dition, with the tears of joy and gratitude flowing
down our cheeks, the people of Timor beheld us
with a mixture of horror, surprise, and pity.
" When," continues the commander, " I reflect
112 â– THE OPEN-BOAT NAVIGATION.
how providentially our lives were saved at Tofoa,
by the Indians delaying their attack ; and that, with
scarcely any thing- to support life, we crossed a sea
of more than twelve hundred leagues, without shel-
ter from the inclemency of the weather ; when I
reflect that in an open boat, with so much stormy
weather, we escaped foundering, that not any of us
were taken off by disease, that we had the great good
fortune to pass the unfriendly natives of other coun.
tries without accident, and at last to meet with the
most friendly and best of people to relieve our dis-
tresses — I say, when I reflect on all these wonderful
escapes, the remembrance of such great mercies
enables me to bear with resignation and cheerfulness
the failure of an expedition, the success of which I
had so much at heart, and which was frustrated at a
time when I was congratulating myself on the fairest
prospect of being able to complete it in a manner
that would fully have answered the intention of his
majesty and the humane promoters of so benevo-
lent a plan."
Having recniited their strength by a residence of
two months among the friendly inhabitants of Cou-
pang, they proceeded to the westward on the 20th
August in a small schooner, which was purchased
and armed for the purpose, and arrived on the 1st
October in Batavia Road, where Mr. Bligh embarked
in a Dutch packet, and was landed on the Isle of
Wight on the 14th of March, 1790. The rest of the
people had passages provided for them in ships of
the Dutch East India Company, then about to sail
for Europe. All of them, however, did not survive
to reach England. Nelson, the botanist, died at
Coupang; Mr. Elphinstone, master's mate, Peter
Linkletter and Thomas Hall, seamen, died at Ba-
tavia; Robert Lamb, seaman (the booby-eater), died
on the passage ; and Mr. Ledward, the surgeon,
was left behind, and not afterward heard of. These
six, with John Norton, who was stoned to death, left
THE OPEN-BOAT NAVIGATION. IJ3
twelve of the nineteen, forced by the mutineers into
the launch, to survive the difficulties and dangers of
this unparalleled voyage, and to revisit their native
country. With great truth might Bligh exclaim with
the poet,
-" 'Tis mine to tell their tale of gritT,
Tlieir constant peril and tlieir scant relief;
Their days of danger, and their nij^hts of pain ;
Their manly courage, e'en when deein'd in vain;
The sapping famine, renderinjr scarce a son
Known to his mother in the skeleton ;
The ills that lessen'd still their little store.
And starved e'en hunger till he wrung no morej
The varymg frowns and favours of the deep,
That now almost ingulphs, then leaves to creep
With crazy oar and shatler'd strength along
The tide, that yields reluctant to the strong;
Th' incessant fever of that arid thirst
Which welcomes, as a well, the clouds that burst
Above their naked bones, and feels delight
In the cold drenching of the stormy night,
And from the outspread canvass gladly wrings
A drop to moisten life's all-gasping springs ;
Th • savage foe escaped, to seek again
More hospitable shelter from the main ;
The ghastly spectres which were doom'd at last
To tell as true a tale of dangers past,
As ever the dark annals of the deep
Disclosed for man to dread or woman weep."
It is impossible not fully to accord with Bligh
when he says, " Thus happily ended, through the
assistance of Divine Providence, without accident,
a voyage of the most extraordinary nature that ever
happened in the world,* let it be taken either in its
* The escape of the Centaur's boat, perhaps, comes nearest to it.
When the Centaur was sinking. Captain Inglefield and eleven others,
in a small leaky boat, five feet broad, with one of the gunwales stove,
nearly in the middle of the Western Ocean, without compass, without
quadrant, without sail, without great-coat or cloak all very thinly
clothed, in a gale of wind, with a great sea running, and the winter fast
approaching,— the sun and stars, by which alone they could shape their
course, soinetiiiies hidden for twenty-four hours;— these unhappy men,
in this destitute and hopeless condition, had to brave the billows of the
stormy Atlantic for nearly a thousand miles. A blanket, which was
by accident in the boat, served as a sail, and with this they scudded be-
fore the wind, in expectation of bemg swallowed up by every wave:
with great dilficulty the boat was cleared of wf.ter before the retura or
114 THE OPEN-BOAT NAVIGATION.
extent, duration, or the want of every necessary of
life." We may go further, and say it is impossible
the next great sea; all of the people were half-drowned, and sitting,
except the bailers, at the hotiom of the boat. On quilting the ship the
tli.siance of Fayai was two hundred and sixty leagues, or about nine
luinrlred English miles.
