en
several canoes were seen making towards the ship. There were but few of
them, however, that would come near; and the people in those that did,
could not be persuaded to come on board. In every canoe there were young
plantains, and branches of a tree which the Indians call _E'Midho_;
these, as we afterwards learnt, were brought as tokens of peace and
amity; and the people in one of the canoes handed them up the ship's
side, making signals at the same time with great earnestness, which we
did not immediately understand; at length we guessed that they wished
these symbols should be placed in some conspicuous part of the ship; we,
therefore, immediately stuck them among the rigging, at which they
expressed the greatest satisfaction. We then purchased their cargoes,
consisting of cocoa-nuts, and various kinds of fruit, which, after our
long voyage, were very acceptable.

We stood on with an easy sail all night, with soundings from twenty-two
fathom to twelve; and about seven o'clock in the morning we came to an
anchor in thirteen fathom in Port-Royal Bay, called by the natives
Matavai. We were immediately surrounded by the natives in their canoes,
who gave us cocoa-nuts, fruit resembling apples, bread-fruit, and some
small fishes, in exchange for beads and other trifles. They had with
them a pig, which they would not part with for any thing but a hatchet,
and therefore we refused to purchase it; because, if we gave them a
hatchet for a pig now, we knew they would never afterwards sell one for
less, and we could not afford to buy as many as it was probable we
should want at that price. The bread-fruit grows on a tree that is about
the size of a middling oak: Its leaves are frequently a foot and an half
long, of an oblong shape, deeply sinuated like those of the fig-tree,
which they resemble in consistence and colour, and in the exuding of a
white milky juice upon being broken. The fruit is about the size and
shape of a child's head, and the surface is reticulated not much unlike
a truffle: It is covered with a thin skin, and has a core about as big
as the handle of a small knife: The eatable part lies between the skin
and the core; it is as white as snow, and somewhat of the consistence of
new bread. It must be roasted before it is eaten, being first divided
into three or four parts. Its taste is insipid, with a slight sweetness
somewhat resembling that of the crumb of wheaten-bread mixed with a
Jerusalem artichoke.[87]