manner as fpruce beer, and the procefs is as follows: firft,
make a ftrong decoction of the fmall branches of the fpruce
and tea plants, by boiling them three or four hours, or until
the bark will ftrip with eafe from off the branches; then
take them out of the copper, and put in the proper quantity
of melafles; ten gallons of which is fufficient to make a ton
or two hundred and forty gallons of beer; let this mixture
juft boil; then put it into the calks; and, to it, add an equal
quantity of cold water, more or lefs according to the ftrength
of the decoftion, or your tafte i when the whole is milk-warm,
put in a little grounds of beer, or yeaft if you have it, or any
thing elfe that will caufe fermentation, and in a few days
the beer will be fit to drink. After the calks have been
brewed in two or three times, the beer will generally ferment
itfelf, efpecially if the weather is warm. As I had
infpiflated juice of wort on board, and could not apply.it to a
better purpofe, we ufed it together with melafles or fugar, to
make thefe two articles go farther. For of the former I had
but one calk, and of the latter little to fpare for this brewing.
Had I known how well this beer would have fucceeded,
and the great ufe it was of to the people, .1 Ihould have
come better provided. Indeed I was partly difcouraged by
an experiment made during my former voyage; which did
not fucceed then, owing, as I now believe, to fome mif-
management.
Any one who is in the leaft acquainted with fpruce pines,
will find the tree which I have diftinguilhed by that name.
There are three forts of it; that which has the fmalleft
leaves and deepeft colour, is the fort we brewed with, but
doubtlefs all three might fafely ferve that purpofe. The tea
plant is a fmall tree or lhrub, with five white petals, or
flower-leaves, lhaped like thole of a rofe, having fmaller
ones
ones of the fame figure in the intermediate fpaces, and
twenty or more filaments or threads. The tree fometimes 1-----
grows to a moderate height, and is generally bare on the
lower part, with a number of fmall branches growing clofe
together towards the top. The leaves are fmall and pointed,
like thofe of the myrtle; it bears a dry roundilh feed cafe,
and grows commonly in dry places near the fhores. The
leaves, as 1 have already obferved, were ufed by many of us
as tea, which has a very agreeable bitter, and flavour, when
they are recent, but lofes fome of both when they are dried.
When the infufion was made ftrong, it proved emetic to fome,
in the fame manner as green tea.
The inhabitants of this bay are of the fame race of people
with thofe in the other parts of this country, fpeak the
fame language, and obferve nearly the fame cuftoms. Thefe
indeed feem to have a cuftom of making prefents before
they receive any; in which they come nearer to the Ota-
heiteans than the reft of their countrymen. What could induce
three or four families (for I believe there are not more)
to feparate themfelves fo far from the fociety of the reft of
their fellow-creatures, is not eafy to guefs. By our meeting
with inhabitants in this place, it feems probable that
there are people fcattered over all this fouthern iflamd. But
the many veftiges of them in different parts of this bay,
compared with the number that we adtually faw, indicates
that they live a wandering life; and, if one may judge from
appearances and circumftances, few as they are, they live
not in perfect amity one family with another. For, if they
did, why do they not form themfelves into fome fociety ? a
thing not only natural to man, but obferved even by the
brute creation.
Ifhall