Читать книгу Mutiny on the Bounty. Historical Novel онлайн

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The carriage, as I said, drew up before our door, the footman sprang down from the box, and Mr. Bligh stepped out. I had been waiting to welcome him; as I made myself known, he gave me a handclasp and a smile.

“Your father’s son,” he said. “A great loss—he was known, by name at least, to all who practise navigation.”

Presently my mother came down and we went in to dinner. Bligh spoke very handsomely of my father’s work on the determination of longitude, and after a time the conversation turned to the islands of the South Sea.

“Is it true,” my mother asked, “that the Indians of Tahiti are as happy as Captain Cook believed?”

“Ah, ma’am,” said our guest, “happiness is a vast word! It is true that they live without great labour, and that nearly all of the light tasks they perform are self-imposed; released from the fear of want and from all salutary discipline, they regard nothing seriously.”

“Roger and I,” observed my mother, “have been studying the ideas of J. J. Rousseau. As you know, he believes that true happiness can only be enjoyed by man in a state of nature.”