The Eventful History of the Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of H.M.S. Bounty: Its Cause And Consequences Part 11

'Besides, through the medium of the master, the captain had directed the rest of the officers to remain on board, in hopes of retaking the s.h.i.+p. Such is the master's a.s.sertion, and such the report on board, and as it accorded with my own wishes for the preservation of my life, I felt myself doubly justified in staying on board, not only as it appeared to be safer than going in the boat, but from a consideration also of being in the way to be useful in a.s.sisting to accomplish so desirable a wish of the captain.

'Let it not--for G.o.d's sake--let it not be argued that my fears were groundless, and that the arrival of the boat at Timor is a proof that my conduct was wrong. This would be judging from the event, and I think I have plainly shown that, but for the death of Norton at Tofoa, and the prudent order of the captain not to overload the boat, neither himself nor any of the people who were saved with him, would at this moment have been alive to have preferred any charge against me, or given evidence at this trial.

'If deliberate guilt be necessarily affixed to all who continued on board the s.h.i.+p, and that in consequence they must be numbered with Christian's party--in such a strict view of matters it must irrevocably impeach the armourer and two carpenter's mates, as well as Martin and Byrne, who certainly wished to quit the s.h.i.+p. And if Christian's first intention of sending away the captain, with a few persons only, in the small cutter, had not been given up, or if even the large cutter had not been exchanged for the launch, more than half of those who did go with him would have been obliged to stay with me. Forgetful for a moment of my own misfortunes, I cannot help being agitated at the bare thought of their narrow escape.

'Every body must, and I am sure that this Court will, allow that my case is a peculiarly hard one, inasmuch as the running away with the s.h.i.+p is a proof of the mutiny having been committed. The innocent and the guilty are upon exactly the same footing--had the former been confined by sickness, without a leg to stand on, or an arm to a.s.sist them in opposing the mutineers, they must have been put upon their trial, and instead of the captain being obliged to prove their guilt, it would have been inc.u.mbent upon them to have proved themselves innocent. How can this be done but negatively? If all who wished it could not accompany the captain, they were necessarily compelled to stay with Christian; and being with him, were dependent on him, subject to his orders, however disinclined to obey them, for force in such a state is paramount to every thing. But when, on the contrary, instead of being in arms, or obeying any orders of the mutineers, I did every thing in my power to a.s.sist the captain, and those who went with him, and by all my actions (except in neglecting to do what, if I had done, must have endangered the lives of those who were so fortunate as to quit the s.h.i.+p) I showed myself faithful to the last moment of the captain's stay, what is there to leave a doubt in the minds of impartial and dispa.s.sionate men of my being perfectly innocent? Happy indeed should I have been if the master had stayed on board, which he probably would have done, if his reasons for wis.h.i.+ng to do so had not been overheard by the man who was in the bread-room.

'Captain Bligh in his narrative acknowledges that he had left some friends on board the _Bounty_, and no part of my conduct could have induced him to believe that I ought not to be reckoned of the number. Indeed from his attention to and very kind treatment of me personally, I should have been a monster of depravity to have betrayed him. The idea alone is sufficient to disturb a mind where humanity and grat.i.tude have, I hope, ever been noticed as its characteristic features; and yet Mr. Hallet has said that he saw me laugh at a time when, Heaven knows, the conflict in my own mind, independent of the captain's situation, rendered such a want of decency impossible. The charge in its nature is dreadful, but I boldly declare, notwithstanding an internal conviction of my innocence has enabled me to endure my sufferings for the last sixteen months, could I have laid to my heart so heavy an accusation, I should not have lived to defend myself from it. And this brings to my recollection another part of Captain Bligh's narrative, in which he says, "I was kept apart from every one, and all I could do was by speaking to them in general, but my endeavours were of no avail, for I was kept securely bound, and no one but the guard was suffered to come near me."

'If the captain, whose narrative we may suppose to have been a detail of every thing which happened, could only recollect that he had spoken generally to the people, I trust it will hardly be believed that Mr. Hallet, without notes, at so distant a period as this, should be capable of recollecting that he heard him speak to any one in particular; and here it may not be improper to observe that, at the time to which I allude, Mr. Hallet (if I am rightly informed) could not have been more than fifteen years of age. I mean not to impeach his courage, but I think if circ.u.mstances be considered, and an adequate idea of the confused state of the s.h.i.+p can be formed by this Court, it will not appear probable that this young gentleman should have been so perfectly unembarra.s.sed as to have been able to particularize the muscles of a man's countenance, even at a considerable distance from him; and what is still more extraordinary is, that he heard the captain call to me from abaft the mizen to the platform where I was standing, which required an exertion of voice, and must have been heard and noticed by all who were present, as the captain and Christian were at that awful moment the objects of every one's peculiar attention; yet he who was standing between us, and noticing the transactions of us both, could not hear what was said.

