flattered themselves with the hopes of a hap pier life among the Otaheitans than they expected in England. These hopes were founded upon various circumstances. Some of the sailors had received offers of kindness and of friendship from the Chiefs; who were rather inclined that their visiters should remain among them, and had made them promises of large possessions.-Others had formed attachments with some of the native females, which had considerable influence upon their conduct. These females were by their simplicity of manners naturally interesting; and many of them were well made and rather handsome. While all saw before them on their return, a tedious voyage, with its attendant difficulties and dangers. Thus these unprincipled and unfortunate men, misled by ambition, sensual appetites, and the desire of present ease, became guilty of an offence of the most heinous nature; and, as will be seen hereafter, suffered hardships and misfortunes far greater than any which they had dreaded, and infinitely more than an equivalent for the pleasures they had expected. But the secrecy of this mutiny surpasses belief. Thirteen of the party who were now with me had always lived forward among the seamen, yet neither they, nor the messmates of Christian, Stewart, Haywood, and Young, had ever observed any circumstance to excite suspicion of what was plotting; and it is not wonderful that I should have fallen a sacrifice to it, my mind being entirely free from suspicion. Perhaps, had marines been on board, a sentinel at my cabin-door might have prevented it, for I constantly slept with the door open, that the officer of the watch might have access to me on all occasions. If the mutiny had been occasioned by any grievances, either real or imaginary, I must have discovered symptoms of discontent, which would put me on my guard, but it was far otherwise. With Christian, in particular, I was on the most friendly terms; that very day he was engaged to dine with me, and the preceding night he excused himself from supping with me on pretence of indisposition, for which I felt concerned, having no suspicions of his honour or integrity. My first determination was to seek a supply of bread-fruit and water at the island of Tofoa, and afterwards to sail for Tongataboo, and there to risk a solicitation to Poulaho, the king, to equip our boat, and grant us such a supply of water and provisions as should enable us to reach the East Indies. The quantity of provisions which I found in the boat, was 150 pounds of bread, 32 of pork, six quarts of rum, six bottles of wine, and 28 gallons of water. An easterly wind sprung up, which enabled us to make sail, and we reached Tofoa in the evening, though not before dark. There being no anchorage, and the shore so steep that we could not land, we were obliged to keep the boat under the lee of the island with two oars. I then served half a pint of grog to every person, and we went to rest as well as our unhappy situation would admit. At dawn, having rowed along shore in - search of a landing-place, we discovered a cove, about ten o'clock, with a stony beach, when I dropped the grapnel within twenty yards of the shore. A great surf ran here, but, unwilling to diminish our stock of provisions, Mr. Samuel and some others landed in search of supplies, and, towards noon, returned with a few quarts of water, which he had found in holes. Uncertain of what our future necessities might be, I issued only a morsel of bread and a glass of wine to each person for dinner. Rowing farther along shore, we discovered cocoa-nut trees on the top of high precipices. Several of the people, notwithstanding the surf made landing dangerous, climbed the cliffs, and got about twenty cocoa-nuts, and others slung them to ropes, by which we hauled them through the surf into the boat. I returned to the cove, and, having served a cocoa-nut to each man, we again went to rest in the boat. - At day-light we attempted to put to sea, but the wind and weather proved so unfavourable, that we were glad to resume our former station. There, after issuing a morsel of bread, and a spoonful of rum to each person, we landed, and I, with Mr. Nelson, the botanist, Mr. Samuel, and some others, having hauled ourselves up the precipice by long vines fixed there by the natives for that purpose, advanced into the country. We found a few deserted huts, and collected three small bunches of plantains. After passing this place, we came to a deep gully that led towards a mountain, near a volcano; and, as I conceived that in the rainy season very great torrents of water must pass through it, we hoped to find sufficient for our use, remaining in some holes of the rocks; but, after all our search, the whole that we collected was only nine gallons. We advanced within two miles of the foot of the highest mountain in the island, on which is the volcano that is almost constantly burning. The country near it is covered with lava, and has a most dreary appearance. As we had not been successful in our discoveries, and saw nothing to alleviate our distresses, except the plantains and water above mentioned, we returned to the boat, exceedingly fatigued and faint. When I came to the precipice whence we were to descend into the cove, I was seized with such a dizziness in my head, that I thought it scarcely possible to effect it: however, by the assistance of Nelson and others, they at last got me down, in a weak condition. Every person being returned by noon, I gave about an ounce of pork and two plantains to each, with half a glass of wine. I again observed the latitude of this place 19° 41′ south. The people who remained by the boat I had directed to look for fish, or what they could pick up about the rocks; but nothing eatable could be found: so that, upon the whole, we considered ourselves on as miserable a spot of land as could well be imagined. I could not say positively, from the former knowledge I had of this island, whether it was inhabited or not; but I knew it was considered inferior to the other islands, and I was not certain but that the Indians only resorted to it at particular times. I was very anxious to ascertain this point; for, in case there had been only a few people here, and those could have furnished us with but very moderate supplies, the remaining in this spot to have made preparations for |