Here is the unfamiliar story of Captain Bligh's second voyage to the South Pacific, commenced in 1791, only one year after his return to England following the infamous mutiny on the Bounty. This time, with two ships, a proper officer corps, and a detachment of Marines to keep order, he succeeded in completing his original mission to transplant breadfruit to the West Indies. A number of soon-to-be-famous names accompanied him, including Matthew Flinders who was to become one of the pioneer explorers of Australia. Also selected for the voyage was Lieutenant George Tobin, an unusual naval officer of wide interests and an enquiring mind, who kept a journal of the voyage. This journal, published here for the first time, offers glimpses into the character of Bligh and into his methods of command, but what particularly interested Tobin were the societies of the Pacific, especially on Tahiti, where the expedition spent many months. Allied to his powers of observation, Tobin was also a gifted watercolour artist, and on the two-year voyage produced numerous painted sketches, many of which are reproduced in this book. On his return to England he set about completing the draft of a memoir of this voyage which he then revised and annotated in the hope that it would find its way into print. This was not to be and only now, more than two centuries after the author set down his impressions, has his wish been fulfilled.
