Mark's Pages

"Later that night, William Bligh had his first experience of desertion in the Society Islands. John Harrison, one of the Resolution's marines who had been flogged after the escape of the thief from Porapora, slipped into a canoe at midnight, taking his musket with him, and ran ashore. When he was told, Captain Cook took his young master [Bligh] and set off in hot pursuit in the boats. They finally found Harrison two days later, sleeping blissfully between two women, garlanded with red and white flowers. Although his older lover, who belonged to one of the aristocratic families on the island, summoned a party of warriors to rescue him, the armed boats rowed away before they could attack. When Harrison was brought back to the ship, he was put in irons and given two dozen lashes." — Anne Salmond, Bligh