sweet potatoes, _taro_, and plantains; and that bread-fruit and yams are rather to be esteemed rarities. Of animal food, they can be in no want; as they have abundance of hogs, which run, without restraint, about the houses; and if they eat dogs, which is not improbable, their stock of these seem to be very considerable. The great number of fishing-hooks found among them, showed, that they derive no inconsiderable supply of animal food from the sea. But it should seem, from their practice of salting fish, that the openness of their coast often interrupts the business of catching them; as it may be naturally supposed, that no set of people would ever think of preserving quantities of food artificially, if they could depend upon a daily, regular supply of it, in its fresh state. This sort of reasoning, however, will not account for their custom of salting their pork, as well as their fish, which are preserved in gourd-shells. The salt, of which they use a great quantity for this purpose, is of a red colour, not very coarse, and seems to be much the same with what our stragglers found at Christmas Island. It has its colour, doubtless, from a mixture of the mud, at the bottom of the part where it is formed, for some of it that had adhered in lumps, was of a sufficient whiteness and purity. They bake their vegetable food with heated stones, as at the Southern Islands; and, from the vast quantity which we saw dressed at one time, we suspected that the whole village, or, at least, a considerable number of people, joined in the use of a common oven. We did not see them dress any animal food at this island; but Mr. Gore’s party, as already mentioned, had an opportunity of satisfying themselves, that it was dressed in Oneeheow in the same sort of ovens; which leaves no doubt of this being also the practice in Atooi; especially as we met with no utensil there, that could be applied to the purpose of stewing or boiling. The only artificial dish we met with, was a _taro_ pudding; which, though a disagreeable mess from its sourness, was greedily devoured by the natives. They eat off a kind of wooden plates, or trenchers; and the women, as far as we could judge from one instance, if restrained from feeding at the same dish with the men, as at Otaheite, are at least permitted to eat in the same place near them.