On the 9th December, the surgeon of the Bounty died from the effects of intemperance and indolence.  This unfortunate man is represented to have been in a constant state of intoxication, and was so averse from any kind of exercise, that he never could be prevailed on to take half a dozen hours upon deck at a time in the whole course of the voyage.  Lieutenant Bligh had obtained permission to bury him on shore; and on going with the chief Tinah to the spot intended for his burial place, ’I found,’ says he, ‘the natives had already begun to dig his grave.’  Tinah asked if they were doing it right?  ‘There,’ says he, ’the sun rises, and there it sets.’  Whether the idea of making the grave east and west is their own, or whether they learnt it from the Spaniards, who buried the captain of their ship on the island in 1774, there were no means of ascertaining; but it was certain they had no intimation of that kind from anybody belonging to the Bounty. When the funeral took place, the chiefs and many of the natives attended the ceremony, and shewed great attention during the service.  Many of the principal natives attended divine service on Sundays, and behaved with great decency.  Some of the women at one time betrayed an inclination to laugh at the general responses; but, the captain says, on looking at them they appeared much ashamed.

The border of low land, which is of the breadth of about three miles, between the sea-coast and the foot of the hills, consists of a very delightful country, well covered with bread-fruit and cocoa-trees, and strewed with houses in which are swarms of children playing about.  ’It is delightful,’ Bligh observes, ’to see the swarms of little children that are every where to be seen employed at their several amusements; some flying kites, some swinging in ropes suspended from the boughs of trees, others walking on stilts, some wrestling, and others playing all manner of antic tricks such as are common to boys in England.  The little girls have also their amusements, consisting generally of heivahs or dances.  On an evening, just before sunset the whole beach abreast the ship is described as being like a parade, crowded with men, women, and children, who go on with their sports and amusements till nearly dark, when every one peaceably returns to his home.  At such times, we are told, from three to four hundred people are assembled together, and all happily diverted, good humoured, and affectionate to one another, without a single quarrel having ever happened to disturb the harmony that existed among these amiable people.  Both boys and girls are said to be handsome and very sprightly.

It did not appear that much pains were taken in their plantations, except those of the ava and the cloth-plant; many of the latter are fenced with stone, and surrounded with a ditch.  In fact, Nature has done so much for them, that they have no great occasion to use exertion in obtaining a sufficient supply of either food or raiment.  Yet when Bligh commenced taking up the bread-fruit plants, he derived much assistance from the natives in collecting and pruning them, which they understood perfectly well.