and brought many roots and fruits, which we purchased.

The island has no name in our drafts, but the natives call it Pub Sabuda;
it is about three leagues long, and two miles wide, more or less; it is
of a good height, so as to be seen eleven or twelve leagues; it is very
rocky, yet above the rocks there is good yellow and black mould, not
deep, yet producing plenty of good tall trees, and bearing any fruits or
roots which the inhabitants plant. I do not know all its produce, but
what we saw were plantains, cocoa-nuts, pine-apples, oranges, papaes,
potatoes, and other large roots. Here are also another sort of wild
jacas, about the bigness of a man's two fists, full of stones or kernels,
which eat pleasant enough when roasted. The libby tree grows here in the
swampy valleys, of which they make sago cakes. I did not see them make
any, but was told by the inhabitants that it was made of the pith of the
tree, in the same manner I have described in my "Voyage Round the World."
They showed me the tree whereof it was made, and I bought about forty of
the cakes. I bought also three or four nutmegs in their shell, which did
not seem to have been long gathered; but whether they be the growth of
this island or not, the natives would not tell whence they had them, and
seem to prize them very much. What beasts the island affords I know not,
but here are both sea and land fowl. Of the first, boobies and men-of-
war birds are the chief, some goldens, and small milk-white
crab-catchers; the land-fowl are pigeons, about the bigness of mountain-
pigeons in Jamaica, and crows about the bigness of those in England, and
much like them, but the inner part of their feathers are white, and the
outside black, so that they appear all black, unless you extend the
feathers. Here are large sky-coloured birds, such as we lately killed on
New Guinea, and many other small birds, unknown to us. Here are likewise
abundance of bats, as big as young coneys, their necks, head, ears, and
noses like foxes, their hair rough, that about their necks is of a