from the shore some cocoa-nuts, and the upper part of the tree that bears them, which is called the cabbage:  This cabbage is a white, crisp, juicy substance, which, eaten raw, tastes somewhat like a chesnut, but when boiled is superior to the best parsnip; we cut it small into the broth that we made of our portable soup, which was afterwards thickened with oatmeal, and made a most comfortable mess:  For each of these cabbages, however, we were forced to cut down a tree; and it was with great regret that we destroyed, in the parent stock, so much fruit, which perhaps is the most powerful antiscorbutic in the world; but necessity has no law.  This supply of fresh vegetable, and especially the milk, or rather the water of the nut, recovered our sick very fast.  They also received great benefit and pleasure from the fruit of a tall tree, that resembles a plum, and particularly that which in the West Indies is called the Jamaica Plum.  Our men gave it the same name; it has a pleasant tartish taste, but is a little woody, probably only for want of culture:  These plums were not plenty; so that having the two qualities of a dainty, scarcity and excellence, it is no wonder that they were held in the highest estimation.

The shore about this place is rocky, and the country high and mountainous, but covered with trees of various kinds, some of which are of an enormous growth, and probably would be useful for many purposes.  Among others, we found the nutmeg tree in great plenty; and I gathered a few of the nuts, but they were not ripe:  They did not indeed appear to be the best sort, but perhaps that is owing partly to their growing wild, and partly to their being too much in the shade of taller trees.  The cocoa-nut tree is in great perfection, but does not abound.  Here are, I believe, all the different kinds of palm, with the beetle-nut tree, various species of the aloe, canes, bamboos, and rattans, with many trees, shrubs, and plants, altogether unknown to me; but no esculent vegetable of any kind.  The woods abound with pigeons, doves, rooks, parrots, and a large bird with black plumage, that makes a noise somewhat like the barking of a dog, with many others which I can neither name nor describe.  Our people saw no quadruped but two of a small size that they took for dogs; the carpenter and another man got a transient glimpse of them in the woods as they were cutting spars for the ship’s use, and said they were very wild, and ran away the moment they saw them with great swiftness.  We saw centipieds, scorpions, and a few serpents of different kinds, but no inhabitants.  We fell in, however, with several deserted habitations; and by the shells that were scattered about them, and seemed not long to have been taken out of the water, and some sticks half burnt, the remains of a fire, there is reason to conclude that the people had but just left the place when we arrived.  If we may judge of the people by that which had been their dwelling, they must stand low even in the scale of savage life:  For it was the most miserable hovel we had ever seen.