Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/447

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Oct.]
OF LA PEROUSE.
419

and a stag, with a design to enrich New Holland with that beautiful species of quadrupeds.

We provided a good stock of fowls, common ducks, and Senegal ducks, (oies de Guinée.)

The cazoard was not included among our live stock. That bird, though kept in the poultry-yards at Amboyna, is not very easily procured, not being a native of that island, but imported from the great islands to the eastward. It does not well agree with long voyages, and besides its flesh is black, tough and dry. In proportion to the room, which it would have occupied on board, that bird would have afforded us much less food than the poultry which we had already provided; for except its thighs which are muscular, being intended by nature for running, the rest of its body is of a very moderate size, in proportion to its height.

Our roots were chiefly potatoes and yams.

The beautiful leaves of the banana tree, and different kinds of melons adorned the stern of our ship.

We bought a good number of hogs and goats.

We took much care of our cow; although her milk was exhausted; for it would have been impossible to have procured another. The species of buffalo common in India, is indeed a sort of

domestic