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[Page 6]
On the 4th October I was fully victualled and stored for 18 months, and on the 20th November 1787 I received my final orders to proceed on my voyage, the purport of which was as follows.
The King upon a representation from his subjects in the West Indies, that the introduction of the bread fruit tree among them would be of universal good to constitute an article of food, and that such having been signified to be His Majesty's Pleasure unto the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty by Lord Sydney: one of his principal secretaries of state. I was therefore directed to sail forthwith round Cape Horn for the Society Islands [Tahiti] in Latitude about 18o S and Longitude 210 East of Greenwich. And there, with the necessary articles I was furnished with, to procure of the natives as many plants as I could stow on board the ship.
Having completed this I was to proceed through Endeavor Streights (which separate New Guinea from New Holland.) and from thence to Princes Island in the Streights of Sunda - leaving to my discretion to touch at Java or any other island for refreshment of water as i might think most proper.
From Princes Island I was to proceed discretionally to St Vincents one of the Windward Islands, and depositing