FROM COUPANG TO BATAVIA. 49 
were clothed in rags. In this condition, with the 
tears of joy and gratitude flowing down our 
cheeks, the people of Timor beheld us with a mix- 
ture of horror, surprise, and pity." Bligh, who 
headed the sad procession, and who gave this 
account, must himself have had a ghastly and 
famine-stricken appearance ; for a few days 
before, when they were all on the open sea, the 
boatswain had innocently told him, that he 
(Captain Bligh,) looked worse than any one in 
the boat. 
On the 20th of July, David Nelson, the 
botanist, died of fever. Nelson was a man much 
respected, and of great scientific knowledge. He 
had been originally appointed to the Bounty, on 
the recommendation of Sir Joseph Banks, to have 
the management of the bread-fruit plants ; and 
he had been similarly engaged in Captain Cook's 
last voyage. 
On the 20th of August, Bligh, and his crew 
of sixteen, sailed from Coupang for Batavia, in a 
schooner which he had bought, and which he 
had named, The Resource. They took in tow 
the launch in which their lives had been so pro- 
videntially preserved. Both the Resource and the 
launch were afterwards sold by Dutch auction at 
Bat a via. 
After some detention at Batavia, in conse- 
quence of illness, Bligh was able to embark for 
his passage homeward, on the 16th of October, 
1789; and on the 14th of March, 1790, he was 
landed by an Isle of Wight boat at Portsmouth. 
Of the nineteen who had been forced into the 
launch, twelve returned to their native country. 
