26 DEPAKTUKE OF THE BOUNTY. 
On the evening of the day before the de- 
parture of the Bounty, there was none of the 
dancing or mirth, to which the people had been 
accustomed, on the beach. Before this, the part 
of the beach nearest the ship had been the 
general place of resort towards the close of the 
day. An hour before sunset, the inhabitants had 
amused themselves with exercising the lance, 
dancing, and various kinds of merriment. Of 
this cheerful scene Bligh and his men had been 
beholders and partakers every fine evening. In 
the midst of these delights, the moments so 
blissfully flew, that the young men of the Bounty 
seemed to imagine that the day of departure 
would never come : 
" But pleasures are like poppies spread, 
You seize the fiow'r, its bloom is shed ; 
Or like the snow-fall in the river, 
A moment white, then melts for ever ; 
Or like the Borealis race, 
That flit ere you can point their place ; 
Or like the rainbow's lovely form, 
Evanishing amid the storm." 
On Friday, the 3rd of April, 1789, all was 
silent. The mirth of the island was gone. The 
visitors were under sailing orders, and must 
quit the charming scene. It was a heavy trial 
to many. They had conformed themselves to 
the ways and habits of the native community ; 
and, just as though they had been settled in the 
place, most of the party had suffered themselves 
to undergo the custom of tattooing. 
They had now passed three and twenty pleas- 
ant weeks at Otaheite. On Saturday the 4th, 
the ship, as if loth to leave, moved slowly off, 
