confinement.
Again, at Matavai Bay, on the 5th December, Bligh says, 'I ordered the
carpenter to cut a large stone that was brought off by one of the
natives, requesting me to get it made fit for them to grind their
hatchets on, but to my astonishment he refused, in direct terms, to
comply, saying, "I will not cut the stone, for it will spoil my chisel;
and though there may be law to take away my clothes, there is none to
take away my tools." This man having before shown his mutinous and
insolent behaviour, I was under the necessity of confining him to his
cabin.'

On the 5th January three men deserted in the cutter, on which occasion
Bligh says, 'Had the mate of the watch been awake, no trouble of this
kind would have happened. I have therefore disrated and turned him
before the mast; such neglectful and worthless petty officers, I
believe, never were in a ship as are in this. No orders for a few hours
together are obeyed by them, and their conduct in general is so bad,
that no confidence or trust can be reposed in them; in short, they have
driven me to every thing but corporal punishment, and that must follow
if they do not improve.'

By Morrison's Journal it would appear that 'corporal punishment' was not
long delayed; for, on the very day, he says, the midshipman was put in
irons, and confined from the 5th January to the 23rd March--eleven
weeks!

On the 17th January, orders being given to clear out the sail-room and
to air the sails, many of them were found very much mildewed and rotten
in many places, on which he observes, 'If I had any officers to
supersede the master and boatswain, or was capable of doing without
them, considering them as common seamen, they should no longer occupy
their respective stations; scarcely any neglect of duty can equal the
criminality of this.'

On the 24th January, the three deserters were brought back and flogged,
then put in irons for further punishment. 'As this affair,' he says,
'was solely caused by the neglect of the officers who had the watch, I
was induced to give them all a lecture on this occasion, and endeavour
to show them that, however exempt they were at present from the like
punishment, yet they were equally subject, by the articles of war, to a
condign one.' He then tells them, that it is only necessity that makes
him have recourse to reprimand, because there are no means of trying
them by court-martial; and adds a remark, not very intelligible, but
what he call