Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/239

Rh good, little, if at all, inferior in taste to fresh lemon juice. We also to-day made a pie of the North American apples which Dr. Fothergill had given me, and which proved very good; if not quite equal to the apple pies which our friends in England are now eating, good enough to please us who have been so long deprived of the fruits of our native country. In the main, however, we are very well off for refreshments and provisions of most sorts. Our ship's beef and pork are excellent; peas, flour, and oatmeal are at present, and have been in general, very good; our water is as sweet and has rather more spirit than it had when drank out of the river at Otahite; our bread, indeed, is but indifferent, occasioned by the quantity of vermin that are in it. I have often seen hundreds, nay, thousands, shaken out of a single biscuit. We in the cabin have, however, an easy remedy for this, by baking it in an oven, not too hot, which makes them all walk off; but this cannot be allowed to the ship's people, who must find the taste of these animals very disagreeable, as they every one taste as strong as mustard, or rather spirits of hartshorn. They are of five kinds, three Tenebrio, one Ptinus, and the Phalangium canchroides; this last, however, is scarce in the common bread, but vastly plentiful in white meal biscuits, as long as we had any left.

Wheat has been boiled for the breakfasts of the ship's company two or three times a week, in the same manner as frumenty is made. This has, I believe, been a very useful refreshment to them, as well as an agreeable food, which I myself and most of the officers in the ship have constantly breakfasted upon in the cold weather. The grain was originally of a good quality, and has kept without the least damage. This, however, cannot be said of the malt, of which we have plainly had two kinds, one very good, which was used up some time ago. What we are at present using is good for nothing at all; it was originally of a bad light grain, and so little care has been taken in making it that the tails are left in with innumerable other kinds of dirt; add to all this that it has been damped on board ship; so that, with all the care that can be used, it will scarce give a tincture to