Mower County transcript., 1892-08-10

could lose themselves and,' being spared
storm and shipwreck, exist so long under
such conditions and not run upon a sail or
make an island refuge
On the morning of April %, 17SS. the
captain of the British ship Bounty. then
IN the south Pacific 20 degs. below the
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-sev out of forty-five-
were in open mutiny. The mutineers made
short work Of it, and set their deposed
leader, who was Lieut. William Bligh. of
the navy, adrift in one of the ships
launches. Eighteen sailors and officers
who We're not in the strike also entered the
launch, and the party was ordered by the
mutlneers to shove off from the ship and
take its 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.
thlrty-tWo pounds of meat, a twenty-eight
gallon cask of water and twelve quarts of
liquor. The weight Of the nineteen cast
aways, with their provisions. some cloth
ing and few cutlasses spared from the
ships stores sunk the boat so low in the
the slightest swell
The nlutiny took place near the Island
OF Io1oa, one of the Friendly's. where the
ship Bounty had shortly before taken on q
supply of breadfruit plants to transport
to the West Indies. Bligh steered for that
island again, intending to add to the stock
OF food and water in the launch While
the castaways We're searching for supplies
the savage natives chased them back to
the beach and pelted them with stones as
they re-embarked, seizing one poor belated
fellow, whom they hammered to death.
Ihls experience at Tofoa showed the for
lorn navlgators what they must expect in
any OF the isles which stud the south Pa
clflc. Ehgh had been with Capt. Cook in
his expeditions in that region, and was one
of his party when the daring explorer was
savagely butchered in the Sandwich Islands
few years before. He knew that those is
lands, so olavishly supplied with everything
to meet the wants Of man-nuts, fruit,
water and breadfruit-were peopled by
races as unnamed as wolves and as fierce
when aroused. He therefore readily
agreed when his men begged him to steer
for some civilized coast on the faroff con-
tinents. He told them that the only hope
lay 200 leagues distant in the Dutch col
oA1y VI tdC 4Siduu VI 1IuO1, uOrUQ 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 be onlv
one ounce of bread and quarter of pint
Of water. The men took the startling
situation cheerfully, for the prospect of a
haven among civilized Dutchmen 1900
leagues away was far ahead of the GER
tainty of butchery by savages or death by
shlpwreck and starvation roaming about
the islands of fOceanica-terra incog. to the
worlds navigators at that date. The trip
OF the Bounty to that region was an acci-
dental one and might not be repeated by
ship from civilized port in years. The
British government had sent her out to
carry bread plants to the West Indies as an
experiment.
Blgh's position among the castaways
was peculiar. The mutineers had sent him
adrift to get rid of his imperiousness and
his irritable temper, and those who fol-
lowed in the launch had choice of two
evils, or perhaps no choice at all. They
were not wanted on shipboard, and could
share Blgh's fate and tolerate him as
leader or do the next best thing, get clear