opposition from the Toobouaites, on his first visit to their island, he caused the Bounty to be warped about four miles to the eastward of the opening in the reef, described by Captain Cook, and moored (head and stern) in three fathoms water, within a cable’s length of the shore. He then prevailed on his companions to undertake the labour of constructing a fort for their security against surprise, working himself with a pick-axe, as an example, in laying the foundation, and alluring them to exertion by an extra allowance of grog. The ground being at length cleared, the British colours were displayed, and the work was laid out in a quadrangular form, measuring eighty-eight yards on each square, surrounded by a ditch eighteen feet wide, and twenty feet deep, from the top of the parapet. Over the ditch it was intended to have a draw-bridge facing the beach; and the Bounty’s guns were to have been mounted on the fort in such a manner, that two 4-pounders and four swivels might be brought to bear in any direction, without the least delay[1].
During the progress of this work, Mr. Christian allowed two men to sleep on shore each night, and the whole of them to spend their Sundays in any manner they pleased; but in every other respect he maintained the strictest discipline, and enforced his orders with an uncommon degree of firmness. He resolutely opposed those who wished to bring the Toobouaite females on board by force; and when two of the mutineers behaved insolently to him, after absenting themselves a whole night without his permission, he clapped a pistol to the head of one of them, and placed both in irons till they expressed contrition for their conduct, and promised future obedience. It was his intention, when the fort should be completed, to remove every thing thither, and take the Bounty to pieces; but the evident reluctance of many, who had not been active in the mutiny, to end their days in exile; and the hostility of the neighbouring chiefs, who took every opportunity of annoying his men, when they were sent in quest of provisions, compelled him to abandon his design of
- ↑ The Bounty mounted four 4-pounders and ten swivels. Mr. Christian’s plan was to place one gun at each angle, and two swivels on each side of the fort; the remaining swivels to be shifted about as occasion might require.
