"
"What a beautiful coast!" cried Willis, who still kept the telescope
at his eye. "Near the shore the land is flat, and appears cultivated;
but behind, it rises gradually, and is closed in with a range of
hills, covered with trees. There is a beautiful bay in front of us,
which appears to invite us ashore. But the place is inhabited; the
shore is strewn with huts, and I can see clumps of the bread-fruit
tree growing near them."
"What sort of vegetable is the bread-fruit?" inquired Fritz.
"It is a very excellent thing, and supplies the natives with bread
without the intervention of grain, flour-mills, or bakers. It can be
eaten either raw, or baked, or boiled; either way, it is palatable.
The tree itself is like our apple trees; but the fruit is as large as
a pine-apple--when it is ripe, it is yellow and soft. The natives,
however, generally gather it before it is ripe; it is then cooked in
an oven; the skin is burnt or peeled off--the inside is tender and
white, like the crumb of bread or the flour of the potato."
"Let me have the telescope an instant," said Fritz; "I should like to
see what the natives are like. Ah, I see a troop of them collecting on
shore; some of them seem to be covered with a kind of wrought-steel
armor."
"Perhaps the descendants of the Crusaders," remarked Jack, "returning
from the Holy Land by way of the Pacific Ocean!"
"Others wear striped pantaloons," continued Fritz.
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