ke the
chiefs fond of the oranges and limes, by dipping them in sugar, to cover
the acid before it be presented to them to eat. Messrs. Corner and
Hayward were equally zealous in using the most persuasive arguments with
the chiefs to take care of our garden, and rear and propagate the plants
when we were gone; to all which they lent a deaf ear, and treated the
subject with much levity, saying, they might be very good to us, but that
they were already plentifully supplied with every thing they wished or
wanted, and had not occasion for more. But on the Lieutenant's
representing, that if, on our return, they could supply us with plenty of
such articles as we left with them, they in exchange would receive
hatchets, knives, and red cloth, they seemed more favourably inclined to
our project; and I have no doubt but that some after navigators will reap
the benefit of their industry.

The Bread-fruit, although the most delicate and nourishing food upon
earth, is, with people like them, liable to inconveniencies; for in such
a group or Archipelago of islands, whose inhabitants are in such various
gradations of refinement, from the gentle and polished Otaheitean, to the
savage and cannibal Feegee, a war amongst them is often attended with
devastation as well as famine. By cutting round the bark of the
Bread-fruit tree, a whole country may be laid waste for four or five
years, young trees not bearing in less time. Crops, such as Indian corn,
English wheat and peas, that have been left amongst them, can in time of
war be stored in granaries on the top of their almost inaccessible
mountains.

While speaking of the Bread-fruit tree, I can exemplify my subject from
what happened to an island contiguous to Otaheite, whose coast abounded
with fine fish; and the Otaheitans, being themselves too lazy to catch
them, destroyed all the Bread-fruit trees on this little island; by which
act of policy, they are obliged to send over boats with fish regularly to
market, to be supplied with bread in barter from Otaheite. To this island
they likewise send their wives, thinking they become fair by living on
fish, and low diet. They also send boys for the same reason, whom they
keep for abominable purposes.

As to the religion of this country, it is difficult for me to define it.
Their tenets, although equally ignorant of heathen mythology or
theological intricacies, seem to partake of both; and, like other nations
in the early ages of society, a