Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/448

420 domestic animal at Amboyna; but the female of that quadruped gives little milk, and being almost untameable, would have been very troublesome, not to say dangerous, on board.

Our butcher, whose business it was to take care of the quadrupeds, could procure them little food but what was hard and dry, consisting, in a great measure, of the anthistiria ciliata; but happily, before we sailed, he was enabled to provide the large stocks of banana trees which, for a long time, afforded those animals succulent food. As they were allowed but little water, the abundant juice of those plants were as serviceable to them.

The flour which we procured at Amboyna, was but of a middling quality, and the quantity with which they could furnish us, was but about 11,000lbs avoirdupois. This scarcity, whether real or pretended, obliged us to purchase it at an exorbitant price.

We found at Amboyna but few articles of European provision. The Lieutenant-Governor, however, had a considerable quantity of Hamburgh beef, which is in great request among navigators. That officer very willingly let our Commander have a part of it; but when we had got out to sea, we discovered that his servants had dishonestly