| Today, May 4th …Joseph Banks was the botanist aboard the Endeavour on its voyage (1768-71) under the command of Captain James Cook. The first goal of the voyage was to make astronomical observations of the transit of the planet Venus from the vantage point of the newly ‘discovered’ island of Tahiti – which had been named King George’s Island.Banks kept a journal during the voyage, and on this day wrote:`Georges Land'No trade this morn but a little fish so we are for the first time in distress for nescessaries. I went into the woods to Tubourai and perswauded him to give me 5 long baskets of bread fruit, a very seasonable supply as they contain above 120 fruitsBreadfruit is the fruit of Artocarpus incisa, a native of the Malay peninsula and the Pacific Islands. It is an enormously prolific tree, producing huge fruit with edible white pulp. It was called breadfruit by early Europeans because the fruit, when cooked (it is rarely eaten raw) is reminiscent of white bread, but it |
