THE ‘PANDORA’
O!
I have suffer’d
With those that I saw
suffer! a brave vessel,
Who had, no doubt, some
noble creatures in her,
Dash’d all to
pieces. O, the cry did knock
Against my very heart!
Poor souls! they perish’d
Had I been any god of
power, I would
Have sunk the sea within
the earth, or e’er
It should the good ship
so have swallow’d, and
The freighting souls
within her.
The tide of public applause set as
strongly in favour of Bligh, on account of his sufferings
and the successful issue of his daring enterprise,
as its indignation was launched against Christian and
his associates, for the audacious and criminal deed
they had committed. Bligh was promoted by the
Admiralty to the rank of Commander, and speedily sent
out a second time to transport the bread-fruit to the
West Indies, which he without the least obstruction
successfully accomplished; and his Majesty’s
government were no sooner made acquainted with the
atrocious act of piracy and mutiny, than it determined
to adopt every possible means to apprehend and bring
to condign punishment the perpetrators of so foul
a deed. For this purpose, the Pandora
frigate, of twenty-four guns and one hundred and sixty
men, was despatched under the command of Captain Edward
Edwards, with orders to proceed, in the first instance,
to Otaheite, and not finding the mutineers there,
to visit the different groups of the Society and Friendly
Islands, and others in the neighbouring parts of the
Pacific, using his best endeavours to seize and bring
home in confinement the whole or such part of the
delinquents as he might be able to discover.
This voyage was in the sequel almost
as disastrous as that of the Bounty, but from
a different cause. The waste of human life was
much greater, occasioned by the wreck of the ship,
and the distress experienced by the crew not much
less, owing to the famine and thirst they had to suffer
in a navigation of eleven hundred miles in open boats;
but the Captain succeeded in fulfilling a part of his
instructions, by taking fourteen of the mutineers,
of whom ten were brought safe to England, the other
four being drowned when the ship was wrecked.
The only published account of this
voyage is contained in a small volume by Mr. George
Hamilton, the surgeon, who appears to have been a coarse,
vulgar, and illiterate man, more disposed to relate
licentious scenes and adventures, in which he and
his companions were engaged, than to give any information
of proceedings and occurrences connected with the
main object of the voyage. From this book, therefore,
much information is not to be looked for. In
a more modern publication, many abusive epithets have
been bestowed on Captain Edwards, and observations
made on the conduct of this officer highly injurious
to his reputation, in regard to his inhuman treatment
of, and disgraceful acts of cruelty towards, his prisoners,
which it is to be feared have but too much foundation
in fact.
The account of his proceedings, rendered
by himself to the Admiralty, is vague and unsatisfactory;
and had it not been for the journal of Morrison, and
a circumstantial letter of young Heywood to his mother,
no record would have remained of the unfeeling conduct
of this officer towards his unfortunate prisoners,
who were treated with a rigour which could not be
justified on any ground of necessity or prudence.
The Pandora anchored in Matavai
Bay on the 23rd March 1791. Captain Edwards,
in his narrative, states that Joseph Coleman, the armourer
of the Bounty, attempted to come on board before
the Pandora had anchored; that on reaching
the ship, he began to make inquiries of him after
the Bounty and her people, and that he seemed
to be ready to give him any information that was required;
that the next who came on board, just after the ship
had anchored, were Mr. Peter Heywood and Mr. Stewart,
before any boat had been sent on shore; that they were
brought down to his cabin, when, after some conversation,
Heywood asked if Mr. Hayward (midshipman of the Bounty,
but now lieutenant of the Pandora) was on board,
as he had heard that he was; that Lieutenant Hayward,
whom he sent for, treated Heywood. with a sort of contemptuous
look, and began to enter into conversation with him
respecting the Bounty; but Edwards ordered
him to desist, and called in the sentinel to take
the prisoners into safe custody, and to put them in
irons; that four other mutineers soon made their appearance;
and that, from them and some of the natives, he learned
that the rest of the Bounty’s people
had built a schooner, with which they had sailed the
day before from Matavai Bay to the north-west part
of the island.
He goes on to say that, on this intelligence,
he despatched the two lieutenants, Corner and Hayward,
with the pinnace and launch, to endeavour to intercept
her. They soon got sight of her and chased her
out to sea, but the schooner gained so much upon them,
and night coming on, they were compelled to give up
the pursuit and return to the ship. It was soon
made known, however, that she had returned to Paparre,
on which they were again despatched in search of her.
Lieutenant Corner had taken three of the mutineers,
and Hayward, on arriving at Paparre, found the schooner
there, but the mutineers had abandoned her and fled
to the mountains. He carried off the schooner,
and returned next day, when he learned they were not
far off; and the following morning, on hearing they
were coming down, he drew up his party in order to
receive them, and when within hearing, called to them
to lay down their arms and to go on one side, which
they did, when they were confined and brought as prisoners
to the ship.
The following were the persons received
on Board the Pandora:
PETER HEYWOOD
Midshipman.
GEORGE STEWART
Ditto.
JAMES MORRISON
Boatswain’s mate.
CHARLES NORMAN
Carpenter’s mate.
THOMAS M’INTOSH
Carpenter’s crew.
JOSEPH COLEMAN
Armourer.
RICHARD SKINNER }
THOMAS ELLISON }
HENRY HILLBRANT }
THOMAS BURKITT }
Seamen.
JOHN MILLWARD }
JOHN SUMNER }
WILLIAM MUSPRATT }
MICHAEL BYRNE }
In all fourteen. The other two,
which made up the sixteen that had been left on the
island, were murdered, as will appear presently.
Captain Edwards will himself explain
how he disposed of his prisoners. ‘I put
the pirates,’ he says, ’into a round-house
which I built on the after part of the quarter-deck,
for their more effectual security in this airy and
healthy situation, and to separate them from, and to
prevent their having communication with, or to crowd
and incommode, the ship’s company.’
Dr. Hamilton calls it the most desirable place in the
ship, and adds, that ’orders were given that
the prisoners should be victualled, in every respect,
the same as the ship’s company, both in meat,
liquor, and all the extra indulgences with which they
were so liberally supplied, notwithstanding the established
laws of the service, which restrict prisoners to two-thirds
allowance; but Captain Edwards very humanely commiserated
their unhappy and inevitable length of confinement.’
Mr. Morrison, one of the prisoners, gives a very different
account of their treatment from that of Edwards or
Hamilton. He says that Captain Edwards put both
legs of the two midshipmen in irons, and that he branded
them with the opprobrious epithet of ’piratical
villains’: that they, with the rest, being
strongly handcuffed, were put into a kind of round-house
only eleven feet long, built as a prison, and aptly
named ‘Pandora’s Box,’ which
was entered by a scuttle in the roof, about eighteen
inches square. This was done in order that they
might be kept separate from the crew, and also the
more effectually to prevent them from having any communication
with the natives; that such of those friendly creatures
as ventured to look pitifully towards them were instantly
turned out of the ship, and never again allowed to
come on board. But two sentinels were kept constantly
upon the roof of the prison, with orders to shoot
the first of its inmates who should attempt to address
another in the Otaheitan dialect.
That Captain Edwards took every precaution
to keep his prisoners in safe custody, and place them
in confinement, as by his instructions he was directed
to do, may be well imagined, but Mr. Morrison will
probably be thought to go somewhat beyond credibility
in stating that orders were given ‘to shoot
any of the prisoners,’ when confined in irons.
Captain Edwards must have known that such an act would
have cost him his commission or something more.
The fact is, that information was given to Edwards,
at least he so asserts, by the brother of the King
of Otaheite, an intelligent chief, that a conspiracy
was formed among the natives to cut the ship’s
cables the first strong wind that should blow on the
shore, which was considered to be the more probable,
as many of the prisoners were said to be married to
the most respectable chiefs’ daughters in the
district opposite to the anchorage; that the midshipman
Stewart, in particular, had married the daughter of
a man of great landed property near Matavai Bay.
This intelligence, no doubt, weighed with the Captain
in giving his orders for the close confinement of the
prisoners; and particularly in restricting the visits
of the natives; but so far is it from being true that
all communication between the mutineers and the natives
was cut off, that we are distinctly told by Mr. Hamilton,
that ‘the prisoners’ wives visited the
ship daily, and brought their children, who were permitted
to be carried to their unhappy fathers. To see
the poor captives in irons,’ he says, ’weeping
over their tender offspring, was too moving a scene
for any feeling heart, Their wives brought them ample
supplies of every delicacy that the country afforded,
while we lay there, and behaved with the greatest
fidelity and affection to them.’
Of the fidelity and attachment of
these simple-minded creatures an instance is afforded
in the affecting story which is told, in the first
Missionary Voyage of the Duff, of the unfortunate
wife of the reputed mutineer Mr. Stewart. It
would seem also to exonerate Edwards from some part
of the charges which have been brought against him.
