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[Page 175]

171.
Some account of New Zealand

which we boild instead of Greens & once only a Cabbage tree the Cabbage of which made us one delicious meal  these with the Fern roots & one other vegetable (Pandanus        ) totaly unknown in Europe, which tho eat by the natives no europeean will probably ever relish  are the whole of the vegetables which I know to be eatable  except those which they cultivate & have probably brought with them from the countrey from whence they themselves have originaly come

nor does their cultivated grounds produce many speceis of Esculent plants  three only I have seen  Yams, sweet potatoes, & Coccos. all three well known in both East & West Indies & much esteemd of these  especialy the two former   they cultivate often peices of many acres & I beleive any ship that was to be to the Northward in the Autumn about the time of digging them up might purchase any quantity  besides these they cultivate gourds  the fruits of which serve them to make bottles Jugs &c. & a very small quantity of the Chinese paper mulberry tree  the same as the Inhabitants of the South Sea Islands use to make their garments of  this they very much value  but it is so scarce with them probably having been brought from a hotter countrey & not thriving here  that tho they likewise beat it out into cloth we never saw peices of it larger than what servd to put into the holes they bore in their ears  making

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