being four years with that great navigator in the Resolution. He was appointed in August, 1787, both commander and purser of the Bounty, which was stored and victualled for eighteen months. Besides this provision, he had supplies of portable soup, essence of meat, sour-krout, and dried malt; to which were added some articles of iron and steel, trinkets, beads, and looking-glasses, for traffic with the natives. The plants (the best he could obtain) he was to convey to the West Indies, in order to cultivate them if possible for the support of the slave population-it having been the opinion of Sir Joseph Banks, who had visited Tahiti with Captain Cook in 1769, that the bread-fruit tree might be successfully cultivated in those colonies. The bread-fruit grows on a tree which is about the size of a common oak, and, toward the top, divides into large and spreading branches. The leaves are of a very deep green. The fruit springs from twigs, and grows to the size of a young infant's head. It has a thick rind; and before becoming ripe, it is gathered, and baked in an oven, when the inner part is like the crumb of wheaten bread, and found to be very nutritive. Captain William Dampier, who sailed round the world in the year 1688, describes the bread-fruit as having "neither seed nor stone in the inside; but all of pure substance like bread. It must be eaten new; for if it is kept above twenty-four hours, it grows harsh and choaky; but it is very pleasant before it is too stale. This fruit lasts in season eight months of the year, during which the natives of Guam eat no other sort of food of bread kind. I did never," says he, "see of this fruit anywhere but here. The natives told us that there is plenty of this fruit growing on the rest of the Ladrone Islands; and I did never hear of it anywhere else." Lord Anson corroborates this account of the bread-fruit, and says that while at Tinian it was constantly eaten by his officers and ship's company during their two months' stay, instead of bread; and so universally preferred, that no ship's bread was expended in that whole interval. The only essential difference between Dampier's and Cook's description is, where the latter says, which is true, that this fruit has a core, and that the eatable part lies between the skin and the core. Cook says also that its taste is insipid, with a slight sweetness, somewhat resembling that of the crumb of wheaten bread mixed with a Jerusalem artichoke. From such a description, it is not surprising that the West India planters should have felt desirous of introducing it into those islands; and accordingly the introduction of it was subsequently accomplished, notwithstanding the failure of the present voyage. It has not, however, been found to answer the expectation that had reasonably been entertained. The climate, as to latitude, ought to be the same, or nearly so, as that of Tahiti, but there would appear to be some difference in the situation or nature of the soil, that prevents it from thriving in the West India islands. The Bounty, of nearly 215 tons burden, left Spithead on the 23d of December, 1787, carrying forty-six persons, including |