^I'hcir ])rovisions were a b.ig of bread, a small ham, a single piece of
jiork, two quart bottles of water, and a few of French cordials. One
biscuit, divided into twelve morsels, was served for breakfast, and the
same for dinner ; the neck of a bottle broken off, with the cork in, sup-
plied the place of a glass ; and this filled with water was the allowance
for twenty-four hours for each man.
On the fifteenth day. they had only one day's brtad and one bottle
of water" remaming of a second supply of rain : on this day Matthews, a
quarter-master, ihe stoutest man in the boat, perishedof hunger and cold.
This poor man, on the day before, had complained of want of strength
in his throat, as he expressed it, to swallow his morsel; and in the
night drank salt-water, grew delirious, and died without a groan.
Hitherto despair and gloom had been successfully prevented, the men,
when the evenings closed in. having been encouraged by turns to sing
V a song, or relate a story, instead of a supper : " but," says the captain,
"this evening I found it impossible to raise either.'' The captain had
directed the clothes to be takpn from the corpse of Matthews and given
to some of the men who were perishing with cold ; but the shocking
skeleton-like appearance of his remains made such an impression on the
people, that all efforts to raise their spirits were ineffectual. On the
following day, the sixteenth, their last breakfast was served with the
bread and wafer remaining, when John Gregory, the quarter- master,
declared with much confidence that he saw land in the south-east,
which turned out to be Fayal.
But the most extrsiOTdinary feat of navigation is that which is related
(on good authority) in a note of the Quarterly Reviav, vol. xviii. p.
337-339 :—
Of all the feats of navigation on record, however, that of Diogo Bo-
telho Perreira, in the early period of 1536 7, stands pre-eminent ; it is
extracted from the voluminous Decades of Diogo de Couto, whose work,
though abounding with much curious matter, like those of nio.st of the
old Portuguese writers, has not been fortunate enough to obtain an
English translation. We are indebted to a friend for pointing it out to
us, and we conceive it will be read with interest.
" In the time of the viceroyalty of Don Francisco de Almeyda there
was a young gentleman in India of thi; name of Diogo Botelho Perreira,
son of the commander of Cochin, who educated him with great care, so
that he soon became skilled in the art of navigation, and an adept in the
construction ot marine charts. As he grew up, he felt anxious to visit
Portugal, where, on his arrival, he was well received at court, and the
king took pleasure in conversing with him on those subjects which had
been the particular objects of his studies. Confident of his own talents,
and presuming on the favour with which the king always treated him,
he ventured one day to request his majesty to appoint him commander
of the fortress of Chaul. The king smiled at his request, and replied,
that ^ the command of the fortress was not for pilots.' Botelho was
piqued at this answer, and on returning into the antechamber, was
THE OPEN-BOAT NAVIGATION. 115
to read this extraordinary and unparalleled voyage
without bestowing the meed of unqualified praise on
met by Don Antonio Noronha, second son of the Marquis of Villa Real,
who asked him if his suit had been granted : he answered, " :^ir, I will
apply where my suit will not be neglected." When this answer came
to the ears of the king, he immediately ordered Botelho to be conSned
in the castle of Lisbon, lest he should follow the example of jMegalhavns,
and !rn over to Spain. There he remained a prisoner until the admiral-
vicerov, Don Vasco da Gama, solicited his release, and was permitted
to take him to India; but on the express condition that he should not
return to Portuijal, except by special permission. Under these un-
pleasant circumstances this gentleman proceeded to India, anxious for
an opportunity of distingnishiiig himself, that he might be permitted
again to visit Portugal.
" It happfined about this time that the Snltan Badur, sovereign of
Cambaya, gave the governor, Nuno da Cunha, permission to erect a
fortress on the island of Diu,— an object long and anxiously wished for,
as being of the greatest importance to the security of the Portu;juesa
possessions in India. Botelho was aware how acceptable this inlbrma
tion would be to the king, and therefore deemed this a favourable opportu-
nity of regaining his lavonr, by conveying such important intelligence-,
and he resolved to ])erform the voyage in a vessel so small, and so un-
like what had ever appeared in Portugal, that it should not (ail to excita
astonishment, how any man could undertake so long and perilous a
navigation in such a frail and diminutive bottom.
