to remedy the latter defect, by putting themselves at watch and watch;
so that one half always sat up, while the other lay down on the boat's
bottom, or upon a chest, but with nothing to cover them except the
heavens. Their limbs, he says, were dreadfully cramped, for they could
not stretch them out; and the nights were so cold, and they were so
constantly wet, that, after a few hours' sleep, they were scarcely able
to move. At dawn of day on the 7th, being very wet and cold, he says, 'I
served a spoonful of rum and a morsel of bread for breakfast.'

In the course of this day they passed close to some rocky isles, from
which two large sailing-canoes came swiftly after them, but in the
afternoon gave over the chase. They were of the same construction as
those of the Friendly Islands, and the land seen for the last two days
was supposed to be the Fiji Islands. But being constantly wet, Bligh
says, 'it is with the utmost difficulty I can open a book to write, and
I feel truly sensible I can do no more than point out where these lands
are to be found, and give some idea of their extent.' Heavy rain came on
in the afternoon, when every person in the boat did his utmost to catch
some water, and thus succeeded in increasing their stock to thirty-four
gallons, besides quenching their thirst for the first time they had been
able to do so since they had been at sea: but it seems an attendant
consequence of the heavy rain caused them to pass the night very
miserably; for being extremely wet, and having no dry things to shift or
cover themselves, they experienced cold and shiverings scarcely to be
conceived.

On the 8th, the allowance issued was an ounce and a half of pork, a
teaspoonful of rum, half a pint of cocoa-nut milk, and an ounce of
bread. The rum, though so small in quantity, is stated to have been of
the greatest service. In the afternoon they were employed in cleaning
out the boat, which occupied them until sunset before they got every
thing dry and in order. 'Hitherto,' Bligh says, 'I had issued the
allowance by guess, but I now made a pair of scales with two cocoa-nut
shells; and having accidentally some pistol-balls in the boat,
twenty-five of which weighed one pound or sixteen ounces, I adopted one
of these balls as the proportion of weight that each person should
receive of bread at the times I served it. I also amused all hands with
describing the situations of New Guinea and New Holland, and gave them
every info