and sometimes the leaves; and a plant called _Theve_,
of which the root also is eaten: But the fruits of the _Nono_, the fern,
and the _Theve_, are eaten only by the inferior people, and in times of
scarcity. All these, which serve the inhabitants for food, the earth
produces spontaneously, or with so little culture, that they seem to be
exempted from the first general curse, that "man should eat his bread in
the sweat of his brow." They have also the Chinese paper mulberry,
_morus papyrifera_, which they call _Aouto_; a tree resembling the wild
fig-tree of the West Indies; another species of fig, which they call
_Matte_; the _cordia sebestina orientalis_, which they call _Etou_; a
kind of Cyprus grass, which they call _Moo_; a species of
_tournefortia_, which they call _Taheinoo_; another of the _convolvulus
poluce_, which they call _Eurhe_; the _solanum centifolium_, which they
call _Ebooa_; the _calophyllum mophylum_, which they call _Tamannu_; the
_hibiscus tiliaceus_, called _Poerou_, a frutescent nettle; the _urtica
argentea_, called _Erowa_; with many other plants which cannot here be
particularly mentioned: Those that have been named already will be
referred to in the subsequent part of this work.

They have no European fruit, garden stuff, pulse, or legumes, nor grain
of any kind.

Of tame animals they have only hogs, dogs, and poultry; neither is there
a wild animal in the island, except ducks, pigeons, paroquets, with a
few other birds, and rats, there being no other quadruped, nor any
serpent. But the sea supplies them with great variety of most excellent
fish, to eat which is their chief luxury, and to catch it their
principal labour.[2]

[Footnote 2: It was no doubt a work of supererogation in the
missionaries, to attempt to augment the stock of animal provision in
this island, to which nature had been so bountiful in dispensing her
favours. This however they did, but with little success. The natives
were too amply furnished with pleasant and wholesome aliment, to
undertake the care of cattle, which accordingly either perished from
neglect, or were suffered to turn wild in their mountains. The
imperfection too of their cookery operations not a little tended to
bring beef and mutton into contempt. Instead of dressing them in some of
the European methods, they treated them, as they did their dogs and
hogs, by the process of burning. The consequence was, the skin became as
tough as leather, and the taste v