Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/133

] from the fair-sex in these fortunate islands. Their offers, no doubt, were in some measure owing to their wish to oblige; but it appeared that they had an eye to their own interest at the same time, as they never forgot to ask some recompense in return for their information.

We walked some time along the borders of the shore, on which we saw a great number of bread-fruit trees in full vigour, though their roots were bathed with brackish water. But soon the water rising with the flood-tide, obliged us to go farther within the land, where we traversed thick woods, in the shade of which grew the tacca pinnatifida, saccharum spontaneum, mussænda frondosa, abrus precatorius (Jamaica wild liquorice), the species of pepper tree which they use for making kava, &c. We then walked over grounds employed partly in the culture of the sweet potatoe, partly in that of the species of yam called dioscorea alata; we saw, too, young plants of vacoua, or pandanus odoratissima (sweet scented screw-pine), the leaves of which are used for making mats. Farther on we found plantations of the paper mulberry tree, cultivated for the sake of its bark, of which they fabricate stuff for garments. The hibiscus tiliaceus grew spontaneously on the borders of these cultivated spots, and close by the sea. Its bark likewise furnishes them with materials for making