A. D. 1790. 201 



among the flaves, afhip was fitted out under the command of Lieuten- 

 ant Bligh, to proceed to Otaheite m order to bring a fupply of thofe 

 valuable plants, whereof one half were to be depofited in the public 

 botanic garden at S'. Vincents for the benefit of the Windward iflands, 

 and the remainder at Jamaica. Sir Jofeph Banks, whofe botanic know- 

 lege and zeal for the public good are well known, diredled the arrange- 

 ments necefl^ary for the reception and tranfportation of the plants, and 

 recommended two careful and fkilful botanifts (one of whom had al- 

 ready failed with Cook in the fame capacity) to attend to their preferva- 

 tion, and to colled: other valuable plants, fuppofed capable of being 

 tranfported to our tropical poiTeflions, and particularly the rice, which 

 grows upon a dry foil in Java and fome other Eaft-India iflands * ; and 

 in return to impart to the natives of the South-fea iflands fuch valuable 

 plants as their foil and climate were thought favourable to the produc- 

 tion of, and they were in want of. At Otaheite they took onboard 

 1,015 plants of the bread-fruit, and a number of other fpecies of plants 

 ufeful for food or in dying. But this voyage, undertaken, and hitherto 

 happily conducted, for the mutual benefit of both hemifpheres, was 

 fruflrated by a confpiracy of the majority of the fliip's company, who, 

 foon after they failed from Otaheite, took poflfeffion of the fliip, and 

 forced the principal officers and a few of the feamen into a boat, in 

 which, after fuffering prodigious hardfliips, they made their way to 

 Coupang, a Dutch fettlement in the ifland of Timor in the Eaft:-Indies. 

 Mr. Bligh arrived in England in March 1790, above two years after he 

 failed from it, and about a year after he was turned adrift by the mut- 

 inous part of his crew. 



February 25'" — The a6l of lafl: feflion (c. 58) for the regulation of 

 the corn trade not having been duely carried into effed: in fome parts 

 of the kingdom, a fcarcity was apprehended ; and the king and council 

 had been under a necefllty of iifuing feveral orders relpedting the im- 

 portation and exportation of corn. Therefor thofe orders, not being 

 juftifiable by law, were now, in confideration of their eminent utility, 

 juflified by an expreis ad of parliament. The earl of Dorchefler, gov- 

 ernor of Canada, was at the fame time indemnified for orders ilFued by 

 him for the importation of corn, &c. from the United fl;ates into the 

 provinces under his command. No corn of any kind, nor bread, was 

 permitted to be put onboard any velfel in any port of Great Britain, 

 except to be carried coafl:ways, or for the provifion of vefi^els, for the 

 fupport of the inhabitants of Guernfey, Jerfey, Alderney, Mann, Gib- 



* We have already feen that this fpecies of rice proci:red at tlie Ifle of France, where it was natur- 

 is common in the Negro countries in Africa, ah'zed by Mr. Le Poivrc about twenty years be- 

 whence the tranfit to the Wel'.-Indies is (liort and fore Mr. Bligli's voyage was undertaken. See the 

 eafy. This is not the only inllance of going Hi/loiy of Alnuriliiis, [p. 34) by the Vifcount de 

 very far for wliat may be got near at hand. The Vaux, a native of the Ifle of France, 

 bread-fruit tree itfelf, might, 1 prefunje, have been 



Vol. IV. C c 



