manner, called the crew aft, told them that every thing relative to the provisions was transacted by his orders, that it was therefore needless for them to. complain, as they would get no redress,, he being the fittest judge of what was right or wrong, and that he would flog the first man who should dare attempt to make any complaint in future. To this imperious menace they bowed in silence, and not another murmur was heard from them during the remainder of the voyage to Otaheite, it being their determination to seek legal redress on the Bounty’s return to England. The officers, on the contrary, did not refrain from talking among themselves of Lieutenant Bligh’s unjustifiable conduct in causing the prime pieces to be constantly appropriated to his own use, whilst they were obliged to take their chance of what remained, in common with the men, and that without having the satisfaction of even knowing the weight of those very inferior pieces which often fell to their share.
On the 23d March, 1788, the coast of Terra del Fuego was discovered, and a sheep which had died that morning was served out instead of the day’s allowance of pork and pease, Lieutenant Bligh observing that it weighed upwards of 50lbs. and would make a delicious meal. The men however, not coinciding with him in that opinion, took the first opportunity of throwing their respective shares overboard, and some dried shark supplied its place for a Sunday’s dinner.
Lieutenant Bligh, in his “History of the Bounty’s Voyage to the South Seas,” at p. 31, says,– “Sunday, 13 April, 1788; This morning, owing to the violent motion of the ship, the cook fell and broke one of his ribs;” our journalist informs us, that at that period“ wheat and barley were boiled every morning for breakfast, instead of burgoo; but the quantity was so small, that the division of it caused frequent broils in the galley, and was sometimes attended with bad consequences. In one of those disputes the cook had two of his ribs broken; and at another time, Charles Churchill, the master at arms, was badly scalded in the hand, The proportion of pease and oatmeal had previously been reduced to so low a scale that the officers, ‘unable to stand the brunt with the men,’ frequently went without their share; but the cabin inmates always took care to have theirs.”
