Series 03: Joseph Banks - Endeavour journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 (vol. 2) - No. 0472
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[Page 472]
368.
Some account of Savu
we saw in their plantations which guess was afterwards confirmd by Mr Lange we likewise saw them dye womens girdles of a dirty reddish colour Their Cloth itself was universaly dyed in the yarn with blue
[Margin Note] clouded Cloth
which being unevenly & irregularly done gave the cloth a Clouding or waving of colour not unelegant even in our eyes.
One Chirurgical operation of theirs Mr Lange mentiond to us with great praises which indeed appears sensible it is a method of curing wounds which they do by first washing the wound in water in which Tamarinds have been steepd then pluging it up with a pledget made of fat of fresh pork in this manner the wound is thouroughly cleans'd & the pledget renewd every day he told us that by this means they had a very little while ago curd a man in three weeks of a wound of a lance which had peircd his arm & half through his body this is the only part of either their medicinal or chirurgical art which came to our knowledge indeed they did not seem to outward appearance to have much occasion for either but on the contrary