" Without communicating his .schema to any person, he procured a
fusta, put a deck on it from head lo stern, furnished it with spare saila
and spars, and every other necessary, and constructed two siriall tanks
lor water.
" As soon as the monsoon served, he embarked with some men in hia
service, giving out that he was going to Melinde ; and to give colour to
this story, he proceeded to Baticala, where he purchased some cloths
and bead.s for that market, and laid in provisions ; some native mer-
chants also embarked with a few articles on board for the Melinda
market, to which he did not choose to object, l-^sl it should alarm his
sailors.
" He set sail with the eastern monsoon, in the beginning of October,
and arrived safely at Melinde, where he landv^d the native merchants,
took in wood, water, and refreshments, and again put to sea, informing
ills crew that he was going to Quiloa. When he had got to a distance
from the land, it would appear that some of his crew had mutinied ; but
this he h.ad foreseen and provided for; putting some of them in irons,
and promising at the same time amply to reward the services of the rest,
and giving them to understand that he .vas going to Sofala on account
of the trade in gold. Thus he proceeded, touching at various places for
refreshments, which he met with in great plenty and very cheap.
" From Pofala he proceeded along the coast till he liad passed the
Cabo dos Correntes, and from thence along the shore, without ever ven-
turing to a distance from the land, and touching at the different rivers,
until he passed the Capeof (^ood Hope, which he did in January, 1537.
^' From thence he stretched into the ocean with gentle breezes, steer-
ing for St. Helena ; where, on arriving, he drew his little vessel ashore,
to clean her bottom and repair her, and also to give a few days' rest lo
116 THE OPEN-BOAT NAriGATION.
the able and judicious conduct of its commander,
who is in every respect, as far as this extraordinary
enterprise is concerned, fully entitled to rank with
Parry, Franklin, and Richardson. Few men, indeed,
were' ever placed for so long a period in a more try-
ing, distressing, and perilous situation than he was:
and it may safely be pronounced, that to his discreet
management of the men and their scanty resources,
his crew, of whom some had i>erished of cold, Ilotwiths^andillg his hav-
ing provided warm clothing for tliem.
" Departing from St. Helena, he boldly steered his little bark across
the wide ocean, directing his career, to ' St . Thoin*, where he took i:i
provisions, wood, and water; and from thence he proceeded to the ba?
ef Lisbon, where he arrived in May, when the king was at Almeyrin.—
He entered the river with his oars, his little vessel being dressed witU
flags and pennants, and anchored at Point Leira opposite to Salvaterra,
not being able to get farther up the river. This novelty produced such
i sensation in Lisbon that the Tagus v.-as covered with boats to see the
fusta. Diogo Botelho Perreira landed in a baat, and proceeded to Al-
meyrin, to give the king an account of his voyage, and solicit a gratifi-
cation for the good news which he brought, of Jiis majesty now being
possessed of a fortress on the island of Diu.
" The king was highly pleased with this intelligence, but, as Botelho
i)rooght no letters from the governor, he did not give him the kind of re-
%ption which he had expected. On tl'C contrary, tie king treated him
with coldness and distance ; his majesty, however, embarked to see
the fusta, on board of which he examined every thing with much
attention, and was gratified in viewing a vessel of such a peculiar fornn,
Rnd ordered money and clothes to be given to the sailors — nor coald he
help considering Diogo Botelho as a man of extraordinary enterprise
and courage, on whose firmness implicit reliance might be placed.
" The little vessel was ordered to be drawn ashore at Sacahem. where
it remained many years (until it fell to pieces), and was visited by peo-
ple from all parts of Earor^?, who beheld it with astnni.shment. The
King subsequently received letters from tie gavem&r&f Nunsda Cunha,.
confirming the news brought by Botelho ; the bearer of these letters, a
Jew, was immediately rewarded with a pension of a hundred and forty
milreas ; but Botelho was neglected for many years, and at last ap-
pointed commander of St. Thorn*, and finally made captain of Cananor
in India, that be might bf at a distance frsm Portagal."
