Читать книгу The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism (Vol. 1-4). The History of Sea Voyages, Discovery, Piracy and Maritime Warfare онлайн

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The importance of the bread-fruit to these people cannot be over-stated. That old navigator, Dampier, had well described it a hundred years before. “The bread-fruit, as we call it, grows on a large tree, as big and high as our largest apple-trees; it hath a spreading head, full of branches and dark leaves. The fruit grows on the boughs like apples; it is as big as a penny loaf when wheat is at five shillings the bushel; it is of a round shape, and hath a thick, tough rind; when the fruit is ripe, it is yellow and soft, and the taste is sweet and pleasant. The natives of Guam use it for bread. They gather it, when full grown, while it is green and hard; then they bake it in an oven, which scorcheth the rind and makes it black, but they scrape off the outside black crust, and there remains a tender, thin crust; and the inside is soft, tender, and white.” The fruit lasts in season eight months. During Lord Anson’s two months’ stay at Tinian, no ship’s bread was consumed, the officers and men all preferring the bread-fruit. Byron speaks of these South Sea Islands, where labour is the merest play work, the earth affording nearly spontaneously all that the natives need, as