We took a net full of seeds, and I left them a large piece of iron as payment.

On returning to the camp, we boiled the seeds, after removing the capsule; but as some of the numerous partitions had remained, the water was rendered slightly bitter.

This experiment having failed, the boiled seeds were then (Unclear:)tied with a little fat, which rendered them very palatable and remarkably satisfying.

The best way of cooking them was that adopted by the natives, who roast the whole seed-vessel.

I then made another trial to obtain the starch from the bitter potatoes, in which I succeeded; but the soup for eight people, made with the starch of sixteen potatoes, was rather thin.
We were encamped at a small creek, scarcely a mile from the river, from which John Murphy and Brown brought the leaves of the first palm trees we had seen on the waters of the gulf.