Jul 21-22, 1789 Home Logbook Jul 24-28, 1789
Revised Jun 30 2021
Fresh Gales ESE and SE. Fair Wr. Employed about the Vessel. Our health is now tolerably restablished; there are however still two Invalids.
Besides the River Water, here are some charming springs, so that the former is scarce ever used but for the purposes of cleaning. To bring the Water to the house they have Buckets made from the leaves of the Palm Trees which hold 3 & 4 Gallons. These Trees are in great abundance all over the Country, and at a distance resemble the Cocoa nutt. From the likeness of the leaf to a Fan they are called the Fan Palm. They are Valuable from producing a clear liquor called Coack which is an agreeable and wholesome drink, and when boiled produceth a very rich Syrup of the consistency of Treacle that if properly fined is a very food Sweetness. The Island Sabou is a noted place for this Syrup and Vessels come here from that place with great quantities for Sale. We gave for a Jar that held about 3 Gallons 30 Stivers but the Inhabitants get it for half the price.
The liquor is got by cutting a notch in the Branches to which they hang a bucket to receive the Juice and is called tapping the Tree. They bear the Fruit I have described under the name of Syboah.
The amount of my enquiries respecting the weather and monsoons at this Island are thus. That the Companys[*] ships are not allowed to lye in the Road (which is Open from the North to WNW.) before the 10th March the West Monsoon being then considered to be nearly over. April the Easterly Wind or Monsoon begins but the weather is sometimes Variable untill May when the Easterly Wind is steady and blows so untill October when it becomes variable again with Rain and Westerly Winds which are fixed in the month of December.
These changes in some degree reach as far as Otaheite, with this difference that the Westerly Winds do not blow so constant, but in other respects alike. The Summer Solstice is the general time of the change.
Jul 21-22, 1789 Home Logbook Jul 24-28, 1789