The only essential difference between Dampier's and Cook's description is, where the latter says, which is true, that this fruit has a _core_, and that the eatable part lies between the skin and the core.

Cook says also that its taste is insipid, with a slight sweetness, somewhat resembling that of the crumb of wheaten bread mixed with a Jerusalem artichoke.

From such a description, it is not surprising that the West India planters should have felt desirous of introducing it into those islands; and accordingly the introduction of it was subsequently accomplished, notwithstanding the failure of the present voyage; it has not, however, been found to answer the expectation that had reasonably been entertained.

The climate, as to latitude, ought to be the same, or nearly so, as that of Otaheite, but there would appear to be some difference in the situation or nature of the soil, that prevents it from thriving in the West India Islands.

At Otaheite and on several of the Pacific Islands, The bread-tree, which, without the ploughshare yields, The unreap'd harvest of unfurrow'd fields, And bakes its unadulterated loaves Without a furnace in unpurchased groves, And flings off famine from its fertile breast, A priceless market for the gathering guest-- is to the natives of those islands a most invaluable gift, but it has not been found to yield similar benefits to the West India Islands.
On the 23rd December, 1787, the _Bounty_ sailed from Spithead, and on the 26th it blew a severe storm of wind from the eastward, which continued to the 29th, in the course of which the ship suffered greatly.
One sea broke away the spare-yards and spars out of the starboard main-chains.