Such is the picture drawn of the happy people of Otaheite by a cold, philosophical, German doctor, and such, with very little change, Bligh found them. As far, however, as the mutiny of his people was concerned, we must wholly discard the idea thrown out by him, that the seductions of Otaheite had any share in producing it. It could not have escaped a person of Christian's sagacity, that certain interrogatories would unquestionably be put by the natives of Otaheite, on finding the ship return so soon without her commander, without the bread-fruit plants, and with only about half her crew; questions he knew to which no satisfactory answer could be made; and though, at subsequent periods, he twice visited that island, it was some time afterwards, and not from choice but necessity; his object was to find a place of concealment, where he might pass the remainder of his days, unheard of and unknown, and where it is to be hoped he had time for sincere repentance, the only atonement he could make for the commission of a crime, which involved so many human beings in misery, and brought others to an untimely end--but of this hereafter. CHAPTER IV THE OPEN-BOAT NAVIGATION The boat is lower'd with all the haste of hate, With its slight plank between thee and thy fate; Her only cargo such a scant supply As promises the death their hands deny; And just enough of water and of bread To keep, some days, the dying from the dead: Some cordage, canvas, sails, and lines, and twine. But treasures all to hermits of the brine, Were added after, to the earnest prayer Of those who saw no hope save sea and air; And last, that trembling vassal of the Pole, The feeling compass, Navigation's soul. * * * * * The launch is crowded with the faithful few Who wait their Chief--a melancholy crew: But some remained reluctant on the deck Of that proud vessel, now a moral wreck--And view'd their Captain's fate with piteous eyes; While others scoff'd his augur'd miseries, Sneer'd at the prospect of his pigmy sail, And the slight bark so laden and so frail. Christian had intended to send away his captain and associates in the cutter, and ordered that it should be hoisted out for that purpose, which was done--a small wretched boat, that could hold but eight or ten men at the most, with a very small additional weight; and, what was still worse, she was so worm-eaten and decayed, especially in the bottom planks, that the probability was, she would have gone down before she had proceeded a mile from the ship. In this 'rotten carcass of a boat,' not unlike that into which Prospero and his lovely daughter were 'hoist,' not rigg'd, Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats Instinctively had quit it,