The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-09-18

SHOCu a WAGER WDefe civilized people
could lose themselves and, being spared
storm and shipwreck, exist so long under
such conditions and NOT run upon a sail or
make On island refuge
On the morning or April %, 1873, the
captain OF the British ship Bounty. then
i'll the south Pacific 90 dogs. below tho
equator and 5000 miles from the shores
Of either continent. was seized while asleep
in his cabin, bound and taken ON deck into
the presence Of his crew, the majority of
whom twenty seven out of forty-fiye-
wesp in open mutiny. The mutineels made
short work Of IL, and set their dcposed
leader, who was Lieut. William Bligh, of
the novy, adrift In one Of the ship's
launches. Eighteen sailors and officers
who were not in the strike also entered the
launch. aud tho party was ordered by the
mutineers TO shove OF from the ship and
take it's chances on the roaring sea.
The brutes on the Bounty had little
compassion for their late comrades, and
stored in the launch $50 pounds OF bread.
thirty-two pounds II meat, n twenty eight
gallon ctlSk OF water and twelve tuasts of
iiqnor. The weight of the nineteen cast
aways, with their provisions, some cloth
ing and II few cutlasscs spared from the
ships stores sunk the boat so low in the
water that the sc;i broke over the stern at
the slightest swell.
Tie rnutiny took place near the Island
OF Tofoa. one of the Friendly's where the
ship Bounty had shortly before taken on a
supply of breadfruit plants to transport
to the West Indies. Bligh steered for that
island agnin, intending to add to tile stock
OF food and water In the launch. While
the castaways were searching for supplies
the savage natives chased them back to
the beach and peted them with stones as
they re-embnrkcd, seizing one poor belnted
fellow. whom they hammered to death.
This experience Mt N>toa showed the for
lorn navigators what @.cy must expect in
any of the isles which stud the south Pa
cific. Bligh had been with Capt. Cook in
his expeditions In that region, and was one
of his purity when the daring explorer was
savagely butchered in the Sandwich Islands
few years before lie knew tina: those is
lands. SO lavishly supplied with everything
to meet the wants of man-nuts, fruit,
water and breadfruit--were peopled by
races as unframed AZ wolves and us fierce
when aroused. He therefore readily
agreed when his men begged him to steer
for some civilized coast on the faro1 con-
tinents. He told them that tho only hone
lay / 200 leagues distant in the Dutch col
ony of tho Island of Timor, north of New
Holland, the present Australia
In order TO make that with favorable
voyaging even, the daily allowance of
food and drink for each man could he only
one ounce of bread and quarter of IA pint
OF water. The men took the startling
situation cheerfully, for the prospect of n
haven among civilized Dutohmen 200
leagues away was far ahead of the GER
tainty of butchery by savages or death by
shipwreck and starvation roaming about
the islands Of Oceanica-terra incog. to the
worlds navigators ut that date. The trip
OF the Bounty to that region was an acct
dental one and might not be repeated by a
ship from civilized port in years. The
British government had sent her out to
carry bread plants to the West Indies as an
experiment.
Bligh's position among the castaways
was peculiar. The mutincers had sent him
adrift to get rid of his imperiousness and
bis irritable temper, and those who fol
lowed i'll the launch had choice of two
evils, or perhaps no choice at ALL They
were not wanted on shipboard, and could
share Bligh's fate and tolerate him ~
leader or do the next best thing, get clear