’The history of Peggy Stewart
marks a tenderness of heart that never will be heard
without emotion: she was the daughter of a chief,
and taken for his wife by Mr. Stewart, one of the
unhappy mutineers. They had lived with the old
chief in the most tender state of endearment; a beautiful
little girl had been the fruit of their union, and
was at the breast when the Pandora arrived,
seized the criminals, and secured them in irons on
board the ship. Frantic with grief, the unhappy
Peggy (for so he had named her) flew with her infant
in a canoe to the arms of her husband. The interview
was so affecting and afflicting, that the officers
on board were overwhelmed with anguish, and Stewart
himself, unable to bear the heartrending scene, begged
she might not be admitted again on board. She
was separated from him by violence, and conveyed on
shore in a state of despair and grief too big for utterance.
Withheld from him, and forbidden to come any more
on board, she sunk into the deepest dejection; it
preyed on her vitals; she lost all relish for food
and life, rejoiced no more, pined under a rapid decay
of two months, and fell a victim to her feelings,
dying literally of a broken heart. Her child
is yet alive, and the tender object of our care, having
been brought up by a sister, who nursed it as her
own, and has discharged all the duties of an affectionate
mother to the orphan infant.’
It does not appear that young Heywood
formed any matrimonial engagement during his abode
in Otaheite. He was not, however, insensible to
the amiable and good qualities of these people.
In some laudatory verses which he wrote while on the
island, their numerous good qualities are spoken of
in terms of the highest commendation.
All the mutineers that were left on
the island being received on board the Pandora,
that ship proceeded in search of those who had gone
away in the Bounty. It may be mentioned,
however, that two of the most active in the mutiny,
Churchill and Thompson, had perished on the island
before her arrival, by violent deaths. These two
men had accompanied a chief, who was the tayo,
or sworn friend, of Churchill, and having died without
children, this mutineer succeeded to his property and
dignity, according to the custom of the country.
Thompson, for some real or fancied insult, took an
opportunity of shooting his companion. The natives
assembled, and came to a resolution to avenge the murder,
and literally stoned Thompson to death, and his skull
was brought on board the Pandora. This
horrible wretch had some time before slain a man and
a child through mere wantonness, but escaped punishment
by a mistake that had nearly proved fatal to young
Heywood. It seems that the description of a person
in Otaheite is usually given by some distinguishing
figure of the tattoo, and Heywood, having the
same marks as Thompson, was taken for him; and just
as the club was raised to dash out his brains, the
interposition of an old chief, with whom he was travelling
round the island, was just in time to avert the blow.
Captain Edwards had no clue to guide
him as to the route taken by the Bounty, but
he learnt from different people and from journals kept
on board that ship, which were found in the chests
of the mutineers at Otaheite, the proceedings of Christian
and his associates after Lieutenant Bligh and his
companions had been turned adrift in the launch.
From these it appears that the pirates proceeded in
the first instance to the island of Toobouai, in la deg. 13’ S., lon deg. 35’
W., where they anchored on the 25th May, 1789.
They had thrown overboard the greater part of the
bread-fruit plants, and divided among themselves the
property of the officers and men who had been so inhumanly
turned adrift. At this island they intended to
form a settlement, but the opposition of the natives,
the want of many necessary materials, and quarrels
among themselves, determined them to go to Otaheite
to procure what might be required to effect their
purpose, provided they should agree to prosecute their
original intention. They accordingly sailed from
Toobouai about the latter end of the month, and arrived
at Otaheite on the 6th June. The Otoo, or reigning
sovereign, and other principal natives, were very
inquisitive and anxious to know what had become of
Lieutenant Bligh and the rest of the crew, and also
what had been done with the bread-fruit plants?
They were told they had most unexpectedly fallen in
with Captain Cook at an island he had just discovered,
called Whytootakee, where he intended to form a settlement,
and where the plants had been landed; and that Lieutenant
Bligh and the others were stopping there to assist
Captain Cook in the business he had in hand, and that
he had appointed Mr. Christian commander of the Bounty;
and that he was now come by his orders for an additional
supply of hogs, goats, fowls, bread-fruit, and various
other articles which Otaheite could supply.
This artful story was quite sufficient
to impose on the credulity of these humane and simple-minded
islanders; and so overcome with joy were they to hear
that their old friend Captain Cook was alive, and about
to settle so near them, that every possible means
were forthwith made use of to procure the things that
were wanted; so that in the course of a very few days
the Bounty received on board three hundred and
twelve hogs, thirty-eight goats, eight dozen of fowls,
a bull and a cow, and a large quantity of bread-fruit,
plantains, bananas, and other fruits. They
also took with them eight men, nine women, and seven
boys. With these supplies they left Otaheite
on the 19th June, and arrived a second time at Toobouai
on the 26th. They warped the ship up the harbour,
landed the live stock, and set about building a fort
of fifty yards square.
While this work was carrying on, quarrels
and disagreements were daily happening among them,
and continual disputes and skirmishes were taking
place with the natives, generally brought on by the
violent conduct of the invaders, and by depredations
committed on their property. Retaliations were
attempted by the natives without success, numbers of
whom being pursued with fire-arms were put to death.
Still the situation of the mutineers became so disagreeable
and unsafe, the work went on so slowly and reluctantly,
that the building of the fort was agreed to be discontinued.
Christian, in fact, had very soon perceived that his
authority was on the wane, and that no peaceful establishment
was likely to be accomplished at Toobouai; he therefore
held a consultation as to what would be the most advisable
step to take. After much angry discussion, it
was at length determined that Toobouai should be abandoned;
that the ship should once more be taken to Otaheite;
and that those who might choose to go on shore there
might do so, and those who preferred to remain in
the ship might proceed in her to whatever place they
should agree upon among themselves.
In consequence of this determination
they sailed from Toobouai on the 15th, and arrived
at Matavai Bay on the 20th September, 1789. Here
sixteen of the mutineers were put on shore, at their
own request, fourteen of whom were received on board
the Pandora, and two of them, as before mentioned,
were murdered on the island. The remaining nine
agreed to continue in the Bounty. The small
arms, powder, canvas, and the small stores belonging
to the ship, were equally divided among the whole
crew. The Bounty sailed finally from Otaheite
on the night of the 21st September, and was last seen
the following morning to the north-west of Point Venus.
They took with them seven Otaheitan men and twelve
women. It was not even conjectured whither they
meant to go; but Christian had frequently been heard
to say, that his object was to discover some unknown
or uninhabited island, in which there was no harbour
for shipping; that he would run the Bounty on
shore, and make use of her materials to form a settlement;
but this was the only account, vague as it was, that
could be procured to direct Captain Edwards in his
intended search.
It appears that when the schooner,
of which we have spoken, had been finished, six of
the fourteen mutineers that were left on Otaheite
embarked in her, with the intention of proceeding to
the East Indies, and actually put to sea; but meeting
with bad weather, and suspecting the nautical abilities
of Morrison, whom they had elected as commanding officer,
to conduct her in safety, they resolved on returning
to Otaheite. Morrison, it seems, first undertook
the construction of this schooner, being himself a
tolerable mechanic, in which he was assisted by the
two carpenters, the cooper, and some others. To
this little band of architects, we are told, Morrison
acted both as director and chaplain, distinguishing
the Sabbath day by reading to them the Church Liturgy,
and hoisting the British colours on a flagstaff erected
near the scene of their operations. Conscious
of his innocence, his object is stated to have been
that of reaching Batavia in time to secure a passage
home in the next fleet bound to Holland; but that their
return was occasioned, not by any distrust of Morrison’s
talents, but by a refusal, on the part of the natives,
to give them a sufficient quantity of matting and
other necessaries for so long a voyage, being, in fact,
desirous of retaining them on the island. Stewart
and young Heywood took no part in this transaction,
having made up their minds to remain at Otaheite,
and there to await the arrival of a king’s ship,
it being morally certain that ere long one would be
sent out thither to search for them, whatever might
have been the fate of Bligh and his companions; and
that this was really their intention is evident by
the alacrity they displayed in getting on board the
Pandora, the moment of her arrival.
On the 8th of May, this frigate left
Otaheite, accompanied by the little schooner which
the mutineers had built, and the history of which is
somewhat remarkable. In point of size she was
not a great deal larger than Lieutenant Bligh’s
launch, her dimensions being thirty feet length of
keel; thirty-five feet length on deck; nine feet and
a half extreme breadth; five feet depth of the hold.
She parted from the Pandora near the Palmerston
Islands, when searching for the Bounty, and
was not heard of till the arrival of the Pandora’s
crew at Samarang, in Java, where they found her lying
at anchor, the crew having suffered so dreadfully
from famine and the want of water, that one of the
young gentlemen belonging to her became delirious.