Tlie vessel namwl fusta is a long, shallow, Indian-bailt r9w-boat>
whic'i uses latine sails in fine weather. These boats are usually open,
hut fiotelho covered his with a deck : its dimensions, according to La-
vanda, ... fits edition of De Barros's unfinished Decade, are as follows :
— length twenty-two palmos, or sixteen feet six inc! es ; breadthy
twelve palmos, or nine feet ; depth, six palmos, or four feet six incheSi
Bligh's boat was twenty-three feet long, sis feet nine inches broad, and
two feet nine inches deep. From the circumstance mention*^! " «ome
0f his crew having j)erished with cold, it is probable that they wtre
natives of India, whom the' Portuguese vstere in the habit of bEinging
*^.'/)e as part ef their ciew.
THE OPEN-BOAT NAVIGATION. 117
and to his ability as a thorough seaman, eighteen
souls were saved from imminent and otherwise in-
evitable destruction. It was not alone the dangers
of the sea, in an open boat, crowded with people,
that he had to combat, though they required the most
consummate nautical skill to be enabled to contend
successfully against them ; but the unfortunate situa-
tion to which the party were exposed rendered him
subject to the almost daily murmuring and caprice
of people less conscious than himself of their real
danger. From the experience they had acquired at
Tofoa of the savage disposition of the people against
the defenceless boat's crew, a lesson was learned
how little was to be trusted even to the mildest of
uncivilized people when a conscious superiority
was in their hands. A striking proof of this was
experienced in the unprovoked attack made by those
amiable people the Otaheitans on Captain Wallis's
ship, of whose power they had formed no just con-
ception ; but having once experienced the full force
of it, on no future occasion was any attempt made
to repeat the attack. Lieutenant Bligh, fully aware
of his own weakness, deemed it expedient, there-
fore, to resist all desires and temptations to land
at any of those islands among which they passed
in the course of the voyage, well knowing how little
could be trusted to the forbearance of savages, un-
armed and wholly defenceless as his party were.
But the circumstance of being tantalized with the
appearance of land, clothed with perennial verdure,
whose approach was forbidden to men chilled with
wet and cold, and nearly perishing with hunger, was
by no means the most difficult against which the
commander had to struggle. " It was not the least
of my distresses," he observes, " to be constantly
assailed with the melancholy demands of my people
for an increase of allowance, which it grieved me
to refuse." He well knew that to reason with men
reduced to the last stage of famine, yet denied the
118 THK OPEN-BOAT NAVIGATION.
use of provisions within their reach, and with the
power to seize upon them in their own hands, would
be to no purpose. Something more must be done
to ensure even the possibihty of saving them from
the effect of their own imprudence. The first thing
he set about, therefore, was to ascertain the exact
state of their provisions, which were found to
amount to the ordinal y consumption of five days,
but which were to be spun out so as to last fifty
days. This was at once distinctly stated to the
men, and an agreement entered into, and a solemn
promise made by all, that the settled allowance
should never be deviated from, as they were made
clearly to understand that on the strict observance
of this agreement rested the only hope of their
safety ; and this was explained and made so evident
to every man, at the time it was concluded, that
they unanimously agreed to it ; and by reminding
them of this compact, whenever they became clam-
orous for more, and showing a firm determination
not to swerve from it. Lieutenant Bligh succeeded
in resisting all their solicitations.
This rigid adherence to the compact, in doling
out their miserable pittance, — the constant exposure
to wet, — the imminent peril of being swallowed up
by the ocean, — their cramped and confined position,
— and the unceasing reflection on their miserable
and melancholy situation ; — all these diflJiculties and
sufferings made it not less than miraculous that this
voyage, itself a miracle, should have been com-
pleted, not only without the loss .of a man from
sickness, but with so little loss of health. " With
respect to the preservation of our health," says the
commander, "during the course of sixteen da3^s of
heavy and almost continual rain, I would recommend
to every one in a similar situation the method we
practised of dipping their clothes in salt water, and
to wring them out, as often as they become soaked
with vain : it was the only resource we had, and ]
THK OPEN-BOAT NAVIGATION. 119
believe was of the greatest service to us, for it felt
more like a change of dry clothes than could well
be imagined. We had occasion to do this so
often, that at length all our clothes were wrung to
pieces."
