The

satisfaction than for some time past. night also was fair; but being always wet with the sea, we suffered much from the cold. I had the pleasure to see a fine morning produce some cheerful countenances; and for the first time during the last fifteen days we experienced comfort from the warmth of the sun. We stripped and hung up our clothes to dry, which were by this time become so threadbare that they could not keep out either wet or cold. In the afternoon we had many birds about us, which are never seen far from land, such as boobies and noddies."

As the sea now began to run fair, and the boat shipped but little water, Lieutenant Bligh took the opportunity to examine into the state of their bread; and it was found that, according to the present mode of living, there was a sufficient quantity remaining for twenty-nine days' allowance, by which time there was every reason to expect they would be able to reach Timor. But as this was still uncertain, and it was possible that, after all, they might be obliged to go to Java, it was determined

L

to proportion the allowance, so as to make
the stock hold out six weeks.
"I was ap-
prehensive," he says, "that this would be
ill received, and that it would require my
utmost resolution to enforce it; for, small
as the quantity was which I intended to
take away for our future good, yet it might
appear to my people like robbing them of
life; and some who were less patient than
their companions, I expected would very
ill brook it. However, on my representing
the necessity of guarding against delays
that might be occasioned by contrary
winds, or other causes, and promising to
enlarge upon the allowance as we got on,
they cheerfully agreed to my proposal."
It was accordingly settled that every per-
son should receive one twenty-fifth part of
a pound of bread for breakfast, and the
same quantity for dinner as usual, but that
the proportion for supper should be discon-
tinued; this arrangement left them forty-
three days' consumption.

On the 25th, about noon, some noddies came so near to the boat that one of them was caught by hand. This bird was about

the size of a small pigeon. "I divided it," says Bligh, "with its entrails, into eighteen portions, and by a well-known method at sea, of 'Who shall have this?'* it was distributed, with the allowance of bread and water for dinner, and eaten up, bones and all, with salt water for sauce. In the evening, several boobies flying near to us, we had the good fortune to catch one of them. This bird is as large as a duck. They are the most presumptive proof of being near land of any sea-fowl we are acquainted with. I directed the bird to be killed for supper, and the blood to be given to three of the people who were the most distressed for want of food. The body, with the entrails, beak, and feet, I divided into eighteen shares, and with the allowance of bread, which I made a merit of granting, we made

* One person turns his back on the object that is to be divided; another then points separately to the portions, at each of them asking aloud, "Who shall have this?" to which the first answers by naming somebody. This impartial method of distribution gives every man an equal chance of the best share. Bligh used to speak of the great amusement the poor people had at the beak and claws falling to his share.

a good supper compared with our usual fare.

"On the next day, the 26th, we caught another booby, so that Providence appeared to be relieving our wants in an extraordinary manner. The people were overjoyed at this addition to their dinner, which was distributed in the same manner as on the preceding evening; giving the blood to those who were the most in want of food. To make the bread a little savoury, most of the men frequently dipped it in salt water, but I generally broke mine into small pieces, and ate it in my allowance of water, out of a cocoa-nut shell, with a spoon; economically avoiding to take too large a piece at a time, so that I was as long at dinner as if it had been a much more plentiful meal."

The weather was now serene, which, nevertheless, was not without its inconveniences, for, it appears, they began to feel distress of a different kind from that which they had hitherto been accustomed to suffer. The heat of the sun was now so powerful, that several of the people were

seized with a languor and faintness, which made life indifferent. But the little circumstance of catching two boobies in the evening, trifling as it may appear, had the effect of raising their spirits. The stomachs of these birds contained several flying-fish, and small cuttle-fish, all of which were carefully saved to be divided for dinner the next day; which were accordingly divided, with their entrails and the contents of their maws, into eighteen portions, and, as the prize was a very valuable one, it was distributed as before, by calling out, "Who shall have this?"—"so that to-day," says the lieutenant, "with the usual allowance of bread at breakfast and at dinner, I was happy to see that every person thought he had feasted." From the appearance of the clouds in the evening, Mr. Bligh had no doubt they were then near the land, and the people amused themselves with conversing on the probability of what they would meet with on it.

Accordingly, at one in the morning of the 28th, the person at the helm heard the sound of breakers. It was the "barrier