She was a remarkably swift sailer, and, being afterwards
employed in the sea-otter trade, is stated to have
made one of the quickest passages ever known from China
to the Sandwich Islands. This memorable little
vessel was purchased at Canton by the late Captain
Broughton, to assist him in surveying the coast of
Tartary, and became the means of preserving the crew
of his Majesty’s ship Providence, amounting
to one hundred and twelve men, when wrecked to the
eastward of Formosa, in the year 1797.
The Pandora called at numerous
islands without success, but on Lieutenant Corner
having landed on one of the Palmerston’s group,
he found a yard and some spars with the broad arrow
upon them, and marked Bounty. This induced
the captain to cause a very minute search to be made
in all these islands, in the course of which the Pandora,
being driven out to sea by blowing weather, and very
thick and hazy, lost sight of the little tender and
a jolly boat, the latter of which was never more heard
of. This gives occasion to a little splenetic
effusion from a writer in a periodical journal,
which was hardly called for, ‘When this boat,’
says the writer, ’with a midshipman and several
men (four), had been inhumanly ordered from alongside,
it was known that there was nothing in her but one
piece of salt-beef, compassionately thrown in by a
seaman; and horrid as must have been their fate, the
flippant surgeon, after detailing the disgraceful fact,
adds “that this is the way the world
was peopled” or words to that effect, for we quote only from memory.
The following is quoted from the book:
‘It may be difficult to surmise,’
says the surgeon, ’what has been the fate of
those unfortunate men. They had a piece of salt-beef
thrown into the boat to them on leaving the ship;
and it rained a good deal that night and the following
day, which might satiate their thirst. It is by
these accidents the Divine Ruler of the universe has
peopled the southern hemisphere.’ This
is no more than asserting an acknowledged fact that
can hardly admit of a dispute, and there appears nothing
in the paragraph which at all affects the character
of Captain Edwards, against whom it is levelled.
After a fruitless search of three
months, the Pandora arrived, on the 29th August,
on the coast of New Holland, and close to that extraordinary
reef of coral rocks called the ‘Barrier Reef,’
which runs along the greater part of the eastern coast,
but at a considerable distance from it. The boat
had been sent out to look for an opening, which was
soon discovered, but in the course of the night the
ship had drifted past it. ‘On getting soundings,’
says Captain Edwards, in his narrative laid before
the court-martial, ’the topsails were filled;
but before the tacks were hauled on board and other
sail made and trimmed, the ship struck upon a reef;
we had a quarter less two fathoms on the larboard
side, and three fathoms on the starboard side; the
sails were braced about different ways to endeavour
to get her off, but to no purpose; they were then
clewed up and afterwards furled, the top-gallant yards
got down and the top-gallant masts struck. Boats
were hoisted out with a view to carry out an anchor,
but before that could be effected the ship struck
so violently on the reef, that the carpenter reported
she made eighteen inches of water in five minutes;
and in five minutes after this, that there were four
feet of water in the hold. Finding the leak increasing
so fast, it was thought necessary to turn the hands
to the pumps, and to bail at the different hatchways;
but she still continued to gain upon us so fast, that
in little more than an hour and a half after she struck,
there were eight feet and a half of water in the hold.
About ten we perceived that the ship had beaten over
the reef, and was in ten fathoms water; we therefore
let go the small bower anchor, cleared away a cable,
and let go the best bower anchor in fifteen and a
half fathoms water under foot, to steady the ship.
Some of her guns were thrown overboard, and the water
gained upon us only in a small degree, and we flattered
ourselves that by the assistance of a thrummed topsail,
which we were preparing to haul under the ship’s
bottom, we might be able to lessen the leak, and to
free her of water: but these flattering hopes
did not continue long; for, as she settled in the
water, the leak increased again, and in so great a
degree, that there was reason to apprehend she would
sink before daylight. During the night two of
the pumps were unfortunately for some time rendered
useless; one of them, however, was repaired, and we
continued baling and pumping the remainder of the
night; and every effort that was thought of was made
to keep afloat and preserve the ship. Daylight
fortunately appeared, and gave us the opportunity
of seeing our situation and the surrounding danger,
and it was evident the ship had been carried to the
northward by a tide or current.
’The officers, whom I had consulted
on the subject of our situation, gave it as their
opinion that nothing more could be done for the preservation
of the ship; it then became necessary to endeavour
to provide and to find means for the preservation
of the people. Our four boats, which consisted
of one launch, one eight-oared pinnace, and two six-oared
yawls, with careful hands in them, were kept astern
of the ship; a small quantity of bread, water, and
other necessary articles, were put into them; two
canoes, which we had on board, were lashed together
and put into the water; rafts were made, and all floating
things upon deck were unlashed.
’About half-past six in the
morning of the 29th the hold was full, and the water
was between decks, and it also washed in at the upper
deck ports, and there were strong indications that
the ship was on the very point of sinking, and we
began to leap overboard and take to the boats, and
before everybody could get out of her she actually
sunk. The boats continued astern of the ship
in the direction of the drift of the tide from her,
and took up the people that had hold of rafts and other
floating things that had been cast loose, for the purpose
of supporting them on the water. The double canoe,
that was able to support a considerable number of
men, broke adrift with only one man, and was bulged
upon a reef, and afforded us no assistance when she
was so much wanted on this trying and melancholy occasion.
Two of the boats were laden with men and sent to a
small sandy island (or key) about four miles from
the wreck; and I remained near the ship for some time
with the other two boats, and picked up all the people
that could be seen, and then followed the two first
boats to the key; and having landed the men and cleared
the boats, they were immediately despatched again to
look about the wreck and the adjoining reef for any
that might be missing, but they returned without having
found a single person. On mustering the people
that were saved, it appeared that eighty-nine of the
ship’s company, and ten of the mutineers that
had been prisoners on board, answered to their names;
but thirty-one of the ship’s company, and four
mutineers, were lost with the ship.’
It is remarkable enough that so little
notice is taken of the mutineers in this narrative
of the captain; and as the following statement is
supposed to come from the late Lieutenant Corner, who
was second lieutenant of the Pandora, it is
entitled to be considered as authentic, and if so,
Captain Edwards must have deserved the character,
ascribed to him, of being altogether destitute of the
common feelings of humanity.
’Three of the Bounty’s
people, Coleman, Norman, and M’Intosh, were now
let out of irons, and sent to work at the pumps.
The others offered their assistance, and begged to
be allowed a chance of saving their lives; instead
of which, two additional sentinels were placed over
them, with orders to shoot any who should attempt
to get rid of their fetters. Seeing no prospect
of escape, they betook themselves to prayer, and prepared
to meet their fate, every one expecting that the ship
would soon go to pieces, her rudder and part of the
stern-post being already beat away.’
When the ship was actually sinking,
and every effort making for the preservation of the
crew, it is asserted that ’no notice was taken
of the prisoners, as is falsely stated by the author
of the Pandora’s Voyage, although Captain
Edwards was entreated by Mr. Heywood to have mercy
upon them, when he passed over their prison, to make
his own escape, the ship then lying on her broadside,
with the larboard bow completely under water.
Fortunately the master-at-arms, either by accident
or design, when slipping from the roof of “Pandora’s
Box” into the sea, let the keys of the irons
fall through the scuttle or entrance, which he had
just before opened, and thus enabled them to commence
their own liberation, in which they were generously
assisted, at the imminent risk of his own life, by
William Moulter, a boatswain’s mate, who clung
to the coamings, and pulled the long bars through the
shackles, saying he would set them free, or go to the
bottom with them.
’Scarcely was this effected
when the ship went down, leaving nothing visible but
the top-mast cross-trees. The master-at-arms and
all the sentinels sunk to rise no more. The cries
of them and the other drowning men were awful in the
extreme; and more than half an hour had elapsed before
the survivors could be taken up by the boats.
Among the former were Mr. Stewart, John Sumner, Richard
Skinner, and Henry Hillbrant, the whole of whom perished
with their hands still in manacles.
’On this melancholy occasion
Mr. Heywood was the last person but three who escaped
from the prison, into which the water had already found
its way through the bulk-head scuttles. Jumping
overboard, he seized a plank, and was swimming towards
a small sandy quay (key) about three miles distant,
when a boat picked him up, and conveyed him thither
in a state of nudity. It is worthy of remark,
that James Morrison endeavoured to follow his young
companion’s example, and, although handcuffed,
managed to keep afloat until a boat came to his assistance.’
This account would appear almost incredible.
It is true men are sometimes found to act the part
of inhuman monsters, but then they are generally actuated
by some motive or extraordinary excitement; here,
however, there was neither; but on the contrary, the
condition of the poor prisoners appealed most forcibly
to the mercy and humanity of their jailor. The
surgeon of the ship states, in his account of her loss,
that as soon as the spars, booms, hen-coops, and other
buoyant articles were cut loose, ‘the prisoners
were ordered to be let out of irons.’ One
would imagine, indeed, that the officers on this dreadful
emergency would not be witness to such inhumanity,
without remonstrating effectually against keeping
these unfortunate men confined a moment beyond the
period when it became evident that the ship must sink.
