RULES ON ARRIVING. 19 
The voyagers, forty-five in number, were 
received with kindness by the natives, who asked 
particularly after Captain Cook, whom they 
called Toot : they also inquired about Sir Joseph 
Banks, and others who had visited them some 
years before. But their first inquiries of the 
voyagers were, whether they were Tyos, which 
signifies, friends, and whether they came from 
Pretanie (Britain), or from Lima. Having 
become satisfied on these two important points, 
they instantly covered the deck in such num- 
bers, that Bligh, moving about among the 
crowd, could scarcely find his own people. 
He had prepared and written down certain 
rules to be observed by all his men for facilitat- 
ing a trade for provisions, and establishing a 
good understanding with the natives. Amongst 
other regulations it was ordered, that at the 
Society of Friendly Islands no person whatever 
should intimate that Captain Cook had been 
killed by natives, or indeed that he was dead.* 
No one was to give the least hint that the party 
had come for the purpose of getting the bread- 
fruit plant, until Bligh should think proper to 
make known his plan to the chiefs. Every one 
was to study to gain the esteem and goodwill 
of the islanders. No one was ever to fire but 
in defence of his life. It was against the rules 
to purchase curiosities or provisions, except by 
application to a duly-appointed purveyor. 
Immediately on anchoring, these orders, signed 
* Cook had been murdered by the natives of Owhyhee in 
February, 1779. The above order for the suppression of 
truth, involving a kind of falsehood, may have encouraged in 
some of the men deceit in other things. 
