chest productions of nature, such as bread-fruit,
cocoa-nut trees, plantains, bananoes, shaddocks, yams, and some other
roots, sugar-cane, and a fruit like a nectarine, called by them
_Fighegea_, and at Otaheite _Ahuya_: In short, here are most of
the articles which the Society Islands produce, besides some which they
have not. Mr Forster tells me, that he not only found the same plants here
that are at Otaheite and the neighbouring isles, but several others which
are not to be met with there. And I probably have added to their stock of
vegetables, by leaving with them an assortment of garden seeds, pulse, &c.
Bread-fruit here, as well as at all the other isles, was not in season; nor
was this the time for roots and shaddocks. We got the latter only at
Middleburg.

The produce and cultivation of this isle is the same as at Amsterdam; with
this difference, that a part only of the former is cultivated, whereas the
whole of the latter is. The lanes or roads necessary for travelling, are
laid out in so judicious a manner, as to open a free and easy communication
from one part of the island to the other. Here are no towns or villages;
most of the houses are built in the plantations, with no other order than
what conveniency requires; they are neatly constructed, but do not exceed
those in the other isles. The materials of which they are built are the
same; and some little variation in the disposition of the framing, is all
the difference in their construction. The floor is a little raised, and
covered with thick strong mats; the same sort of matting serves to inclose
them on the windward side, the other being open. They have little areas
before the most of them, which are generally planted round with trees, or
shrubs of ornament, whose fragrancy perfumes the very air in which they
breathe. Their household furniture consists of a few wooden platters,
cocoa-nut shells, and some neat wooden pillows shaped like four-footed
stools or forms. Their common clothing, with the addition of a mat, serves
them for bedding. We got from them two or three earthen vessels, which were
all we saw among them. One was in the shape of a bomb-shell, with two boles
in it, opposite each other; the others were like pipkins, containing about
five or six pints, and had been in use on the fire. I am of opinion they
are the manufacture of some other isle; for, if they were of their own, we
ought to have seen more of them. Nor am I to suppose they came from