BLIGH AND HIS CEEW. 37 
utmost difficulty," he said, "that I can open 
a book to write ; and I feel truly sensible I can 
do no more than point out where these lands are 
to be found, and give some idea of their extent." 
This affecting manuscript is in the possession of 
his daughters, and is much blotted and weather- 
stained. 
On the 8th, the weather was calm and fair, 
which gave the voyagers an opportunity of 
drying their clothes, and cleaning out the boat. 
Mr. Bligh also amused all hands, by relating to 
them a description of New Guinea, and New 
Holland, and supplying them with every infor- 
mation in his power, that in case any fatal 
accident should happen to him, the survivors 
might be able to pursue their course to Timor ; 
of which place they had before known nothing, 
except by name. 
At this date the whole day's allowance to each 
was an ounce and a half of pork, half-a-pint of 
cocoa-nut milk, an ounce of bread, and a tea- 
spoonful of rum. " Hitherto," says Bligh, " I 
had issued the allowance by guess ; but I now 
made a pair of scales with two cocoa-nut shells ; 
and having accidentally some pistol-balls in the 
boat, twenty-five of which weighed one pound, 
or sixteen ounces, I adopted one of these balls 
as the proportion of weight that each person 
should receive of bread at the time I served it." 
The allowance of half-a-pint of cocoa-nut 
milk was soon reduced to a quarter-of-a-pint ; 
and these poor men, in their deep distress, at 
last relished even the wetted and decayed bread, 
which was doled out to each in the most careful 
