Pioneers in Australasia

by Harry Johnston

A DANCING GROUND AND DRUMS AT PORT SANDWICH, MALEKALA (MALLICOLO) ISLAND, NEW HEBRIDES.

Soon after leaving the last islet of the Tonga archipelago a terrible storm burst on them, and the sea curling over the stern of the boat the fatigue of baling became very great, and some of the provisions were spoilt. They would probably have succumbed to their miseries but for the rum, which was served out to them in teaspoonfuls. When the weather improved they suffered from want of room, their limbs being fearfully cramped, for scarcely any man could stretch out to his full length, and the nights were cold, especially to men soaked with seawater. They passed near the Fiji Islands, from which they were chased by cannibals in canoes. They were soused with heavy rain, and, though it increased their stock of fresh water, this added to their miseries.

In order to serve out allowances methodically Bligh made a pair of scales with two coconut shells, using pistol balls as weights. He also interested the crew by his description of what was known of both New Guinea and Australia, giving all the information stored in his mind, so that in the case of his death the survivors might still reach Timor. Their rations sometimes consisted of a quarter of a pint of coconut milk, a little decayed bread, and the kernels of four coconuts. Occasionally half an ounce of salt pork was given to each man. The storms and the rain continued, and Bligh proposed to the men that when wet through with rainwater they should wring their clothes out in salt water before putting them on again, a proceeding from which, he says, they derived much warmth and refreshment, though every man complained of violent pains in his bones. Incessant baling had to be carried on, both because of the deluge of rain and the waves breaking into the boat. They were sometimes so covered with rain and saltwater that they could scarcely see, and suffered extreme cold. Sleep fled from them in their misery.

One day about noon some noddies (terns, a kind of gull) came so near the boat that one was caught by the hand. It was about the size of a small pigeon. Bligh divided it with its entrails into eighteen portions, which were impartially distributed amongst the crew, Bligh himself, in drawing lots, having nothing but the beak and claws. Later they caught a gannet, which was also divided into eighteen portions, though its blood was given to the three people who were most distressed for want of food. After that they caught more and more gannets, and found their crops containing flying-fish and small cuttlefish, all of which were welcome additions to their diet.

On 28 May they heard the sound of breakers on the Barrier Reef which surrounds north-eastern Australia. With intense thankfulness they found a break in the reef a quarter of a mile in width. Through this the boat sailed to the westward and came immediately into smooth water, so that all the past hardships seemed at once to be forgotten, and on this account a short religious service was held on board. Soon afterwards they landed on the sandy point of an island off the Australian coast, and to their intense delight discovered oysters on the rocks. By the help of a small magnifying glass a fire was made. One of the men had managed to bring away with him a copper pot, and into this put a mixture of oysters, bread, and pork, from which a stew was made sufficient to give each person a full pint of nourishing food. Moreover, they obtained berries or fruits on this island, which out of gratitude Bligh named Restoration Island. Calling soon afterwards at another island they discovered one of the species of "cabbage" palms already referred to in this book, and from the palm cabbages and oysters they made excellent meals, which restored almost everyone to health.

On one of these islands they saw, just as they were embarking after filling the boat with oysters, twenty naked savages running and hallooing and beckoning the strangers to come to them; but as each one was armed with either a spear or a lance it was thought better to hold no communication with them. At one of these islands off the north coast of Australia, to which was given the name of "Sunday", a mutinous feeling began again, which Bligh allayed by inviting the mutineer to fight a duel with him. In spite of this unpleasant occurrence on Sunday Island they obtained oysters, clams, dogfish, and wild beans. A party was sent out by night to catch birds, and returned with only twelve of the noddy terns. The reason they did not get more was that one of the men rushed amongst the birds precipitately and disturbed them in order to secure for himself as large a number as possible. In his frightful hunger he acknowledged that he had eaten nine of these little gulls! Nevertheless, after again putting out into the open sea on their course to Timor, hunger again attacked them, and there was a terrible decline in health. On 10 June Bligh noticed a visible alteration for the worse, his people showing extreme weakness, with swelled legs, hollow and ghastly countenances, a constant inclination to slumber, and a weakness of understanding. He administered wine, and cheered them up by saying that from his calculations he believed they were now close to Timor.

