[20] The Bread-fruit, which will often be referred to in these pages, is a tree of moderate height (Artocarpus incisa). With its near relative, the Jack fruit, it is a member of the Mulberry order, and consequently a distant relation of the figs. Dampier gives the following description of the Bread-fruit of the Pacific Islands: "It grows on a large tree as big and as high as our largest apple trees. It has a spreading head full of branches, and dark leaves. The fruit grows on the boughs like apples; it is as big as a penny loaf ... of a round shape, and has a thick, tough rind. When the fruit is ripe it is yellow and soft, and the taste is sweet and pleasant. The natives of this island (Guam) use it for bread; they gather it when full grown, while it is green and hard; then they bake it in an oven, which scorches the rind and makes it black: they scrape off the outside black crust and there remains a tender thin crust, and the inside is soft, tender, and white, like the crumb of a penny loaf. There is neither seed nor stone in the inside, but it is of a pure white substance like bread. It must be eaten new, for if it is kept above twenty-four hours it becomes dry, harsh, and choky ... this fruit lasts in season for eight months in the year." Mr. John Masefield, who has edited the best and the most recent edition of Dampier, compares the flavour of Bread-fruit to "apple sauce".
[21] Holothurians, a starfish-like creature, called in commerce bêche de mer.
[22] The "totem" system is explained in my work on the Pioneers of Canada. The totem was some animal, plant, or natural object chosen as the imaginary ancestor or symbol of the clan.
[23] "Neolithic" means the age or stage of highly finished stone weapons and implements, "Palæolithic" refers to an earlier period when the stones were very roughly shaped, and "Eolithic" means the very dawn of culture, when the stones were merely broken fragments, not artificially shaped at all.
[24] The geographical term, Moluccas, now includes the very large island of Jilolo, Bachian, Buru, Ceram, &c.
[25] Pioneers in India, &c.
[26] The San Antonio (which deserted the expedition in South America), the Trinidad (after a fruitless voyage out into the Pacific and back to the Moluccas, seized and dismantled by the Portuguese), the Santiago (lost on the coast of Patagonia), the Conception (broken up in the Philippines), and the Victoria, which ultimately returned to Seville in 1522.
[27] Magellan first gave to the Ladrone Islands the name of Islands of Sails, on account of the many vessels with sails which he observed in that neighbourhood, showing how firmly established among the Polynesians and Micronesians was the use of the sail in their navigation, a fact which explains the success of their voyages over enormous sea distances.
[28] They were similar to the prahus or praus of Malaysia, which did not turn round, but sailed backwards and forwards, the sharp stem being exactly like the sharp stern. Most of the prahus had outriggers, and in all the leeside of the vessel was flat and perpendicular while the weatherside was rounded. The mast carried a large triangular-shaped sail.
[29] They were not called the Philippines until 1543, or thereabouts.