On the 25th about noon, some noddies came so near to the boat, that one of them was caught by hand.  This bird was about the size of a small pigeon.  ‘I divided it,’ says Bligh, ’with its entrails, into eighteen portions, and by a well-known method at sea, of “Who shall have this?"[9] it was distributed, with the allowance of bread and water for dinner, and eaten up, bones and all, with salt water 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 what they would meet with on it.