I was apprehensive that this would be
ill received, and that it would require my utmost resolution to enforce
it; for small as the quantity was which I intended to take away for our
future good, yet it might appear to my people like robbing them of life;
and some, who were less patient than their companions, I expected would
very ill brook it. However, on my representing the necessity of guarding
against delays that might be occasioned in our voyage by contrary winds
or other causes, and promising to enlarge upon the allowance as we got
on, they cheerfully agreed to my proposal. It was accordingly settled
that every person should receive 1-25th of a pound of bread for
breakfast, and the same quantity for dinner; so that, by omitting the
proportion for supper, we had forty-three days' allowance.
_Monday, 25th._--At noon some noddies came so near to us, that one of
them was caught by hand. This bird was about the size of a small pigeon.
I divided it, with its entrails, into eighteen portions and by a
well-known method at sea, of "Who shall have this?" [1] it was
distributed, with the allowance of bread and water for dinner, and ate
up, bones and all, with salt water for sauce.
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