this we visited several houses, and saw a little of their customs, for they were not at all shy of showing us anything we desired to see, nor did they on our account interrupt their meals, the only employment we saw them engaged in.
Their food at this time of the year consisted of fish, with which, instead of bread, they eat the roots of a kind of fern, Pteris crenulata,[1] very like that which grows upon our commons in England. These were slightly roasted on the fire and then beaten with a stick, which took off the bark and dry outside; what remained had a sweetish, clammy, but not disagreeable taste. It might be esteemed a tolerable food, were it not for the quantity of strings and fibres in it, which in quantity three or four times exceed the soft part. These were swallowed by some, but the greater number spit them out, for which purpose they had a basket standing under them to receive their chewed morsels, in shape and colour not unlike chaws of tobacco. Though at this time of the year this most homely fare was their principal diet, yet in the proper seasons they certainly have plenty of excellent vegetables. We have seen no sign of tame animals among them, except very small and ugly dogs. Their plantations were now hardly finished, but so well was the ground tilled that I have seldom seen land better broken up. In them were planted sweet potatoes, cocos, and a plant of the cucumber kind, as we judged from the seed leaves which just appeared above ground.
The first of these were planted in small hills, some in rows, others in quincunx, all laid most regularly in line. The cocos were planted on flat land, and had not yet appeared above ground. The cucumbers were set in small hollows or ditches, much as in England. These plantations varied in size from 1 to 10 acres each. In the bay there might be 150 or 200 acres in cultivation, though we did not see 100 people in all. Each distinct patch was fenced in, generally with reeds placed close one by another, so that a mouse could scarcely creep through.
When we went to their houses, men, women and children
- ↑ The same plant as the British bracken, Pteris aquilina.
