble in confidence
and colour, and in the exuding of a white milky juice upon
being broken. The fruit is about the fize and fhape of a
child’s head, and the furface is reticulated not much unlike
a truffle: it is covered with a thin fkin, and’has a core about
as big as the handle of a fmall kn ife : the eatable part lies
between the fkin and the core ; it is as white as fnow, and
fomewhat of the confidence of new bread : it muft be roafted
before it is eaten, being firft divided into three or four parts:
its
80
1769.
April.