It will be seen, however, presently, from Mr. Heywood’s
own statement, that they were so kept, and that the
brutal and unfeeling conduct which has been imputed
to Captain Edwards is but too true.
It is an awful moment when a ship
takes her last heel, just before going down.
When the Pandora sunk, the surgeon says, ’the
crew had just time to leap overboard, accompanying
it with a most dreadful yell. The cries of the
men drowning in the water was at first awful in the
extreme; but as they sunk and became faint, they died
away by degrees.’ How accurately has Byron
described the whole progress of a shipwreck to the
final catastrophe! He might have been a spectator
of the Pandora, at the moment of her foundering,
when
She gave a heel, and
then a lurch to port,
And, going down head
foremost sunk....
Then rose from sea to sky the wild farewell
Then shriekd the timid and stood still the brave
Then some leap’d
overboard with dreadful yell,
As eager
to anticipate their grave;
And the sea yawn’d
around her like a hell,
And down
she suck’d with her the whirling wave,
Like one who grapples
with his enemy,
And strives to strangle
him before he die.
And first one universal
shriek there rush’d,
Louder than
the loud ocean, like a crash
Of echoing thunder;
and then all was hush’d,
Save the
wild wind and the remorseless dash
Of billows; but at intervals
there gush’d,
Accompanied
with a convulsive splash,
A solitary shriek, the
bubbling cry
Of some strong swimmer
in his agony.
On the sandy key which fortunately
presented itself, the shipwrecked seamen hauled up
the boats, to repair those that were damaged, and to
stretch canvas round the gunwales, the better to keep
out the sea from breaking into them. The heat
of the sun and the reflection from the sand are described
as excruciating, and the thirst of the men was rendered
intolerable, from their stomachs being filled with
salt water in the length of time they had to swim
before being picked up. Mr. Hamilton says they
were greatly disturbed in the night, by the irregular
behaviour of one of the seamen, named Connell, which
made them suspect he had got drunk with some wine
that had been saved; but it turned out that the excruciating
torture he suffered from thirst had induced him to
drink salt water; ’by which means he went mad,
and died in the sequel of the voyage.’
It seems, a small keg of water, and some biscuits,
had been thrown into one of the boats, which they
found, by calculation, would be sufficient to last
sixteen days, on an allowance of two wine-glasses of
water per day to each man, and a very small quantity
of bread, the weight of which was accurately ascertained
by a musket-ball, and a pair of wooden scales made
for each boat.
The crew and the prisoners were now
distributed among the four boats. At Bligh’s
‘Mountainous Island,’ they entered a bay
where swarms of natives came down and made signs for
their landing; but this they declined to do; on which
an arrow was discharged and struck one of the boats;
and as the savages were seen to be collecting their
bows and arrows, a volley of muskets, a few of which
happened to be in the boats, was discharged, which
put them to flight. While sailing among the islands
and near the shore, they now and then stopped to pick
up a few oysters, and procure a little fresh water.
On the 2nd September, they passed the north-west point
of New Holland, and launched into the great Indian
Ocean, having a voyage of about a thousand miles still
to perform.
It will be recollected that Captain
Bligh’s people received warmth and comfort by
wringing out their clothes in salt-water. The
same practice was adopted by the crews of the Pandora’s
boats; but the doctor observes, that ’this wetting
their bodies with salt water is not advisable, if
protracted beyond three or four days, as, after that
time, the great absorption from the skin that takes
place, taints the fluids with the bitter part of salt
water, so that the saliva becomes intolerable in the
mouth.’ Their mouths, indeed, he says, became
so parched, that few attempted to eat the slender
allowance of bread. He also remarks, that as
the sufferings of the people continued, their temper
became cross and savage. In the captain’s
boat, it is stated, one of the mutineers took to praying;
but that ’the captain, suspecting the purity
of his doctrines, and unwilling that he should have
a monopoly of the business, gave prayers himself.’
On the 13th, they saw the island of
Timor, and the next morning landed and got some water,
and a few small fish from the natives; and on the
night of the 15th, anchored opposite the fort of Coupang.
Nothing could exceed the kindness and hospitality
of the governor and other Dutch officers of this settlement,
in affording every possible assistance and relief
in their distressed condition. Having remained
here three weeks, they embarked on the 6th October,
on board the Rembang Dutch Indiaman, and on
the 30th, anchored at Samarang, where they were agreeably
surprised to find their little Tender, which they had
so long given up for lost. On the 7th November
they arrived at Batavia, where Captain Edwards agreed
with the Dutch East India Company, to divide the whole
of the ship’s company and prisoners among four
of their ships proceeding to Europe. The latter
the captain took with him in the Vreedenburgh;
but finding his Majesty’s ship Gorgon
at the Cape, he transhipped himself and prisoners,
and proceeded in her to Spithead, where he arrived
on the 19th June, 1792.
Captain Edwards, in his meagre narrative,
takes no more notice of his prisoners with regard
to the mode in which they were disposed of at Coupang
and Batavia, than he does when the Pandora went
down. In fact, he suppresses all information
respecting them, from the day in which they were consigned
to ‘Pandora’s Box. From this total indifference
towards these unfortunate men, and their almost unparalleled sufferings, Captain
Edwards must be set down as a man, whose only feeling was to stick to the letter
of his instructions, and rigidly to adhere to what he considered the strict line
of his duty; that he was a man of a cold phlegmatic disposition, whom no
distress could move, and whose feelings were not easily disturbed by the
sufferings of his fellow-creatures. He appears to have been one of those
mortals, who might say, with Manfred
My spirit walk’d not with
the souls of men;
My joys, my griefs, my passions,
and my powers,
Made me a stranger; though I wore the form,
I had no sympathy with breathing flesh!
There seems to have been a general
feeling at and before the court-martial, that Captain
Edwards had exercised a harsh, unnecessary, and undue
degree of severity on his prisoners. It is the
custom, sanctioned no doubt by long usage, to place
in irons all such as may have been guilty of mutiny
in a ship of war, and the necessity of so doing is
obvious enough to prevent, in the most effectual
manner, communication with the rest of the ship’s
company, who might be contaminated by their intercourse
with such mischievous and designing men; men whose
crime is of that dye, that, if found guilty, they have
little hope to escape the punishment of death, to which
a mutineer must, by the naval articles of war, be
sentenced; no alternative being left to a court-martial,
in such a case, but to pronounce a sentence of acquittal
or of death.
In the present case, however, most
of the prisoners had surrendered themselves; many
of them had taken no active part in the mutiny; and
others had been forcibly compelled to remain in the
ship. It was not likely, therefore, that any
danger could arise from indulging them occasionally,
and in turns, with a few hours of fresh air on deck.
As little danger was there of their escaping; where
indeed could they escape to especially
when the ship was going down, at a great distance
from any shore, and the nearest one known to be inhabited
by savages? All or most of them were desirous
of getting home, and throwing themselves on God and
their country. The captain, however, had no ‘compunctious
visitings of nature’ to shake his purpose, which
seems to have been, to keep them strictly in irons
during the whole passage, and to deliver them over
in that state on his arrival in England.
Perhaps the circumstance of the crime
of piracy, being superadded to that of mutiny, may
have operated on his stern nature, and induced him
to inflict a greater severity of punishment than he
might otherwise have done, and which he certainly
did far beyond the letter and spirit of his instructions.
He might have considered that, in all ages and among
all nations, with the exception of some of the Greek
states, piracy has been held in the utmost abhorrence,
and those guilty of it treated with singular and barbarous
severity; and that the most sanguinary laws were established
for the protection of person and property in maritime
adventure. The laws of Oleron, which were composed
under the immediate direction of our Richard I., and
became the common usage among maritime states, whose
vessels passed through British seas, are conceived
in a spirit of the most barbarous cruelty. Thus,
if a poor pilot, through ignorance, lost the vessel,
he was either required to make full satisfaction to
the merchant for damages sustained, or to lose his
head. In the case of wrecks, where the lord of
the coast (something like our present vice-admiral)
should be found to be in league with the pilots, and
run the ships on rocks, in order to get salvage, the
said lord, the salvers, and all concerned, are declared
to be accursed and excommunicated, and punished as
thieves and robbers; and the pilot condemned to be
hanged upon a high gibbet, which is to abide and remain
to succeeding ages, on the place where erected, as
a visible caution to other ships sailing thereby.
Nor was the fate of the lord of the coast less severe, his
property was to be confiscated, and himself fastened
to a post in the midst of his own mansion, which being
fired at the four corners, were all to be burned together;
the walls thereof demolished; and the spot on which
it stood be converted into a market-place, for the
sale only of hogs and swine, to all posterity.
