They say that learning about history assists you to conduct yourself better, and I don't doubt it. I have nearly finished reading a book about Captain Bligh and the mutiny on the Bounty, as fascinating a story as I have ever read, not least because the mutiny took place in Polynesia and Captain Bligh did indeed discover the 'Fidgee Islands' where we recently holidayed.
I quote the first paragraph of the concluding chapter-
"Liquor, in the end, did for both Bligh and Christian - McKoy's still on Pitcairn, and McArthur's in New South Wales. Bligh's career, and Christian's life, ended in divided, corrupt alcoholic and isolated communities far from home and the forces of law and order."
I recommend Richard Hough's book 'Captain Bligh and Mr Christian, The Men and the Mutiny' first published by Hutchinson and Co Ltd 1972, Arrow edition 1974, which is the one I read, Lib found it in an op shop and gave it me last birthday. An ripper read, it surprised me completely.
Whilst on history, let me tell something else I came across, in a platypus newsletter. The Archduke Franz Ferdinand whose assasination in 1914 triggered WW1, visited Mossvale in NSW in 1893.
He was reported to have felt intense joy at shooting a platypus during a three day hunting spree in which he killed 300 native animals including kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, echidnas, emus and koalas.
What can I say?
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