er for sauce. In the
evening, several boobies flying very near to us, we had the good
fortune to catch one of them. This bird is as large as a duck. They are
the most presumptive proof of being near land, of any sea-fowl we are
acquainted with. I directed the bird to be killed for supper, and the
blood to be given to three of the people who were the most distressed
for want of food. The body, with the entrails, beak, and feet, I divided
into eighteen shares, and with the allowance of bread, which I made a
merit of granting, we made a good supper compared with our usual fare.

'On the next day, the 26th, we caught another booby, so that Providence
appeared to be relieving our wants in an extraordinary manner. The
people were overjoyed at this addition to their dinner, which was
distributed in the same manner as on the preceding evening; giving the
blood to those who were the most in want of food. To make the bread a
little savoury, most of the men frequently dipped it in salt water, but
I generally broke mine into small pieces, and ate it in my allowance of
water, out of a cocoa-nut shell, with a spoon; economically avoiding to
take too large a piece at a time, so that I was as long at dinner as if
it had been a much more plentiful meal.'

The weather was now serene, which, nevertheless, was not without its
inconveniences, for, it appears, they began to feel distress of a
different kind from that which they had hitherto been accustomed to
suffer. The heat of the sun was now so powerful, that several of the
people were seized with a languor and faintness, which made life
indifferent. But the little circumstance of catching two boobies in the
evening, trifling as it may appear, had the effect of raising their
spirits. The stomachs of these birds contained several flying-fish, and
small cuttle-fish, all of which were carefully saved to be divided for
dinner the next day; which were accordingly divided with their entrails,
and the contents of their maws, into eighteen portions, and, as the
prize was a very valuable one, it was distributed as before, by calling
out, '_Who shall have this?_'--'so that to-day,' says the lieutenant,
'with the usual allowance of bread at breakfast and at dinner, I was
happy to see that every person thought he had feasted.' From the
appearance of the clouds in the evening, Mr. Bligh had no doubt they
were then near the land, and the people amused themselves with
conversing on the probability of w