Bligh hopes to find water and food…
May 1789 CE
Ashore at Tofua, there are encounters with natives who are initially friendly but grew more menacing as time passed.
On May 2, four days after landing, Bligh realizes that an attack is imminent.
He directs his men back to the sea, shortly before the Tofuans seize the launch's stern rope and attempts to drag it ashore.
Bligh coolly shepherds the last of his shore party and their supplies into the boat
In an attempt to free the rope from its captors, the quartermaster John Norton leaps into the water; he is immediately set upon and stoned to death.
The launch escapes to the open sea, where the shaken crew reconsiders their options.
A visit to Tongatapu, or any island landfall, might incur similarly violent consequences; their best chance of salvation, Bligh reckons, lies in sailing directly to the Dutch settlement of Coupang in Timor, using the rations presently on board.
This is a journey of some thirty-five hundred nautical miles (sixty-five hundred kilometers; four thousand miles) to the west, beyond the Endeavour Strait, and it will necessitate daily rations of an ounce of bread and a quarter-pint of water for each man.
The plan is unanimously agreed.