famous, and also by the want of nourishing food while in that island. At one time
I was covered with severe boils. I had them on my eye, cheek, armpits, elbows,
back, thighs, knees, and ankles, so that I was unable to sit or walk, and had great
difficulty in finding a side to lie upon without pain. These continued for some
weeks, fresh ones coming out as fast as others got well; but good living and sea
baths ultimately cured them.
About the end of January Charles Allen, who had been my assistant in
Malacca and Borneo, again joined me on agreement for three years; and as soon
as I got tolerably well, we had plenty to do laying in stores and making
arrangements for our ensuing campaign. Our greatest difficulty was in obtaining
men, but at last we succeeded in getting two each. An Amboyna Christian
named Theodorus Matakena, who had been some time with me and had learned
to skin birds very well, agreed to go with Allen, as well as a very quiet and
industrious lad named Cornelius, whom I had brought from Menado. I had two
Amboynese, named Petrus Rehatta, and Mesach Matakena; the latter of whom
had two brothers, named respectively Shadrach and Abednego, in accordance
with the usual custom among these people of giving only Scripture names to
their children.
During the time I resided in this place, I enjoyed a luxury I have never met
with either before or since—the true bread-fruit. A good deal of it has been
planted about here and in the surrounding villages, and almost every day we had
opportunities of purchasing some, as all the boats going to Amboyna were
unloaded just opposite my door to be dragged across the isthmus. Though it
grows in several other parts of the Archipelago, it is nowhere abundant, and the
season for it only lasts a short time. It is baked entire in the hot embers, and the
inside scooped out with a spoon. I compared it to Yorkshire pudding; Charles
Allen said it was like mashed potatoes and milk. It is generally about the size of
a melon, a little fibrous towards the centre, but everywhere else quite smooth
and puddingy, something in consistence between yeast-dumplings and batter-
pudding. We sometimes made curry or stew of it, or fried it in slices; but it is no
way so good as simply baked. It may be eaten sweet or savory. With meat and
gravy it is a vegetable superior to any I know, either in temperate or tropical
countries. With sugar, milk, butter, or treacle, it is a delicious pudding, having a
very slight and delicate but characteristic flavour, which, like that of good bread
and potatoes, one never gets tired of. The reason why it is comparatively scarce
is that it is a fruit of which the seeds are entirely aborted by cultivation, and the
tree can therefore only be propagated by cuttings. The seed-bearing variety is
common all over the tropics, and though the seeds are very good eating,