These and many other barbarous usages
were transferred into the institutions of Wisbuy,
which formed the jus mercatorum for a long
period, and in which great care was taken for the security
of ships against their crews. Among other articles
are the following -- Whoever draws a sword
upon the master of a vessel, or wilfully falsifies
the compass, shall have his right hand nailed to the
mast -- Whoever behaves riotously shall be
punished by being keel-hauled -- Whoever is
guilty of rebellion (or mutiny) shall be thrown overboard.
For the suppression of piracy, the
Portuguese, in their early intercourse with India,
had a summary punishment, and accompanied it with
a terrible example to deter others from the commission
of the crime. Whenever they took a pirate ship,
they instantly hanged every man, carried away the
sails, rudder, and everything that was valuable in
the ship, and left her to be buffeted about by the
winds and the waves, with the carcasses of the criminals
dangling from the yards, a horrid object of terror
to all who might chance to fall in with her. Even
to this day, a spice of the laws of Oleron still remains
in the maritime code of European nations, as far as
regards mutiny and piracy; and a feeling of this kind
may have operated on the mind of Captain Edwards,
especially as a tendency even to mutiny, or mutinous
expressions, are considered, by the usage of the service,
as justifying the commander of a ship of war to put
the offenders in irons. Besides, the treatment
of Bligh, whose admirable conduct under the unparalleled
sufferings of himself and all who accompanied him
in the open boat, had roused the people of England
to the highest pitch of indignation against Christian
and his associates, in which Edwards no doubt participated.
The following letter of Mr. Peter
Heywood to his mother removes all doubt as to the
character and conduct of this officer. It is an
artless and pathetic tale, and, as his amiable sister
says, ’breathes not a syllable inconsistent
with truth and honour.’
’Batavia, November
20th, 1791.
’MY EVER-HONOURED AND DEAREST
MOTHER, At length the time has arrived when you are once more to hear from your
ill-fated son, whose conduct at the capture of that ship, in which it was my
fortune to embark, has, I fear, from what has since happened to me, been
grossly misrepresented to you by Lieutenant Bligh, who, by not knowing the
real cause of my remaining on board, naturally suspected me, unhappily for
me, to be a coadjutor in the mutiny; but I never, to my knowledge, whilst
under his command, behaved myself in a manner unbecoming the station I
occupied, nor so much as even entertained a thought derogatory to his
honour, so as to give him the least grounds for entertaining an opinion of
me so ungenerous and undeserved; for I flatter myself he cannot give a
character of my conduct, whilst I was under his tuition, that could merit
the slightest scrutiny. Oh! my dearest mother, I hope you have not so
easily credited such an account of me; do but let me vindicate my conduct,
and declare to you the true cause of my remaining in the ship, and you will
then see how little I deserve censure, and how I have been injured by so
gross an aspersion. I shall then give you a short and cursory account of
what has happened to me since; but I am afraid to say a hundredth part of
what I have got in store, for I am not allowed the use of writing materials,
if known, so that this is done by stealth; but if it should ever come to
your hands, it will, I hope, have the desired effect of removing your
uneasiness on my account, when I assure you, before the face of God, of my
innocence of what is laid to my charge. How I came to remain on board was
thus:
’The morning the ship was taken,
it being my watch below, happening to awake just
after daylight, and looking out of my hammock,
I saw a man sitting upon the arm-chest in the main
hatchway, with a drawn cutlass in his hand, the
reason of which I could not divine; so I got
out of bed and inquired of him what was the cause
of it. He told me that Mr. Christian, assisted
by some of the ship’s company had seized the
captain and put him in confinement; had taken
the command of the ship and meant to carry Bligh
home a prisoner, in order to try him by court-martial,
for his long tyrannical and oppressive conduct
to his people. I was quite thunderstruck; and
hurrying into my berth again, told one of my
messmates, whom I awakened out of his sleep,
what had happened. Then dressing myself, I went
up the fore-hatchway, and saw what he had told me was
but too true; and again, I asked some of the
people, who were under arms, what was going to
be done with the captain, who was then on the
larboard side of the quarter-deck, with his hands
tied behind his back, and Mr. Christian alongside him
with a pistol and drawn bayonet. I now heard
a very different story, and that the captain
was to be sent ashore to Tofoa in the launch,
and that those who would not join Mr. Christian might
either accompany the captain, or would be taken in
irons to Otaheite and left there. The relation
of two stories so different, left me unable to
judge which could be the true one; but seeing
them hoisting the boats out, it seemed to prove
the latter.
’In this trying situation, young
and inexperienced as I was, and without an adviser
(every person being as it were infatuated, and
not knowing what to do), I remained for awhile a
silent spectator of what was going on; and after revolving
the matter in my mind, I determined to choose
what I thought the lesser of two evils and stay
by the ship; for I had no doubt that those who
went on shore, in the launch, would be put to
death by the savage natives, whereas the Otaheitans
being a humane and generous race, one might have
a hope of being kindly received, and remain there
until the arrival of some ship, which seemed,
to silly me, the most consistent with reason
and rectitude.
’While this resolution possessed
my mind, at the same time lending my assistance
to hoist out the boats, the hurry and confusion
affairs were in, and thinking my intention just, I
never thought of going to Mr. Bligh for advice;
besides, what confirmed me in it was, my seeing
two experienced officers, when ordered into the
boat by Mr. Christian, desire his permission
to remain in the ship (one of whom, my own messmate,
Mr. Hayward), and I being assisting to clear the launch
of yams, he asked me what I intended to do? I
told him, to remain in the ship. Now this
answer, I imagine, he has told Mr, Bligh I made
to him; from which, together with my not speaking
to him that morning, his suspicions of me have arisen,
construing my conduct into what is foreign to my nature.
’Thus, my dearest mother, it
was all owing to my youth and unadvised inexperience,
but has been interpreted into villany and disregard
of my country’s laws, the ill effects of which
I at present, and still am to, labour under for
some months longer. And now, after what
I have asserted, I may still once more retrieve
my injured reputation, be again reinstated in the
affection and favour of the most tender of mothers,
and be still considered as her ever dutiful son.
’I was not undeceived in my erroneous
decision till too late, which was after the captain
was in the launch; for while I was talking to
the master-at-arms, one of the ringleaders in the
affair, my other messmate whom I had left in his
hammock in the berth (Mr. Stewart), came up to
me, and asked me, if I was not going in the launch?
I replied, No upon which he told me not
to think of such a thing as remaining behind, but take
his advice and go down below with him to get
a few necessary things, and make haste to go
with him into the launch; adding that, by remaining
in the ship, I should incur an equal share of
guilt with the mutineers themselves. I reluctantly
followed his advice I say reluctantly,
because I knew no better, and was foolish; and
the boat swimming very deep in the water the
land being far distant the thoughts of being
sacrificed by the natives and the self-consciousness
of my first intention being just all
these considerations almost staggered my resolution;
however, I preferred my companion’s judgement
to my own, and we both jumped down the main-hatchway
to prepare ourselves for the boat but,
no sooner were we in the berth, than the master-at-arms
ordered the sentry to keep us both in the berth
till he should receive orders to release us.
We desired the master-at-arms to acquaint Mr. Bligh
of our intention, which we had reason to think
he never did, nor were we permitted to come on
deck until the launch was a long way astern.
I now, when too late, saw my error.
’At the latter end of May, we
got to an island to the southward of Taheite,
called Tooboui, where they intended to make a
settlement, but finding no stock there of any kind,
they agreed to go to Taheite, and, after procuring
hogs and fowls, to return to Tooboui and remain.
So, on the 6th June, we arrived at Taheite, where
I was in hopes I might find an opportunity of
running away, and remaining on shore, but I could
not effect it, as there was always too good a look-out
kept to prevent any such steps being taken.
And besides, they had all sworn that should any
one make his escape, they would force the natives
to restore him, and would then shoot him as an
example to the rest; well knowing, that any one by
remaining there might be the means (should a ship
arrive) of discovering their intended place of
abode. Finding it therefore impracticable,
I saw no other alternative but to rest as content
as possible and return to Tooboui, and there wait
till the masts of the Bounty should be taken
out, and then take the boat which might carry
me to Taheite, and disable those remaining from
pursuit. But Providence so ordered it, that
we had no occasion to try our fortune at such a
hazard, for, upon returning there and remaining till
the latter end of August, in which time a fort
was almost built, but nothing could be effected;
and as the natives could not be brought to friendly
terms, and with whom we had many skirmishes,
and narrow escapes from being cut off by them, and,
what was still worse, internal broils and discontent, these
things determined part of the people to leave
the island and go to Taheite, which was carried by
a majority of votes.
’This being carried into execution
on the 22nd September, and having anchored in
Matavai bay, the next morning my messmate (Mr.
