no THE PLANT WORLD 



on account of their defenseless condition. After one of the most remark- 

 able open-boat voyages in the history of navigation they reached Timor, 

 and as Bligh remarks — 



"It appeared scarcely credible to ourselves that, in an open boat and 

 so poorly provided , we should have been able to reach the coast of Timor 

 in forty-one days after leaving Tofoa, having in that time run, by our 

 log, a distance of 3,618 miles ; and that, notwithstanding our extreme 

 distress, no one should have perished in the voyage." 



The mutineers sailed back to Tahiti and from thence some of the 

 Englishmen, accompanied by Tahitian natives, migrated to Pitcairn's 

 Island, where, after the death of all but one of the Europeans, under the 

 leadership of the reformed mutineer one of the most ideal communities 

 in the world was developed. 



Nothing daunted by the misfortune of their first attempt, the English 

 Government, stimulated by Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal 

 Academy, and one of the naturalists of Captain Cook's first voyage, sent 

 Bligh in 1792 to make another attempt. This time all went well, and in 

 1793 approximately 700 plants were divided among the islands of St. 

 Helena, St. Vincent, and Jamaica, the two last mentioned receiving the 

 lion's share, while a number were taken to the Kew Gardens for hot-house 

 growth. 



The estimate put upon the fruit by those concerned in its introduc- 

 tion is well shown by the following quotation : 



* ' At length their wishes have been happily gratified by the persever- 

 ing attention of Captain William Bligh, assisted by those ingenious 

 botanists Mr. William Viles and Mr. Christopher Smith, whose names 

 on this occasion ought also to be recorded, and the Western world put in 

 possession of what will hereafter secure to that part of the globe an 

 inexhaustible fund of good, palatable, and wholesome food." * 



Bryan Edwards, the historian of the West Indies, had remarkable 

 ideas of its utility, very interesting in the light of its subsequent history 

 in those islands : " The cultivation of these valuable exotics will, with- 

 out doubt, in a course of years, lessen the dependence of the sugar islands 

 on North America for food and necessaries ; and not only supply sub- 

 sistence for future generations, but probably furnish fresh incitements to 

 industry, new improvements in the arts, and new subjects of commerce." 



As an illustration of carelessness in the treatment of the history of the 

 breadfruit the records of its introduction into the West Indies may be cited. 

 In practically all the available literature discussing this point, the first 

 introduction has been assigned to Captain Bligh with the date 1793. 

 As this navigator brought an overwhelming majority of seedless plants, 

 the existence of the seeded variety in the West Indies has been somewhat 



* Preface, Vol. 12, Trans. Soc. Arts, p. xiii. 



