f potted
meats; four jars of marmalade and two of jam; two bottles of pickles;
four bottles of lime juice; one bottle of brandy; and two bottles of
rum. When I had jotted everything down I made a few calculations, and
then I spoke.

"Shipmates," I said,--"and I include you, Mr Cunningham, in the term,
for this misfortune puts us all upon the same footing--you no doubt
heard Mr Bligh say, a little while ago, that according to his reckoning
we are somewhere about twelve hundred miles from Rio, which is our
nearest port. That means a twelve days' voyage, with a fair wind all
the time, blowing fresh enough to keep us going, hour after hour, at the
rate of five knots. Now, those of us who have used the sea don't need
to be told that such a favourable condition of affairs is so exceedingly
unlikely that it is scarcely worth talking about. To begin with, we are
making a bad start, for instead of doing our five knots we are doing
little if anything more than half that, with every prospect of a flat
calm within the next three or four hours. Therefore I think it will be
wise of us to recognise, at the outset, that our voyage is a good deal
more likely to take twenty days than it is to be accomplished in ten.

"Of course, in saying this I am regarding the matter from its most
unfavourable point of view. I remember that we have had easterly winds
without a break ever since we crossed the line, and it may be that the
Trades are extending unusually far south just now, and that we are still
on the southerly fringe of them. If this should prove to be the case we
shall be all right, for by steering a west and by no'th course we shall
be edging to the nor'ard and working our way back into the permanent
trade winds. But, on the other hand, this easterly wind may not be the
trade wind at all--and my own opinion is that it is not--in which case
we may expect a westerly breeze--that is to say, a foul wind--at any
moment; and I think we should only be acting with common prudence to
take such a probability into consideration.

"Now, this brings me to the question of food and water. As you have
seen, I have been taking stock of what we have, and making a few
calculations, with the following result. First, with regard to the
fresh water. We have just twenty gallons of it, or one hundred and
sixty pints. If we could be certain of making our voyage in ten days
that amount of water would afford sixteen pints per day to be equally
div