Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1892-08-18

stretch OF water where 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 an island refuge.
On the morning of April IS. 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-seyen out Of forty-ive-
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 were not in the strike also entered the
launch, and the party was ordered by the
mutineers 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, al
stored in the launch $50 pounds Of breaf
thirty-two pounds of meat, a twenty-eigl 2
gallon cask of water and twelve quarts O.
liquor The weight OF the nineteen cast
Always, with their provisions, some clotl.-
ing and a few cutlasses spared from the
ships stores sunk the boat so low in the
water that the sea. broke over the stern at
the slightest swell.
The mutiny 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 again, intending to add TO the stock
OF food and water in the launch. While
the castaways were searching for supplies
the savage natives chased them back &c
the beach and pelted them with stones as
they re-embarked, seizing one poor belated
| fellow, whom they hammered to death.
This experience at Tofoa showed the for
lorn navigators what they 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 party when the daring explorer was
savagely butchered in the Sandwich Islands
a few years before He knew THAI 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 as wolves and as fierce
when aroused. He therefore readily
agreed when his men begged him to steel
for some civilized coast on the faroif con
tinents. He told them that the only hopt
lay /, 200 leagues distant in the Detch col
ony Of the Island Of Timor, north Of New
! Holland, the present Australia.
In order to make that, with favorable
voyaging even, the daily allowance o.
food and drink for each man could be only
one ounce OF bread and a quarter of a pint
of water. The men took the startling
situation cheerfully, for the prospect Of Z
haven among civilized Dutehmen l,20
\ 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 thu
worlds navgators at that date. The tril
of the Bounty to that region was an acci
dental one and might not be repeated by I
ship from civilized port in years. Thu
British government had sent her out t.
carry bread plants to the West Indies as NJ
experiment.
Blighs position among the castaway
was peculiar The niutineers had sent hin
adrift to get rid Of his imperiousness ant
his irritable temper, and those who fol
lowed in the launch had choice Of tw'
evils. or perhaps no choice at all. The.
were not wanted on shipboard, and coul'
share Bligh's fate and tolerate him a
leader or do the next best thing, get clea