Series 03: Joseph Banks - Endeavour journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 (vol. 2) - No. 0391
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[Page 391]
287.
Some account of New Holland
steeping them 24 hours in water then drying them and using them to thicken broth from whence it should seem that the poisonous quality lays intirely in the Juices as it does in the roots of the Mandihocca or Cassada of the West Indies & that when thouroughly cleard of them the pulp remaing may be a wholesome & nutritious food.
[Margin note] Victuals
Their victuals they generaly dress by broiling or toasting them upon the coals so we judg'd by the remains we saw they knew however the method of baking or stewing with hot stones & sometimes practis'd it as we now & then saw the pits & burn'd stones which had been made use of for that purpose
[Margin note] Chew
We observd that some tho but few held constantly in their mouths the leaves of an herb which they chewd as a European does tobacca or an East indian Betele what sort of plant it was we had not an opportunity of learning as we never saw any thing but the chaws which they took from their mouths to shew us it might be of the Betele kind & so far as we could judge from the fragments was so but whatever it was it was usd without any addition & seemd to have no kind of effect upon either the teeth or lips