Their victuals they generaly dress by broiling or toasting them upon the coals, so we judg’d by the remains we saw; they knew however the method of baking or stewing with hot stones and sometimes practis’d it, as we now and then saw the pits and burnd stones which had been made use of for that purpose.

We observd that some tho but few held constantly in their mouths the leaves of an herb which they chewd as a European does tobacca or an East Indian Betele. What sort of plant it was we had not an opportunity of learning as we never saw any thing but the chaws which they took from their mouths to shew us; it might be of the Betele kind and so far as we could judge from the fragments was so, but whatever it was it was usd without any addition and seemd to have no kind of effect upon either the teeth or lips

Voyaging Accounts