ESCAPE OF BLIGII AND IIIS COMPANIONS 171 



by his seafaring companions, but they now found that the 

 knowledge of plants was not so useless as they had imagined. 



On the evening of June 3 the small boat passed Endeavour 

 Straits and once more entered the open sea, which greeted it 

 with high winds and pelting showers. 



On the morning of the 10th, after a sleepless night, the health 

 of the crew exhibited alarming symptoms of exhaustion. An 

 almost total prostration of strength, swollen legs, hollow and 

 spectral features, a great inclination to sleep, and mental^ apathy, 

 proclaimed that the vital powers were ready to sink under so 

 many hardships and privations. A few teaspoonfuls of wine, 

 icserved for the hour of utmost need, and still more the 

 spiritual cordial of hope — for they knew that they were now 

 not far distant from the goal — served to reanimate their 

 energies, and on the morning of June 12, Timor, the longed-for 

 island, lay before them. 



What words could express their delight, their intense gratitude 

 to Providence, which had safely guided them through such un- 

 numbered perils, and so mercifully protected them that, with 

 tlie single exception of the sailor killed by the Friendly Islanders, 

 not one of them had hitherto succumbed to the hardships of that 

 unparalleled voyage ! 



The way-worn mariners were most hospitably received by the 

 Dutch, and Bligh returned safely to England by way of Batavia, 

 carrying along with him the boat endeared to him by the re- 

 membrance of the most trying passage of his life. 



As captain of the " Providence " he was once more sent out to 

 realise the benevolent plan which Christian's mutiny had frus- 

 trated, reached Tahiti on April 9, 1792, took 1281 young 

 bread-fruit trees on board, and in January 1793 safely arrived 

 at St. Vincent, where he landed 333 trees, and thence sailed with 

 the remainder to Jamaica. 



In this manner, after having given rise to so many romantic 

 adventures, the bread-fruit tree found its way from the distant 

 islands of the South Sea to the tropical lands of the Atlantic, 

 but without fulfilling the sanguine expectations that had been 

 raised upon it ; for it rapidly degenerated in its new home, and 

 the negro spurns the fruit which in Tonga and Tahiti forms the 

 chief sustenance of life. 



But what had meanwhile been the lot of the mutineers? 



