ccording to the evidence at the court-martial, not of mutineers, but of
the master and other officers who were cast adrift from the _Bounty_, what
Christian did say was in reply to entreaties to reconsider what he was
doing, when his words were--"No, no. Captain Bligh has brought all this on
himself: it is too late; I have been in hell for weeks past."

With Bligh in the boat were eighteen persons, and twenty-five remained on
the _Bounty_. The boat was 23 feet in length, 6 feet 9 inches in breadth,
and 2 feet 9 inches in depth. When loaded with all these people and her
stores, she had not seven inches of freeboard.

From the morning when the boat was cast adrift till forty-two days later,
when her unhappy company were safely landed at Timor, Bligh's behaviour
and the behaviour of those under him is a noble example of courage,
endurance, and resourcefulness.

They first attempted to land at Tofoa, one of the Friendly Islands, but
were driven off by the natives, and one of the seamen was killed. Bligh,
therefore, resolved to land nowhere until he came to the coast of
Australia, or New Holland, as it was then called.

On the twenty-eighth day they made an island off the coast, to which they
gave the name Restoration. Up to this time, they had lived on such food as
they had, served out in a pair of cocoa-nut shell scales, the ration being
a pistol-ball's weight per man morning, noon, and night, a teaspoonful of
rum or wine, and a quarter of a pint of water. Their food was occasionally
varied when they were able to catch boobies. The birds were devoured raw,
and the blood drunk, each man receiving his portion with the utmost
fairness.

Restoration Island is one of the many little islets that stud the
sea-coast from the Barrier Reef right through Torres Straits, and Bligh's
people found upon it and other similar spots welcome opportunity to
stretch their cramped limbs, besides obtaining fresh water, and plenty of
oysters. Then they continued their journey, making their way through
Torres Straits by a channel still known as Bligh's Passage, and taking a
week from the time of sighting the Australian coast to the time of leaving
it.

A couple of incidents that happened at this time show how it was that
Bligh kept his men so well in hand. One man was sent out to look for
birds' eggs; the sailor, it was discovered, had concealed some of them.
Says Bligh, "I thereupon gave him a good beating. On another occasion one
of the me