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[Page 11]
describ'd [sic] by any Botanical author, 500 fish, as many Birds, & insects Sea & Land innumerable: out of these some considerable economical purposes may be answerd particularly with the fine Clayes of the Otaheitians & the Plant of which the new Zelanders make their Cloth of which we have brought over ye seeds. The fine red Colour us'd by the inhabitants of the Islands situated between the tropicks in the South Sea the tinge of which seems to be between that of Scarlet & a pink is made by mixing the juice of the Fruit of a Fig tree suppos'd to be peculiar to those Islands with the juice of the Leaves of the Cordia Sebestena orientalis. Lenius [Linnaeus].
NB: The fig tree is now describ'd under the name of Ficus Tinctoria & probably did not escape the researches of so accurate a Botaniste as Mr. de Commerson who sail'd with Mr. Bougainville, is disputed to be. Quadrupedes we found few & none remarkable but one species totally different from any known kind the full grown of it was as large as Sheep