'To me it has ever occurred that diffidence is very becoming, and of all human attainments a knowledge of ourselves is the most difficult; and if, in the ordinary course of life, it is not an easy matter precisely to account for our own actions, how much more difficult and hazardous must it be, in new and momentous scenes, when the mind is hurried and distressed by conflicting pa.s.sions, to judge of another's conduct; and yet here are two young men, who, after a lapse of near four years (in which period one of them, like myself, has grown from a boy to be a man), without hesitation, in a matter on which my life is depending, undertake to account for some of my actions, at a time, too, when some of the most experienced officers in the s.h.i.+p are not ashamed to acknowledge they were overcome by the confusion which the mutiny occasioned, and are incapable of recollecting a number of their own transactions on that day.

'I can only oppose to such open boldness the calm suggestions of reason, and would willingly be persuaded that the impression under which this evidence has been given is not in any degree open to suspicion. I would be understood, at the same time, not to mean anything injurious to the character of Mr. Hallet, and for Mr. Hayward, I ever loved him, and must do him the justice to declare, that whatever cause I may have to deplore the effect of his evidence, or rather his opinion, for he has deposed no fact against me, yet I am convinced it was given conscientiously, and with a tenderness and feeling becoming a man of honour.

'But may they not both be mistaken? Let it be remembered that their long intimacy with Captain Bligh, in whose distresses they were partakers, and whose sufferings were severely felt by them, naturally begot an abhorrence towards those whom they thought the authors of their misery,--might they not forget that the story had been told to them, and by first of all believing, then constantly thinking of it, be persuaded at last it was a fact within the compa.s.s of their own knowledge.

'It is the more natural to believe it is so, from Mr. Hallet's forgetting what the captain said upon the occasion, which, had he been so collected as he pretends to have been, he certainly must have heard. Mr. Hayward, also, it is evident, has made a mistake in point of time as to the seeing me with Morrison and Millward upon the booms; for the boatswain and carpenter in their evidence have said, and the concurring testimony of every one supports the fact, that the mutiny had taken place, and the captain was on deck, before they came up, and it was not till after that time that the boatswain called Morrison and Millward out of their hammocks; therefore to have seen me at all upon the booms with those two men, it must have been long after the time that Mr. Hayward has said it was. Again, Mr. Hayward has said that he could not recollect the day nor even the month when the _Pandora_ arrived at Otaheite. Neither did Captain Edwards recollect when, on his return, he wrote to the Admiralty, that Michael Byrne had surrendered himself as one of the _Bounty's_ people, but in that letter he reported him as having been apprehended, which plainly shows that the memory is fallible to a very great degree; and it is a fair conclusion to draw that, if when the mind is at rest, which must have been the case with Mr. Hayward in the _Pandora_, and things of a few months' date are difficult to be remembered, it is next to impossible, in the state which every body was on board the _Bounty_, to remember their particular actions at the distance of three years and a half after they were observed.

'As to the advice he says he gave me, to go into the boat, I can only say, I have a faint recollection of a short conversation with somebody--I thought it was Mr. Stewart--but be that as it may, I think I may take upon me to say it was on deck and not below, for on hearing it suggested that I should be deemed guilty if I stayed in the s.h.i.+p, I went down directly, and in pa.s.sing Mr. Cole, told him, in a low tone of voice, that I would fetch a few necessaries in a bag and follow him into the boat, which at that time I meant to do, but was afterwards prevented.

'Surely I shall not be deemed criminal that I hesitated at getting into a boat whose gunnel, when she left the s.h.i.+p, was not quite eight inches above the surface of the water. And if, in the moment of unexpected trial, fear and confusion a.s.sailed my untaught judgement, and that by remaining in the s.h.i.+p I appeared to deny my commander, it was in appearance only--it was the sin of my head--for I solemnly a.s.sure you before G.o.d, that it was not the vileness of my heart.

'I was surprised into my error by a mixture of ignorance, apprehension, and the prevalence of example; and, alarmed as I was from my sleep, there was little opportunity and less time for better recollection. The captain, I am persuaded, did not see me during the mutiny, for I retired, as it were, in sorrowful suspense, alternately agitated between hope and fear, not knowing what to do. The dread of being asked by him, or of being ordered by Christian to go into the boat,--or, which appeared to me worse than either, of being desired by the latter to join his party, induced me to keep out of the sight of both, until I was a second time confined in my berth by Thompson, when the determination I had made was too late to be useful.

'One instance of my conduct I had nearly forgot, which, with much anxiety and great astonishment, I have heard observed upon and considered as a fault, though I had imagined it blameless, if not laudable--I mean the a.s.sistance I gave in hoisting out the launch, which, by a mode of expression of the boatswain's, who says I did it voluntarily (meaning that I did not refuse my a.s.sistance when he asked me to give it), the Court, I am afraid, has considered it as giving a.s.sistance to the mutineers, and not done with a view to help the captain; of which, however, I have no doubt of being able to give a satisfactory explanation in evidence.

'Observations on matters of opinion I will endeavour to forbear where they appear to have been formed from the impulse of the moment; but I shall be pardoned for remembering Mr.

