A voyage to the South Sea : $b Undertaken by command of His Majesty for the purpose of conveying the bread-fruit tree to the West Indies in His Majesty's ship the Bounty commanded by Lieutenant William Bligh; including an account of the mutiny on board the said ship and the subsequent voyage of part of the crew in the ship's boat from Tofoa, one of the Friendly Islands, to Timor, a Dutch settlement in the East IndiesBligh, William
History
A voyage to the South Sea : $b Undertaken by command of His Majesty for the purpose of conveying the bread-fruit tree to the West Indies in His Majesty's ship the Bounty commanded by Lieutenant William Bligh; including an account of the mutiny on board the said ship and the subsequent voyage of part of the crew in the ship's boat from Tofoa, one of the Friendly Islands, to Timor, a Dutch settlement in the East Indies
Bligh, William
Bounty (Ship); Bounty Mutiny, 1789; Oceania -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Voyages and travels
After half an hour's sailing we arrived at Oparre. During this time Tinah
gave me a more circumstantial account of the cattle and sheep that had
been left with him: he related that, after five years from the time of
Captain Cook's departure (counting 63 moons) the people of the Island
Eimeo joined with those of Attahooroo, a district of Otaheite, and made a
descent on Oparre: that after some resistance by which many men were
killed Tinah and his people fled to the mountains, leaving all their
property to the mercy of the victorious party who destroyed almost
everything which they found not convenient to take away with them. Some
of the cattle were killed and eaten but the greater part were taken to
Eimeo. The cows he said had produced eight calves and the ewes ten young
ones. The ducks, among which they classed the geese, had greatly
increased; but the turkeys and peacocks, whatever was the cause, had not
bred. It seemed to give Tinah great pleasure to observe how much I was
concerned for the destruction of so many useful animals; but the cause of
his satisfaction, I found, did not proceed from any expectation that I
should replace them, but from the belief that I would take vengeance on
the people who had deprived him of them; for with respect to the loss of
the cattle he appeared so unconcerned and indifferent that I was very
angry with him. There is however sufficient excuse for his resentment
against the people of Eimeo; for the large extensive houses which we had
seen in this part of Otaheite in the year 1777 were all destroyed, and at
present they had no other habitations than light sheds which might be
taken by the four corners and removed by four men: and of the many large
canoes which they then had not more than three remained. Tinah,
understanding from my conversation that I intended visiting some of the
other islands in this neighbourhood, very earnestly desired I would not
think of leaving Matavai. "Here," said he, "you shall be supplied
plentifully with everything you want. All here are your friends and
friends of King George: if you go to the other islands you will have
everything stolen from you." I replied that, on account of their goodwill
and from a desire to serve him and his country, King George had sent out
those valuable presents to him; "and will not you, Tinah, send something
to King George in return?" "Yes," he said, "I will send him anything I
have;" and then began to enumerate the different articles in his power,
among which he mentioned the breadfruit. This was the exact point to
which I wished to bring the conversation and, seizing an opportunity
which had every appearance of being undesigned and accidental, I told him
the breadfruit trees were what King George would like; upon which he
promised me a great many should be put on board, and seemed much
delighted to find it so easily in his power to send anything that would
be well received by King George.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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