90 



severe cramps and pains in our bones. I began to fear that another 

 night would put an end to the lives of several who seemed no longer 

 able to support their sufferings." Fortunately just then the wind abated? 

 and an occasional tea-spoonful of rum helped to keep body and soul 

 together. On the 25 th they caught a booby — a bird the size of a duck 

 — which was divided and devoured raw — entrails, beak and claws and 

 all. Next day another booby was captured and similarly disposed of 

 On the 29th of May they reached the desolate coast of New Holland, 

 where they obtained some oysters and dog-fish ; but in two days they 

 were driven off by the savages. About this time a mutinous spirit broke 

 out among some of the men, mainly brought about by fatigue and 

 despair ; but it v/as overcome by the firmness and tact of Captain Bligh. 

 Soon afterwards several men were attacked by alarming symptoms of 

 illness. "On the morning of the loth of June," says Bligh, "there was 

 a visible alteration for the worse in many of the people. An extreme 

 weakness, swelled legs, hollow and ghastly countenances, a more than 

 common inclination to sleep, with an apparent debility of understanding, 

 seemed to me the melancholy presage of approaching dissolution." 

 However, relief was now at hand, for on the 14th they reached the 

 Dutch settlement of Timor, after having run a distance of 3,618 miles 

 in forty-one days. The poor sufferers when landed were scarcely able 

 to walk ; their bodies were nothing but skin and bone, their limbs were 

 covered with sores, and they were clad in rags. " In this condition," 

 adds Bligh, " but with tears of joy and gratitude running down our 

 cheeks, the people of Timor beheld us with a mixture of horror, surprise, 

 and pity," — 



' ' The ghastly spectres, which were doomed at last 



To tell as true a tale of dangers past 



As ever the dark annals of the deep 



Disclosed for man to dread or woman weep." 



There is certainly no exaggeration in the concluding paragraph of 

 Captain Bligh's journal : — "Thus happily ended, through the assistance 

 of Divine Providence, without accident, a voyage of the most extra- 

 ordinary nature that ever happened in the world, let it be taken either 

 in its extent, duration, or the want of every necessary of life." 



