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
This day we took the plants on board, being 774 pots, all in a healthy
state; for whenever any plant had an unfavourable appearance it was
replaced by another. The number of those rejected was 302, of which not
one in ten but was found to be growing at the root.
The natives reckon eight kinds of the breadfruit tree, each of which they
distinguish by a different name. 1. Patteah. 2. Eroroo. 3. Awanna. 4.
Mi-re. 5. Oree. 6. Powerro. 7. Appeere. 8. Rowdeeah. In the first,
fourth, and eighth class the leaf differs from the rest; the fourth is
more sinuated; the eighth has a large broad leaf not at all sinuated. The
difference of the fruit is principally in the first and eighth class. In
the first the fruit is rather larger and more of an oblong form: in the
eighth it is round and not above half the size of the others. I enquired
if plants could be produced from the seed and was told they could not but
that they must be taken from the root. The plants are best collected
after wet weather, at which time the earth balls round the roots and they
are not liable to suffer by being moved.
The most common method of dividing time at Otaheite is by moons; but they
likewise make a division of the year into six parts, each of which is
distinguished by the name of the kind of breadfruit then in season. In
this division they keep a small interval called Tawa in which they do not
use the breadfruit. This is about the end of February when the fruit is
not in perfection; but there is no part of the year in which the trees
are entirely bare.
Thursday 25.
At daylight we unmoored and I sent the tents in the launch to Oparre with
directions that, after landing them, the launch should meet the ship in
the entrance of Toahroah harbour to show the safest part of the channel.
At half-past ten we got the ship under sail and ran down under top-sails:
when we were near the launch it fell calm and the ship shot past her. We
immediately let the anchor go but to our great surprise we found the ship
was aground forwards. She had run on so easy that we had not perceived it
at the time. This accident occasioned us much trouble as we were obliged
to send anchors out astern to get the ship afloat: in doing this one of
the cables swept a rock and was not got clear again without much
difficulty. When the ship was moored Point Venus bore north 46 degrees
east. The east point of the harbour north 65 degrees east one-quarter of
a mile. Our distance from the shore half a cable's length; depth of water
8 1/2 fathoms.
Friday 26.
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