t on which the wind blew
from the preceding night, and I waited with the ship to take on board Lt.
Corner who was not then returned from the search. He soon after appeared
and was taken on board.

In his search he found a double canoe curiously painted, and different in
make from those we had seen on the islands we had visited. A piece of
wood burnt half through was also found. The yard and these things lay
upon the beach at high water mark and were all eaten by the sea worm,
which is a strong presumption they were drifted there by the waves. The
driver yard was probably drove from Toobouai where the _Bounty_ lost the
greater part of her spars, and as no recent traces could be found on the
island of a human being or any part of the wreck of a ship I gave up all
further search and hopes of finding the _Bounty_ or her people there. I
then stood out to sea and the ship and the tender cruized about in search
of the cutter until the 29th in the morning, when seeing nothing of her,
I being at that time well in with the land, sent on shore once more to
examine the reef and beach of the northernmost island, but with no better
success than before, as neither the cutter or any article belonging to
her could be found there.

I then steered for the Duke of York's island which we got sight of at
noon on the 6th June, and in the afternoon the tender and two yawls were
sent on shore to examine the coast. On the 7th in the morning Lt. Corner
and Hayward were sent on shore with a party of men attended by the
schooner and two yawls. We soon after saw some huts upon the island and
so made a signal to the boats to warn them of danger, and for them to be
upon their guard against surprise. They landed and got canoes to the
within side of the lagoon in which they made a circuit of it. A few
houses were found in examining the hills on the opposite side of the
lagoon, and also a ship's large wooden buoy, which appeared to be of
foreign make, and had evident marks of its having been long in the water.

As Mr. Byron describes the Duke of York's island to be without
inhabitants, the sight of the houses and ship's buoy, before they were
minutely examined wrot so strongly on the minds of the people that they
saw many things in imagination that did not exist, but all tended to
persuade them that the _Bounty's_ people were really upon the island
agreeable to the intelligence given by Hillbrant, but after a most minute
and repeated search, no human b