On the 6th, they still continued to see islands at a distance; and this day, for the first time, they hooked a fish, to their great joy; 'but,' says the commander, 'we were miserably disappointed by its being lost in trying to get it into the boat.' In the evening, each person had an ounce of the damaged bread, and a quarter of a pint of water for supper.
Lieutenant Bligh observes, 'it will readily be supposed our lodgings were very miserable, and confined for want of room'; but he endeavoured to remedy the latter defect, by putting themselves at watch and watch; so that one half always sat up, while the other lay down on the boat's bottom, or upon a chest, but with nothing to cover them except the heavens.

Their limbs, he says, were dreadfully cramped, for they could not stretch them out; and the nights were so cold, and they were so constantly wet, that, after a few hours' sleep, they were scarcely able to move.

At dawn of day on the 7th, being very wet and cold, he says, 'I served a spoonful of rum and a morsel of bread for breakfast.' In the course of this day they passed close to some rocky isles, from which two large sailing-canoes came swiftly after them, but in the afternoon gave over the chase.

They were of the same construction as those of the Friendly Islands, and the land seen for the last two days was supposed to be the Fiji Islands.

But being constantly wet, Bligh says, 'it is with the utmost difficulty I can open a book to write, and I feel truly sensible I can do no more than point out where these lands are to be found, and give some idea of their extent.' Heavy rain came on in the afternoon, when every person in the boat did his utmost to catch some water, and thus succeeded in increasing their stock to thirty-four gallons, besides quenching their thirst for the first time they had been able to do so since they had been at sea: but it seems an attendant consequence of the heavy rain caused them to pass the night very miserably; for being extremely wet, and having no dry things to shift or cover themselves, they experienced cold and shiverings scarcely to be conceived.
On the 8th, the allowance issued was an ounce and a half of pork, a teaspoonful of rum, half a pint of cocoa-nut milk, and an ounce of bread.