Of eatable vegetables there are but few; our people, indeed, who had been long at sea, eat, with equal pleasure and advantage, of wild celery, and a kind of cresses, which grew in great abundance upon all parts of the sea-shore. We also, once or twice, met with a plant like what the country people in England call Lamb’s quarters, or Fat-hen, which we boiled instead of greens; and once we had the good fortune to find a cabbage tree, which afforded us a delicious meal; and, except the fern-root, and one other vegetable, totally unknown in Europe, and which, though eaten by the natives, was extremely disagreeable to us, we found no other vegetable production that was fit for food, among those that appeared to be the wild produce of the country; and we could find but three esculent plants among those which are raised by cultivation, yams, sweet potatoes, and coccos. Of the yams and potatoes there are plantations consisting of many acres, and I believe that any ship which should happen to be here in the autumn, when they are dug up, might purchase them in any quantity.

Gourds are also cultivated by the natives of this place, the fruit of which furnishes them with vessels for various uses. We also found here the Chinese paper mulberry tree, the same as that of which the inhabitants of the South Sea islands make their cloth; but it is so scarce, that though the New Zealanders also make cloth of it, they have not enough for any other purpose than to wear as an ornament in the holes which they make in their ears, as I have observed before.

Voyaging Accounts