Stewart) and I went on shore, to the house of an old
landed proprietor, our former friend; and being
now set free from a lawless crew, determined
to remain as much apart from them as possible,
and wait patiently for the arrival of a ship.
Fourteen more of the Bounty’s people came
likewise on shore, and Mr. Christian and eight
men went away with the ship, but God knows whither.
Whilst we remained here, we were treated by our
kind and friendly natives with a generosity and humanity
almost unparalleled, and such as we could hardly have
expected from the most civilized people.
’To be brief having
remained here till the latter end of March, 1791,
on the 26th of that month, his Majesty’s ship
Pandora arrived, and had scarcely anchored,
when my messmate and I went on board and made
ourselves known; and having learnt from one of
the natives who had been off in a canoe, that
our former messmate Mr. Hayward, now promoted to the
rank of lieutenant, was on board, we asked for
him, supposing he might prove the assertions
of our innocence. But he (like all worldlings
when raised a little in life) received us very coolly,
and pretended ignorance of our affairs; yet formerly,
he and I were bound in brotherly love and friendship.
Appearances being so much against us, we were
ordered to be put in irons, and looked upon oh,
infernal words! as piratical villains.
A rebuff so severe as this was, to a person unused
to troubles, would perhaps have been insupportable,
but to me, who had now been long inured to the frowns
of fortune, and feeling myself supported by an inward
consciousness of not deserving it, it was received
with the greatest composure, and a full determination
to bear it with patience.
’My sufferings, however, I have
not power to describe; but though they are great,
yet I thank God for enabling me to bear them
without repining. I endeavour to qualify my affliction
with these three considerations, first, my innocence
not deserving them; secondly, that they cannot
last long; and thirdly, that the change may be
for the better. The first improves my hopes;
the second, my patience; and the third, my courage.
I am young in years, but old in what the world calls
adversity; and it has had such an effect, as to
make me consider it the most beneficial incident
that could have occurred at my age. It has
made me acquainted with three things which are
little known, and as little believed by any but
those who have felt their effects: first, the
villany and censoriousness of mankind; secondly,
the futility of all human hopes; and thirdly,
the happiness of being content in whatever station
it may please Providence to place me. In short,
it has made me more of a philosopher, than many
years of a life spent in ease and pleasure would
have done.
’As they will no doubt proceed
to the greatest lengths against me, I being the
only surviving officer, and they most inclined to
believe a prior story, all that can be said to confute
it will probably be looked upon as mere falsity
and invention. Should that be my unhappy
case, and they resolved upon my destruction as
an example to futurity, may God enable me to bear
my fate with the fortitude of a man, conscious that
misfortune, not any misconduct, is the cause,
and that the Almighty can attest my innocence.
Yet why should I despond? I have, I hope,
still a friend in that Providence which hath preserved
me amidst many greater dangers, and upon whom alone
I now depend for safety. God will always
protect those who deserve it. These are
the sole considerations which have enabled me
to make myself easy and content under my past misfortunes.
’Twelve more of the people who
were at Otaheite having delivered themselves
up, there was a sort of prison built on the after-part
of the quarter-deck, into which we were all put in
close confinement with both legs and both hands in
irons, and were treated with great rigour, not
being allowed ever to get out of this den; and,
being obliged to eat, drink, sleep, and obey
the calls of nature here, you may form some idea of
the disagreeable situation I must have been in,
unable as I was to help myself (being deprived
of the use of both my legs and hands), but by
no means adequate to the reality.
’On the 9th May we left Otaheite,
and proceeded to the Friendly Islands, and about
the beginning of August, got in among the reefs
of New Holland, to endeavour to discover a passage
through them; but it was not effected, for the Pandora,
ever unlucky, and as if devoted by heaven to destruction,
was driven by a current upon the patch of a reef,
and on which, there being a heavy surf, she was
soon almost bulged to pieces; but having thrown
all the guns on one side overboard, and the tide
flowing at the same time, she beat over the reef
into a basin and brought up in fourteen or fifteen
fathoms; but she was so much damaged while on the
reef, that imagining she would go to pieces every
moment, we had contrived to wrench ourselves
out of our irons, and applied to the captain
to have mercy on us, and suffer us to take our
chance for the preservation of our lives; but it was
all in vain he was even so inhuman
as to order us all to be put in irons again,
though the ship was expected to go down every
moment, being scarcely able to keep her under with
all the pumps at work.
’In this miserable situation,
with an expected death before our eyes, without
the least hope of relief, and in the most trying
state of suspense, we spent the night, the ship being
by the hand of Providence kept up till the morning.
The boats by this time had all been prepared;
and as the captain and officers were coming upon
the poop or roof of our prison, to abandon the
ship, the water being then up to the coamings of the
hatchways, we again implored his mercy; upon which
he sent the corporal and an armourer down to
let some of us out of irons, but three only were
suffered to go up, and the scuttle being then
clapped on, and the master-at-arms upon it, the armourer
had only time to let two persons out of irons, the
rest, except three, letting themselves out; two
of these three went down with them on their hands,
and the third was picked up. She now began
to heel over to port so very much, that the master-at-arms,
sliding overboard, and leaving the scuttle vacant,
we all tried to get up, and I was the last out but
three. The water was then pouring in at the
bulk-head scuttles, yet I succeeded in getting
out, and was scarcely in the sea when I could
see nothing above it but the cross-trees, and
nothing around me but a scene of the greatest distress.
I took a plank (being stark-naked) and swam towards
an island about three miles off, but was picked
up on my passage by one of the boats. When
we got ashore to the small sandy key, we found
there were thirty-four men drowned, four of whom were
prisoners, and among these was my unfortunate
messmate (Mr. Stewart); ten of us, and eighty-nine
of the Pandora’s crew, were saved.
’When a survey was made of what
provisions had been saved, they were found to
consist of two or three bags of bread, two or
three breakers of water, and a little wine; so we subsisted
three days upon two wine-glasses of water, and
two ounces of bread per day. On the 1st
September we left the island, and on the 16th,
arrived at Coupang in the island of Timor, having
been on short allowance eighteen days. We
were put in confinement in the castle, where
we remained till October, and on the 5th of that
month were sent on board a Dutch ship bound for
Batavia.
’Though I have been eight months
in close confinement in a hot climate, I have
kept my health in a most surprising manner, without
the least indisposition, and am still perfectly well
in every respect, in mind as well as body; but
without a friend, and only a shirt and pair of
trousers to put on, and carry me home. Yet
with all this I have a contented mind, entirely
resigned to the will of Providence, which conduct
alone enables me to soar above the reach of unhappiness.’
In a subsequent letter to his sister he says,
’I send you two
little sketches of the manner in which his Majesty’s
ship Pandora
went down on the 29th August, and of the appearance
which we who survived
made on the small sandy key within the reef,
about ninety yards long
and sixty broad, in all ninety-nine souls;
here we remained three
days, subsisting on a single wine-glass of
wine or water, and two
ounces of bread a day, with no shelter from
the meridian and then
vertical sun. Captain Edwards had tents
erected for himself
and his people, and we prisoners petitioned him
for an old sail which
was lying useless, part of the wreck, but he
refused it; and the
only shelter we had was to bury ourselves up to
the neck in the burning
sand, which scorched the skin entirely off
our bodies, for we were
quite naked, and we appeared as if dipped
in large tubs of boiling
water. We were nineteen days in the same
miserable situation
before we landed at Coupang. I was in the ship,
in irons, hands and
feet, much longer than till the position you
now see her in, the
poop alone being above water (and that knee
deep), when a kind Providence
assisted me to get out of irons and
escape from her.’
The treatment of these unhappy men
was almost as bad at Batavia as in the Pandora,
being closely confined in irons in the castle, and
fed on very bad provisions; and the hardships they
endured on their passage to England, in Dutch ships,
were very severe, having, as he says, slept on nothing
but hard boards on wet canvas, without any bed, for
seventeen months, always subsisting on short allowance
of execrable provisions, and without any clothes for
some time, except such as the charity of two young
men in the ship supplied him with. He had during
his confinement at Batavia learned to make straw hats,
and finished several with both his hands in fetters,
which he sold for half-a-crown a-piece; and with the
produce of these he procured a suit of coarse clothes,
in which, with a cheerful and light heart, notwithstanding
all his sufferings, he arrived at Portsmouth.
How he preserved his health under the dreadful sufferings
he endured, and in eight months’ close confinement
in a hot climate, is quite wonderful.
On the second day after the arrival
of the Gorgon at Spithead the prisoners were
transferred to the Hector, commanded by Captain
(the late Admiral Sir George) Montague, where they
were treated with the greatest humanity, and every
indulgence allowed that could with propriety be extended
to men in their unhappy situation, until the period
when they were to be arraigned before the competent
authority, and put on their trials for mutiny and
piracy, which did not take place until the month of
September.
