But the little boat still bravely made its way with its crew, whose
faces were so hollow and ghastly that they looked like a crew of
spectres, sailing beneath the scorching sun that beat down from the pale
blue of the cloudless sky upon a sea hardly less blue in its greater
depths. Only the hope that they would soon reach Timor seemed to rouse
them from a state of babbling delirium or fitful slumber.
On the 11th the captain told them they had passed the meridian of the
east of Timor; and at three o'clock on the next morning they sighted the
land.
It was on Sunday, June 14, when they arrived at Company Bay, and were
received with every kindness by the people.
Thus ended one of the most remarkable voyages that has ever been made.
They had been sent out with provisions only sufficient for their number
for _five_ days, and Captain Bligh had, by his careful calculation, and
determination to give each man only that equal portion they had agreed
to accept, made it last for _fifty_ days, during which time they had
come three thousand six hundred and eighteen nautical miles.
There had been days when the men were so hunger-driven that they had
besought him with pitiful prayers for more to eat, and when it was his
painful duty to refuse it; and times, as they passed those islands where
plentiful food could be got, when he had to turn a deaf ear to their
longings to land. He had to endure the need of food, the cramped
position, the uneasy slumber, as did his men; as well as the more
perfect knowledge of their dangers. There had been days and nights while
he worked out their bearings when he had to be propped up as he took the
stars or sun.
It was, therefore, Captain Bligh's good seamanship, his strict
discipline and fairness in the method of giving food and wine to those
who were sick, that enabled them to land at Timor with the whole of
their number alive, with the exception of the one man who was stoned to
death by the savages at Tofoa.
_THE PITCAIRN ISLANDERS_
IT will be remembered that nothing had been heard of the 'Bounty' since
she was seen off Point Venus on the morning of September 22, 1789.
In 1809, just twenty years after, when Captain Folger, of the American
ship 'Topaz,' landed at Pitcairn Island, one of the most remote of the
islands in the Pacific, he found there a solitary Englishman and five
Otaheitan women and nineteen children. The man, who gave his name as
Alexander Smith, said he was the only remaining person of the nine who
had escaped in the 'Bounty.'
Although this information was given to the Admiralty shortly after, it
was not until the year 1814, when the 'Briton,' under the command of Sir
Thomas Staines, and the 'Tagus,' under that of Captain Pipon, were
cruising in the Pacific, that one day on which the ships were sailing in
the same direction about six leagues apart, both commanders were greatly
surprised to see an island in lat. 24 deg. 40' and long. 130 deg. 24' W.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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