But the great art of all was to divert their atten-
tion from the almost hopeless situation in which
they were placed, and to prevent despondency from
taking possession of theii; minds ; and in order to
assist in effecting this, some employment was de-
vised for them ; among other things, a log-line, an
object of interest to all, was measured and marked,
and the men were practised in counting seconds
correctly, that the distance run on each day might
be ascertained with a nearer approach to accuracy
than by mere guessing. These httle operations
afforded them a temporary amusement; and the log,
being daily and hourly hove, gave them also some
employment, and diverted their thoughts for the
moment from their melancholy situation. Then,
every noon, when the sun was out, or at other times
before and after noon, and also at night when the
stars appeared. Lieutenant Bligh never neglected to
take observations for the latitude, and to work the
day's work for ascertaining the ship's place. The
anxiety of the people to hear how they had pro-
ceeded, what progress had been made, and where-
abouts they were on the wide ocean, also contributed
for the time to drive away gloomy thoughts that but
too frequently would intrude themselves. These
observations were rigidly attended to, and sometimes
made under the most difficult circumstances, the sea
breaking over the observer, and the boat pitching
and rolling so nmch, that he was obhged to be
"propped up," vi^hile taking them. In this way,
with now and then a little interrupted sleep, about
a thousand long and anxious hours were consumed
in pain and peril, and a space of sea passed over
equal to four thousand five hundred miles, being at
120 THE OPENT-BOAT NAVIGATION.
the rate of four and one-fifth miles an houi, or one
hundred miles a day.
Lieutenant Bligh has expressed his conviction,
that the six days spent among the coral islands off
the coast of New-Holland, were the salvation of the
whole party, by the refreshing sleep they here pro-
cured, by the exercise of walking about, and, above
all, by the nutriment derived from the oysters and
clams, the beans and berries they procured while
there ; for that such, he says, was the exhausted
condition of all on their arrival at the " barrier reef,"
that a few days more at sea must have terminated
the existence of many of them. This stoppage,
however, had lii^ewise been nearly productive of
fatal consequences to the whole party. In fact,
another mutiny was within an ace of breaking out,
which, if not checked at the moment, could only, in
their desperate situation, have ended in irretrievable
and total destruction. Bligh mentions, in his printed
narrative, the mutinous conduct of a person to whom
he gave a cutlass to defend himself. This affair, as
stated in his original manuscript journal, wears a far
more serious aspect.
" The carpenter (Purcell) began to be msolent to •
a high degree, and at last told me, with a mutinous
aspect, he was as good a man as I was. I did not
just now see where this was to end ; 1 therefore de-
termined to strike a final blow at it, and either to
preserve my command or die in the attempt ; and
taking hold of a cutlass, I ordered the rascal to take
hold of another and defend himself, when he called
out that I was going to kill him, and began to make
concessions. I was now only assisted by Mr. Nel-
son ; and the master (Fryer) very deliberately called
out to the boatswain to put me under an arrest, and
was stirring up a greater disturbance, when I de-
clared, if he interfered when I was in the execution
of my duty to preserve order and regularit}', and
that in consequence any tumult arose, I would cer-
THE OPEN-BOAT NAVIGATION. 12 J
tainly put him to death the first person. This had a
proper effect on this man, and he now assured ma
that, on the contrary, I might rely on him to support
my orders and directions for the future. This is the
oulUne of a tumult that lasted ahout a quarter of an
hour;" and he adds, " I was told that the master and
carpenter, at the last place, were endeavouring- to
produce altercations, and were the principal cause
of their murmuring there." This carpenter he
brought to a court-martial on their arrival in England,
on various charges, of which he was found guilty in
part, and reprimanded. Purcell is said to be at this
time in a madhouse.
On another occasion, when a stew of oysters was
distributed among the people. Lieutenant Bligh ob-
serves (in the MS. journal), " In the distribution of
it, the voraciousness of some and the moderation
of others were very discernible. The master began
to be dissatisfied the first, because it vvas not made
into a larger quantity by the addition of water, and
showed a turbulent disposition, until I laid my com-
mands on him to be silent." Again, on his refusing
biead to the men because they were collecting
oysters, he says, " This occasioned some murmuring
with the master and carpenter, the former of whom
endeavoured to prove the propriety of such an ex-
penditure, and was troublesomely ignorant, tending
to create disorder among those, if any were weak
enough to listen to him."