VOYAGE OF "BOUNTY'S" LAUNCH 103 



Wednesday Island E. by N., 5 leagues ; and Shoal Cape SE. by E., 2 leagues. A 

 small island was seen bearing W., at which we arrived before dark, and found that 

 it was only a rock, where boobies resort, for which reason I called it BOOBY ISLAND. 

 Here terminated the rocks and shoals of the north part of New Holland, for, except 

 Booby Island, no land was seen to the westward of south after 3 o'clock this afternoon. 



" I find that Booby Island was seen by Captain Cook, and, by a remarkable 

 coincidence of ideas, received from him the same name ; but I cannot with certainty 

 reconcile the situation of some parts of the coast that I have seen to his survey. I 

 ascribe this to the various forms in which land appears when seen from the different 

 heights of a ship and a boat. 



" The chart which I have given is by no means meant to supersede that made 

 by Captain Cook, who had better opportunities than I had and was in every respect 

 properly provided for surveying. The intention of mine is chiefly to render this 

 narrative more intelligible, and to show in what manner the coast appeared to me 

 from an open boat. I have but little doubt but that the opening which I have named 

 the BAY OF ISLANDS is ENDEAVOUR STRAITS ; and that our track was to the northward 

 of Prince of Wales Isles. Perhaps, by those who may hereafter navigate these seas, 

 more advantage may be derived from the possession of both our charts than from 

 either of them singly." 



Without landing on BOOBY ISLAND, Bligh left it late on 

 June. He reached KOEPANG, Timor, on I4th June, 1789, 

 and having obtained a passage to Europe on a Dutch vessel, landed 

 at PORTSMOUTH on I4th March, 1790. Nine of the mutineers 

 found their way to Pitcairn Island, where they married native 

 women and founded a colony, which is still in existence. The 

 fate of the other sixteen is bound up with the voyage and wreck 

 of the frigate " Pandora" to which a chapter must be devoted. 