In this period of anxious and awful suspense, a most interesting
correspondence was carried on between this unfortunate youth and his numerous
friends, which exhibits the character of himself and the whole family in the
most amiable and affectionate colours, and in a more particular manner, of that
adorable creature, his sister Nessy, who, in one of her letters, accounts for
the peculiar warmth of her attachment and expressions by their being nearly of
the same age, and engaged in the same pursuits, whether of study or amusement in
their juvenile years. The poor mother, on hearing of his arrival, thus
addresses her unfortunate son:
’Isle of Man,
June 29th, 1792.
’Oh! my ever dearly-beloved and
long-lost son, with what anxiety have I waited
for this period! I have counted the days,
hours, and even minutes, since I first heard of the
horrid and unfortunate mutiny which has so long
deprived me of my dearest boy: but now the
happy time is come when, though I cannot have
the unspeakable pleasure of seeing and embracing you,
yet I hope we may be allowed to correspond; surely
there can be nothing improper in a liberty of
this sort between an affectionate mother and
her dutiful and beloved son, who, I am perfectly
convinced, was never guilty of the crime he has been
suspected of by those who did not know his worth
and truth. I have not the least doubt but
that the all-gracious God, who of his good providence
has protected you so long, and brought you safe
through so many dangers and difficulties, will still
protect you, and at your trial make your innocence
appear as clear as the light. All your letters
have come safe to me, and to my very dear good
Nessy. Ah! Peter, with what real joy did
we all receive them, and how happy are we that
you are now safe in England! I will endeavour,
my dearest lad, to make your present situation
as comfortable as possible, for so affectionate
and good a son deserves my utmost attention.
Nessy has written to our faithful and kind friend,
Mr. Heywood, of Plymouth, for his advice, whether
it would be proper for her to come up to you;
if he consents to her so doing, not a moment
shall be lost, and how happy shall I be when
she is with you! Such a sister as she is!
Oh! Peter, she is a most valuable girl,’
etc.
On the same day this ‘most valuable
girl’ thus writes:
’MY DEAREST AND MOST BELOVED
BROTHER Thanks to that Almighty Providence
which has so miraculously preserved you, your fond,
anxious, and, till now, miserable Nessy, is at
last permitted to address the object of her tenderest
affection in England! Oh! my admirable,
my heroic boy, what have we felt on your account!
yet how small, how infinitely trifling was the misery
of our situation when compared with the horror
of yours! Let me now, however, with confidence
hope that the God of all mercies has not so long
protected you in vain, but will at length crown
your fortitude and pious resignation to His will with
that peace and happiness you so richly merit.
How blest did your delightful and yet dreadful
letter from Batavia make us all! Surely,
my beloved boy, you could not for a moment imagine
we ever supposed you guilty of the crime of mutiny.
No, no; believe me, no earthly power could have
persuaded us that it was possible for you to
do anything inconsistent with strict honour and
duty. So well did we know your amiable, steady
principles, that we were assured your reasons for
staying behind would turn out such as you represent
them; and I firmly trust that Providence will
at length restore you to those dear and affectionate
friends, who can know no happiness until they
are blest with your loved society. Take care of
your precious health, my angelic boy. I shall
soon be with you; I have written to Mr. Heywood
(your and our excellent friend and protector)
for his permission to go to you immediately,
which my uncle Heywood, without first obtaining it,
would not allow, fearing lest any precipitate step
might injure you at present; and I only wait
the arrival of his next letter to fly into your
arms. Oh! my best beloved Peter, how I anticipate
the rapture of that moment! for alas!
I have no joy, no happiness, but in your beloved
society, and no hopes, no fears, no wishes, but
for you.’
Mr. Heywood’s sisters all address
their unfortunate brother in the same affectionate,
but less impassioned strain; and a little trait
of good feeling is mentioned, on the part of an old
female servant, that shows what a happy and attached
family the Heywoods were, previous to the melancholy
affair in which their boy became entangled.
Mrs. Heywood says, ’my good honest Birket
is very well, and says your safe return has made her
more happy than she has been for these two and forty
years she has been in our family.’
And Miss Nessy tells him, ’Poor Birket,
the most faithful and worthiest of servants, desires
me to tell you that she almost dies with joy at
the thought of your safe arrival in England.
What agony, my dear boy, has she felt on your
account! her affection for you knows no bounds, and
her misery has indeed been extreme; but she still lives
to bless your virtues.’
The poor prisoner thus replies, from
his Majesty’s ship Hector, to his beloved sisters all:
’This day I had the supreme happiness
of your long-expected letters, and I am not able
to express the pleasure and joy they afforded
me; at the sight of them my spirits, low and dejected,
were at once exhilarated; my heart had long and greatly
suffered from my impatience to hear of those most dear
to me, and was tossed and tormented by the storms
of fearful conjecture but they are
now subsided, and my bosom has at length attained
that long-lost serenity and calmness it once enjoyed:
for you may believe me when I say it never yet has
suffered any disquiet from my own misfortunes,
but from a truly anxious solicitude for, and
desire to hear of, your welfare. God be
thanked, you still entertain such an opinion of
me as I will flatter myself I have deserved; but why
do I say so? can I make myself too worthy the
affectionate praises of such amiable sisters?
Oh! my Nessy, it grieves me to think I must be
under the necessity, however heart-breaking to myself,
of desiring you will relinquish your most affectionate
design of coming to see me; it is too long and
tedious a journey, and even on your arrival,
you would not be allowed the wished-for happiness,
both to you and myself, of seeing, much less
conversing with, your unfortunate brother: the
rules of the service are so strict, that prisoners
are not permitted to have any communication with
female relations; thus even the sight of, and
conversation with, so truly affectionate a sister
is for the present denied me! The happiness
of such an interview let us defer till a time (which,
please God, will arrive) when it can be enjoyed with
more freedom, and unobserved by the gazing eyes
of an inquisitive world, which in my present
place of confinement would of course not be the
case.
’I am very happy
to hear that poor old Birket is still alive;
remember me to her,
and tell her not to heave aback, until
God grants me the pleasure
of seeing her.
’And now, my dear Nessy, cease
to anticipate the happiness of personal communication
with your poor, but resigned brother, until wished-for
freedom removes the indignant shackles I now bear,
from the feet of your fond and most affectionate brother,
P.H.’
In a subsequent letter to his sister,
he says, ’Let us at present be resigned to our
fate, contented with this sort of communication, and
be thankful to God for having even allowed us that
happiness for be assured the present confinement
is liberty, compared with what it has been
for the fifteen months last past.’ On the
15th July, Commodore Pasley addresses the following
business-like letter to Miss Heywood.
’I received your letter, my dearest
Nessy, with the enclosure [her brother’s
narrative], but did not choose to answer it until
I had made a thorough investigation; that is, seen
personally all the principal evidences, which
has ever since occupied my whole thoughts and
time. I have also had some letters from
himself; and notwithstanding he must still continue
in confinement, every attention and indulgence possible
is granted him by Captain Montague of the Hector,
who is my particular friend. I have no doubt
of the truth of your brother’s narrative;
the master, boatswain, gunner, and carpenter,
late of the Bounty, I have seen, and have the
pleasure to assure you that they are all favourable,
and corroborate what he says. That fellow,
Captain Edwards, whose inhuman rigour of confinement
I shall never forget, I have likewise seen; he
cannot deny that Peter avowed himself late of
the Bounty when he came voluntarily aboard;
this is a favourable circumstance. I have
been at the Admiralty, and read over all the
depositions taken and sent home by Bligh and his
officers from Batavia, likewise the court-martial on
himself; in none of which appears anything against
Peter. As soon as Lieutenant Hayward arrives
with the remainder of the Pandora’s
crew, the court-martial is to take place. I shall
certainly attend, and we must have an able counsellor
to assist, for I will not deceive you, my dear
Nessy, however favourable circumstances may appear,
our martial law is severe; by the tenor of it,
the man who stands neuter is equally guilty with
him who lifts his arm against his captain in
such cases. His extreme youth and his delivering
himself up, are the strong points of his defence.
Adieu! my dearest Nessy; present my love to your
mother and sisters, and rest assured of my utmost
exertions to extricate your brother -- Your
affectionate uncle, T. PASLEY.’
This excellent man did not stop here:
knowing that sea-officers have a great aversion from
counsel, he writes to say, ’A friend of mine,
Mr. Graham, who has been secretary to the different
Admirals on the Newfoundland station for these twelve
years, and consequently has acted as judge-advocate
at courts-martial all that time, has offered me to
attend you; he has a thorough knowledge of the service,
uncommon abilities, and is a very good lawyer.
He has already had most of the evidences with him.
Adieu! my young friend; keep up your spirits, and
rest assured I shall be watchful for your good.
My heart will be more at ease, if I can get my friend
Graham to go down, than if you were attended by the
first counsel in England.’ Mr. Graham accordingly
attended, and was of the greatest service at the trial.
