and some clothes, also four cutlasses; and it was then that the armorer
and carpenters called out to me to remember that they had no hand in the
transaction. After having undergone a great deal of ridicule, and having
been kept some time to make sport for these unfeeling wretches, we were
at length cast adrift in the open ocean.

I had eighteen persons with me in the boat. There remained on board the
_Bounty_ twenty-five hands, the most able men of the ship's company.
Having little or no wind, we rowed pretty fast towards Tofoa, which bore
northeast about ten leagues from us. While the ship was in sight, she
steered to the west-north-west; but I considered this only as a feint;
for when we were sent away, "Huzza for Otaheite!" was frequently heard
among the mutineers.

It will very naturally be asked, What could be the reason for such a
revolt? In answer to which, I can only conjecture that the mutineers had
flattered themselves with the hopes of a more happy life among the
Otaheitans than they could possibly enjoy in England; and this, joined to
some female connections, most probably occasioned the whole transaction.
The women at Otaheite are handsome, mild and cheerful in their manners
and conversation, possessed of great sensibility, and have sufficient
delicacy to make them admired and beloved. The chiefs were so much
attached to our people, that they rather encouraged their stay among them
than otherwise, and even made them promises of large possessions. Under
these, and many other attendant circumstances equally desirable, it is
now perhaps not so much to be wondered at, though scarcely possible to
have been foreseen, that a set of sailors, most of them void of
connections, should be led away: especially when, in addition to such
powerful inducements, they imagined it in their power to fix themselves
in the midst of plenty, on one of the finest islands in the world, where