canoes alongside. I told them they were at liberty to go, and made each
of them a present of a hatchet, a saw, with some knives, gimlets, and
nails. This unexpected present, and the sudden change in their
situation, affected them not less with joy than they had before been
with apprehension. They were unbounded in their acknowledgements; and I
have little doubt but that we parted better friends than if the affair
had never happened.'

From this island the ship stood to the northward all night, with light
winds; and on the next day, the 27th, at noon, they were between the
islands Tofoa and Kotoo.

'Thus far,' says Bligh, 'the voyage had advanced in a course of
uninterrupted prosperity, and had been attended with many circumstances
equally pleasing and satisfactory. A very different scene was now to be
experienced. A conspiracy had been formed, which was to render all our
past labour productive only of extreme misery and distress. The means
had been concerted and prepared with so much secrecy and circumspection,
that no one circumstance appeared to occasion the smallest suspicion of
the impending calamity, the result of an act of piracy the most
consummate and atrocious that was probably ever committed.'

How far Bligh was justified in ascribing the calamity to a conspiracy
will be seen hereafter. The following chapter will detail the facts of
the mutinous proceedings as stated by the Lieutenant, in his own words.




CHAPTER III