He proved to be correct, for on 12 June the coast of Timor was discovered at a distance of only 6 miles, and two days afterwards they came to an anchor at the Dutch settlement in Kupang Bay, where they were received with every mark of kindness, hospitality, and humanity. They stayed at Kupang for two months to recruit their strength, and then obtaining a small schooner they sailed to Batavia, from which island they were sent home in the ships of the Dutch East India Company. Bligh himself was landed at the Isle of Wight on 11 March, 1790. Nelson the botanist, however, died at Kupang, and five of the other officers and men succumbed to disease at Java or on the way home, so that besides the man who was killed on the Island of Tofoa, six only out of the nineteen men set adrift by the mutineers failed to reach a home which was some 14,000 miles distant from the place at which they had been cast adrift.

After setting Bligh and his companions adrift, Christian took command of the Bounty, and her course was directed, not to Tahiti, but to the Tubuai archipelago farther south. The mutineers threw overboard the greater part of the bread-fruit plants, but, quarrelling with the natives of Tubuai, they sailed to Tahiti. Here Otu, the principal chief, became very inquisitive about the fate of Captain Bligh and the bread-fruit plants. They told him a garbled story about meeting Captain Cook and handing the plants over to him, and that Mr. Christian had now returned to Tahiti to obtain an additional supply of pigs, goats, fowls, and more bread-fruit. So overjoyed were the Tahitians to hear that their dear friend Captain Cook was not dead, but alive (which of course was a lie) and about to settle on an island so near to them, that in the course of a very few days the Bounty received on board 312 pigs, 38 goats (derived of course from the animals landed by Cook originally), 96 fowls, a bull and a cow, and a large quantity of bread-fruit and bananas. The Bounty also received on board eight men, nine women, and seven boys. They then returned to Tubuai, where they ran the ship on shore, landed the live stock, and set about building a fort. But they soon quarrelled with the natives, of whom they shot many with their firearms. Their position became untenable; so once more they returned to Tahiti, in September, 1789. Here sixteen of the mutineers were landed at their own request, while the remaining nine decided to continue their voyage in the Bounty, which once more sailed away with seven Tahiti men and twelve women, intending to discover some unknown or uninhabited island in which there was no harbour for shipping.

British ships of war sent out after the return of Bligh to search for the mutineers brought away fourteen out of the sixteen who had been landed at Tahiti. All these were put on their trial: three were executed and the remainder either pardoned or only received short terms of imprisonment. But they were conveyed to England under circumstances of great brutality, and, curiously enough, on their way back, the Pandora (the ship of war which conveyed them under the command of Captain Edwardes) struck on the Barrier Reef off north-east Australia, and the mutineers, like everyone else, had in one of the ship's boats to perform a voyage to Timor almost equally remarkable with that of Captain Bligh. Once more the Dutch officials at Kupang (who must have got rather tired by this time of shipwrecked mutinous British seafarers) received them with the greatest kindness and sent them towards England in a vessel of the Dutch East India Company.[107]

Meantime the people in England were still in ignorance of what fate had attended the last of the mutineers. This was not revealed until 1809. An American ship, the Topaz, of Boston, by a mere chance approached the shores of desolate little Pitcairn Island, and on landing there to obtain water they discovered, to their astonishment, an old Englishman calling himself Alexander Smith, and the only survivor of the nine mutineers who left Tahiti in 1789 in search of a distant and desert island, accompanied by twelve Tahitian women, six men, and a number of boys. Smith stated to the captain of the Topaz that the Bounty was run on shore at Pitcairn and broken up in 1790, but about four years afterwards a good deal of jealousy and ill humour arising between the Tahitians and the English seamen, the former suddenly revolted and killed every Englishman, except Alexander Smith, who was severely wounded. [Alexander Smith had for some reason, then or earlier, changed his name to that of John Adams, by which he is better known in history.] The same night the Tahitian widows of the slain Englishmen rose up and put to death the whole of the Tahitian men, leaving Smith the only adult man alive on the island, together with eight or nine women, and several children who were the offspring of the English mutineers and the Tahitian women. These survivors now applied themselves sedulously to tilling the ground, so that in course of time it produced plenty of yams, coconuts and bananas, while they bred hogs and poultry in abundance. The population at the time of the Topaz's visit amounted to thirty-five, who all acknowledged Smith as their chief and "father". They all spoke English, and Smith had done his best to educate them in a religious and a moral way. He died in March, 1829.