Numerous were the marks of mourning with which these people disfigure themselves, such as bloody temples, their heads deprived of most of the hair, and, which was worse, almost all of them with the loss of some of their fingers.  Several fine boys, not above six years of age, had lost both their little fingers; and some of the men had parted with the middle finger of the right hand.

A brisk trade soon began to be carried on for yams; some plantains and bread-fruit were likewise brought on board, but no hogs.  Some of the sailing canoes, which arrived in the course of the day, were large enough to contain not less than ninety passengers.  From these the officers and crew purchased hogs, dogs, fowls, and shaddocks; yams, very fine and large; one of them actually weighed above forty-five pounds.  The crowd of natives had become so great the next day, Sunday 26th, that it became impossible to do anything.  The watering party were therefore ordered to go on board, and it was determined to sail; the ship was accordingly unmoored and got under weigh.  A grapnel, however, had been stolen, and Bligh informed the chiefs that were still on board, that unless it was returned, they must remain in the ship, at which they were surprised and not a little alarmed.  ‘I detained them,’ he says, ’till sunset, when their uneasiness and impatience increased to such a degree, that they began to beat themselves about the face and eyes, and some of them cried bitterly.  As this distress was more than the grapnel was worth, I could not think of detaining them longer, and called their canoes alongside.  I told them they were at liberty to go, and made each of them a present of a hatchet, a saw, with some knives, gimlets, and nails.  This unexpected present, and the sudden change in their situation, affected them not less with joy than they had before been with apprehension.  They were unbounded in their acknowledgements; and I have little doubt but that we parted better friends than if the affair had never happened.’

From this island the ship stood to the northward all night, with light winds; and on the next day, the 27th, at noon, they were between the islands Tofoa and Kotoo.

‘Thus far,’ says Bligh, ’the voyage had advanced in a course of uninterrupted prosperity, and had been attended with many circumstances equally pleasing and satisfactory.  A very different scene was now to be experienced.  A conspiracy had been formed, which was to render all our past labour productive only of extreme misery and distress.  The means had been concerted and prepared with so much secrecy and circumspection, that no one circumstance appeared to occasion the smallest suspicion of the impending calamity, the result of an act of piracy the most consummate and atrocious that was probably ever committed.’

How far Bligh was justified in ascribing the calamity to a conspiracy will be seen hereafter.  The following chapter will detail the facts of the mutinous proceedings as stated by the Lieutenant, in his own words.