Nessy Heywood having in one of
her letters inquired of her brother how tall he was,
and having received information on this point, expressed
some surprise that he was not taller. ‘And
so,’ he replies, ’you are surprised I
am not taller! Ah, Nessy! let me ask you
this suppose the two last years of your
growth had been retarded by close confinement nearly
deprived of all kinds of necessary aliment shut
up from the all-cheering light of the sun for the space
of five months, and never suffered to breathe the
fresh air (an enjoyment which Providence denies to
none of His creatures) during all that time and
without any kind of exercise to stretch and supple
your limbs besides many other inconveniences
which I will not pain you by mentioning how
tall should you have been, my dear sister? answer,
four feet nothing: but enough of nonsense.’
Nessy Heywood had expressed a strong
desire to see her brother, but was told the rules
of the service would not allow it; also, that it would
agitate him, when he ought to be cool and collected,
to meet his approaching trial. This was quite
enough: ’But as for myself,’
she says, ’no danger, no fatigue, no difficulties,
would deter me I have youth, and health,
and excellent natural spirits these and
the strength of my affection would support me through
it all; if I were not allowed to see you, yet being
in the same place which contains you, would be joy
inexpressible! I will not, however, any longer
desire it, but will learn to imitate your fortitude
and patience.’
Mr. Heywood of Maristow, and his daughter,
Mrs. Bertie, had intimated the same thing. These
excellent people, from the moment of young Heywood’s
arrival, had shown him every kindness, supplied him
with money, and what was better, with friends, who
could give him the best advice. To this worthy
lady, Miss Nessy Heywood thus addresses herself.
’Overwhelmed with sensations
of gratitude and pleasure, which she is too much
agitated to express, permit me, dearest Madam, at
my mamma’s request, to offer you hers and our
most sincere acknowledgements for your invaluable
letter, which, from the detention of the packet,
she did not receive till yesterday. By a
letter from my beloved brother, of the same date, we
are informed that Mr. Larkham (whom I suppose
to be the gentleman you mention having sent to
see him) has been on board the Hector,
and has kindly offered him the most salutary advice
relative to his present situation, for which allow
me to request you will present him our best thanks.
He also speaks with every expression a grateful
heart can dictate of your excellent father’s
goodness in providing for all his wants, even
before he could have received any letters from us to
that purpose.
’Ah! my dear Madam, how truly
characteristic is this of the kind friendship
with which he has ever honoured our family! But
my beloved Peter does not know that Mr. Heywood has
a daughter, whose generosity is equal to his
own, and whose amiable compassion for his sufferings
it will be as impossible for us to forget, as
it is to express the admiration and gratitude
it has inspired. It would, I am convinced, be
unnecessary, as well as a very bad compliment
to you, Madam, were I to presume to point out
anything particular to be done for our poor boy,
as I have not the least doubt your goodness and
kind intention have long ago rendered every care of
that sort on our part unnecessary. I shall
only add, that my mamma begs every wish he forms
may be granted, and sure I am, he will not desire
a single gratification that can be deemed in the
smallest degree improper.
’In one of my brother’s
letters, dated the 23rd, he hints that he shall
not be permitted to see any of his relations till his
trial is over, and that he therefore does not
expect us. I have, however, written to Mr.
Heywood (without whose approbation I would by
no means take any step) for permission to go
to him. If it is absolutely impossible for me
to see him (though in the presence of witnesses),
yet even that prohibition, cruel as it is, I
could bear with patience, provided I might be
near him, to see the ship in which he at present
exists to behold those objects, which, perhaps,
at the same moment, attract his notice to
breathe the same air which he breathes -- Ah!
my dearest Madam, these are inestimable gratifications,
and would convey sensations of rapture and delight
to the fond bosom of a sister, which it is far,
very far beyond my power to describe. Besides,
the anxiety and impatience produced by the immense
distance which now separates us from him, and
the uncertainty attending the packet, render
it difficult and sometimes impossible to hear of
him so often as we would wish and, may I
not add (though Heaven in its mercy forbid it for
alas! the bare idea is too dreadful, yet it is
in the scale of possibility), that some accident
might happen to deprive us of my dearest brother:
how insupportably bitter would then be our reflections,
for having omitted the opportunity, when it was
in our power, of administering comfort and consolation
to him in person. For these reasons, I earnestly
hope Mr. Heywood will not judge it improper to
comply with my request, and shall wait with eager
impatience the arrival of his next letter.
Think not, my dear Madam, that it is want of
confidence in your care and attention which makes
me solicitous to be with my beloved brother.
Be assured we are all as perfectly easy in that respect
as if we were on the spot; but I am convinced you will
pardon the dictates of an affection which an absence
of five years, rendered still more painful by
his sufferings, has heightened almost to a degree
of adoration. I shall, with your permission,
take the liberty of enclosing a letter to my brother,
which I leave open for perusal, and at the same time
request your pardon for mentioning you to him
in such terms as I am apprehensive will wound
the delicacy which ever accompanies generosity
like yours; but indeed, my dearest Madam, I cannot,
must not, suffer my beloved boy to remain in ignorance
of that worth and excellence which has prompted you
to become his kind protectress.
’I have the honour
to be, with every sentiment of gratitude,
&c., &c, &c,
‘NESSY HEYWOOD.’
Among the numerous friends that interested themselves in the fate of this
unhappy youth, was his uncle, Colonel Holwell. The testimony he bears to
his excellent character is corroborated by all who knew him while a boy at home.
About a fortnight before the trial he writes to him thus:
’21st August,
1792.
’MY VERY DEAR PETER, I have this day received yours of the
18th, and am happy to find by its contents that, notwithstanding your long
and cruel confinement, you still preserve your health, and write in good
spirits. Preserve it, my dear boy, awful as the approaching period must be,
even to the most innocent, but from which all who know you have not a doubt
of your rising as immaculate as a new-born infant. I have known you from
your cradle, and have often marked with pleasure and surprise the many
assiduous instances (far beyond your years) you have given of filial duty
and paternal affection to the best of parents, and to brothers and sisters
who doated on you. Your education has been the best; and from these
considerations alone, without the very clear evidence of your own testimony,
I would as soon believe the Archbishop of Canterbury would set fire to the
city of London as suppose you could, directly or indirectly, join in such a
d d absurd piece of business.
Truly sorry am I that my state of health will
not permit me to go down to Portsmouth to give this
testimony publicly before that respectable tribunal
where your country’s laws have justly ordained
you must appear; but consider this as the touchstone,
my dear boy, by which your worth must be known.
Six years in the navy myself, and twenty-eight
years a soldier, I flatter myself my judgement will
not prove erroneous. That Power, my dear Peter,
of whose grace and mercy you seem to have so
just a sense, will not now forsake you.
Your dear aunt is as must be expected in such a trying
situation, but more from your present sufferings than
any apprehension of what is to follow,’
&c.
With similar testimonies and most favourable
auguries from Commodore Pasley, the Rev. Dr.
Scott, of the Isle of Man, and others, young
Heywood went to his long and anxiously expected trial,
which took place on the 12th September, and continued
to the 18th of that month. Mrs. Heywood had
been anxious that Erskine and Mingay should be
employed as counsel, but Mr. Graham, whom Commodore
Pasley had so highly recommended, gave his best
assistance; as did also Mr. Const, who had been retained,
for which the Commodore expresses his sorrow, as sea
officers, he says, have a great aversion to lawyers.
Mr. Peter Heywood assigns a better reason; in
a letter to his sister Mary he says, that ’Counsel
to a naval prisoner is of no effect, and as they
are not allowed to speak, their eloquence is
not of the least efficacy; I request, therefore, you
will desire my dear mother to revoke the letter
she has been so good to write to retain Mr. Erskine
and Mr. Mingay, and to forbear putting herself
to so great and needless an expense, from which
no good can accrue. No, no! Mary it
is not the same as a trial on shore; it would
then be highly requisite; but, in this case,
I alone must fight my own battle; and I think
my telling the truth undisguised, in a plain, short,
and concise manner, is as likely to be deserving
the victory, as the most elaborate eloquence
of a Cicero upon the same subject.’
At this anxious moment many painfully
interesting letters passed to and from the family
in the Isle of Man: the last letter from
his beloved Nessy previous to the awful event thus
concludes: May that Almighty Providence
whose tender care has hitherto preserved you
be still your powerful protector! may He instil
into the hearts of your judges every sentiment of
justice, generosity, and compassion! may hope,
innocence, and integrity be your firm support!
and liberty, glory, and honour your just reward!
may all good angels guard you from even the appearance
of danger! and may you at length be restored to us,
the delight, the pride of your adoring friends,
and the sole happiness and felicity of that fond
heart which animates the bosom of my dear Peter’s
most faithful and truly affectionate sister,
N.H.’