PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 71 



endure the additional taunt of private obligations ; chap. 

 and in a moment of excitation told his commander v -^>^ 

 that sooner or later a day of reckoning would arrive. /^s 



The day previous to the mutiny a serious quarrel 

 occurred between Bligh and his officers, about some 

 cocoa-nuts which were missed from his private 

 stock ; and Christian again fell under his com- 

 mander's displeasure. The same evening he was in- 

 vited to supper in the cabin, but he had not so soon 

 forgotten his injuries as to accept of this ill-timed 

 civility, and returned an excuse. 



Matters were in this state on the 28th of April, 

 1789, when the Bounty, on her homeward voyage, 

 was passing to the southward of Tofoa, one of the 

 Friendly Islands. It was one of those beautiful 

 nights which characterize the tropical regions, when 

 the mildness of the air and the stillness of nature 

 dispose the mind to reflection. Christian, pondering 

 over his grievances, considered them so intolerable, 

 that any thing appeared preferable to enduring them, 

 and he determined, as he could not redress them, 

 that he would at least escape from the possibility of 

 their being increased. Absence from England, and 

 a long residence at Otaheite, where new connexions 

 were formed, weakened the recollection of his native 

 country, and prepared his mind for the reception of 

 ideas which the situation of the ship and the serenity 

 of the moment particularly favoured. His plan, 

 strange as it must appear for a young officer to 

 adopt, who was fairly advanced in an honourable 

 profession, was to set himself adrift upon a raft, and 

 make his way to the island then in sight. As quick 

 in the execution as in the design, the raft was soon 

 constructed, various useful articles were got toge- 

 ther, and he was on the point of launching it, when 



