ii6 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



anchored a little within the entrance . . . until the boats could sound ahead. The 

 latitude here was lo 2' and long. 142 3'. 1 . . . 



" Whilst the boats were sounding, several INDIANS, in three canoes, were perceived 

 making towards them, but on a swivel-shot being fired over their heads they retired 

 to Mulgrave Island, on the south side of the passage. 



" On the signal being made for good anchorage further on, the ' Assistant ' led 

 to the W. by S. ; but on reaching the boats, the bottom was found much inferior 

 to what had been imagined. The approach of night, however, obliged Bligh to 

 anchor soon afterwards. . . . 



" In this situation, the vessels were so closely surrounded with rocks and reefs 

 as scarcely to have swinging-room. The bottom was rocky. The wind blowing a 

 fresh gale, and a tide running between 4 and 5 knots an hour. This anxious night was, 

 however, passed without accident, and next morning, 



" iSth September, the route was continued through the passage, between reefs 

 and rocks which, in some places, were not three-quarters of a mile asunder. . . . 



" On clearing this dangerous pass, which Captain Bligh called BLIGH'S FAREWELL, 2 

 he anchored in 6 fathoms. . . . The latitude here was 10 5', long. 141 56'. From 

 north nearly round by the east to S. 8 E., there was a mass of islands, rocks and 

 reefs, at various distances ; but in the western half of the compass no danger was 

 visible. 



" iqth September. The wind moderated, and the vessels steered W. by S. until 

 noon. . . . The latitude was then 10 8' S., longitude by timekeeper 141 31' E., 

 and no land was in sight ; nor did anything more obstruct Captain Bligh and his 

 associate in their route to the ISLAND TIMOR." 



After his voyage in the " Bounty ," Bligh was promoted to 

 Commander and afterwards to Post Captain. In 1794, he was 

 Captain of the 74-gun "Warrior" off Ushant. In 1797, he 

 commanded the 64-gun " Director " at Camper down and distin- 

 guished himself on the occasion of the mutiny at the Nore. On 

 2ist May, 1801, he commanded the 64~gun " Glatton " at Copen- 

 hagen, and was personally thanked by Nelson. 



During the administration of John Hunter and Philip Gidley 

 King as Governors of New South Wales, the colony had got some- 

 what out of hand, chiefly on account of the " rum "-currency, the 

 usurpation of authority by the New South Wales Corps and 

 questions arising out of the status of freed convicts. To the 

 Government in England, it appeared that the only remedy lay in 

 the appointment of a strict disciplinarian, and his whole career 

 indicated that Bligh was such a man. He took up the reins in 1806. 



" Bligh's insistence on discipline," says Professor Scott, 3 " was indeed sufficiently 

 stiff, but unfortunately he was also a quarrelsome, ill-tempered, coarse-speaking 

 man. His manner of doing business with those who had to see him was repellent. 

 He would, with no regard for the dignity of his position, pour forth a stream of 

 personal abuse, loaded with dire threats ; and if he felt angry with anyone he would 

 blurt out his displeasure, no matter where he was on the parade ground, in the 

 street, in his own house, or in church. One who had experience of the Governor 



1 More like 142 u' . At 142 3', they would have been clear of all reefs and beyond 

 the Farewell Islands. R. L. J. 



2 It is now charted as Bligh Channel. There are very strong grounds for believing 

 that Torres passed through it in 1606. R. L. J. 



3 A Short History of Australia, 1916, p. 66. 