Hayward's (given I will allow with great deliberation, and after long weighing the question which called for it), which cannot be reckoned of that description, for although he says he rather considered me as a friend to Christian's party, he states that his last words to me were, "Peter, go into the boat," which words could not have been addressed to one who was of the party of the mutineers. And I am sure, if the countenance is at all an index to the heart, mine must have betrayed the sorrow and distress he has so accurately described.

'It were trespa.s.sing unnecessarily upon the patience of the Court, to be giving a tedious history of what happened in consequence of the mutiny, and how, through one very imprudent step, I was unavoidably led into others.

'But, amidst all this pilgrimage of distress, I had a conscience, thank heaven, which lulled away the pain of personal difficulties, dangers, and distress. It was this conscious principle which determined me not to hide myself as if guilty. No--I welcomed the arrival of the _Pandora_ at Otaheite, and embraced the earliest opportunity of freely surrendering myself to the captain of that s.h.i.+p.

'By his order I was chained and punished with incredible severity, though the s.h.i.+p was threatened with instant destruction: when fear and trembling came on every man on board, in vain, for a long time, were my earnest repeated cries, that the galling irons might not, in that moment of affrighting consternation, prevent my hands from being lifted up to heaven for mercy.

'But though it cannot fail deeply to interest the humanity of this Court, and kindle in the breast of every member of it compa.s.sion for my sufferings, yet as it is not relative to the point, and as I cannot for a moment believe that it proceeded from any improper motive on the part of Captain Edwards, whose character in the navy stands high in estimation both as an officer and a man of humanity, but rather that he was actuated in his conduct towards me by the imperious dictates of the laws of the service, I shall, therefore, waive it, and say no more upon the subject.

'Believe me, again I entreat you will believe me, when, in the name of the tremendous judge of heaven and earth (before whose vindictive Majesty I may be destined soon to appear), I now a.s.sert my innocence of plotting, abetting, or a.s.sisting, either by word or deed, the mutiny for which I am tried--for, young as I am, I am still younger in the school of art and such matured infamy.

'My parents (but I have only one left, a solitary and mournful mother, who is at home weeping and trembling for the event of this day), thanks to their fostering care, taught me betimes to reverence G.o.d, to honour the king, and be obedient to his laws; and at no one time have I resolutely or designedly been an apostate to either.

'To this honourable Court, then, I now commit myself.

'My character and my life are at your disposal; and as the former is as sacred to me as the latter is precious, the consolation or settled misery of a dear mother and two sisters, who mingle their tears together, and are all but frantic for my situation--pause for your verdict.

'If I am found worthy of life, it shall be improved by past experience, and especially taught from the serious lesson of what has lately happened; but if nothing but death itself can atone for my pitiable indiscretion, I bow with submission and all due respect to your impartial decision.

'Not with sullen indifference shall I then meditate on my doom as not deserving it--no, such behaviour would be an insult to G.o.d and an affront to man, and the attentive and candid deportment of my judges in this place requires more becoming manners in me.

'Yet, if I am found guilty this day, they will not construe it, I trust, as the least disrespect offered to their discernment and opinion, if I solemnly declare that my heart will rely with confidence in its own innocence, until that awful period when my spirit shall be about to be separated from my body to take its everlasting flight, and be ushered into the presence of that unerring Judge, before whom all hearts are open and from whom no secrets are hid.

'P. HEYWOOD.'

His witnesses fully established the facts which he a.s.sumed in this defence. He then delivered to the president a paper, of which the following is a copy:--

'My Lord,--the Court having heard the witnesses I have been enabled to call, it will be unnecessary to add anything to their testimony in point of fact, or to observe upon it by way of ill.u.s.tration. It is, I trust, sufficient to do away any suspicion which may have fallen upon me, and to remove every implication of guilt which, while unexplained, might by possibility have attached to me. It is true I have, by the absence of Captain Bligh, Simpson, and Tinkler, been deprived of the opportunity of laying before the Court much that would at least have been grateful to my feelings, though I hope not necessary to my defence; as the former must have exculpated me from the least disrespect, and the two last would have proved past all contradiction that I was unjustly accused. I might regret that in their absence I have been arraigned, but, thank heaven, I have been enabled, by the very witnesses who were called to criminate me, to oppose facts to opinions, and give explanation to circ.u.mstances of suspicion.

'It has been proved that I was asleep at the time of the mutiny, and waked only to confusion and dismay. It has been proved, it is true, that I continued on board the s.h.i.+p, but it has been also proved I was detained by force; and to this I must add, I left the society of those with whom I was for a time obliged to a.s.sociate, as soon as possible, and with unbounded satisfaction resigned myself to the Captain of the _Pandora_, to whom I gave myself up, to whom I also delivered my journal[25] (faithfully brought up to the preceding day), and to whom I also gave every information in my power. I could do no more; for at the first time we were at Otaheite it was impossible for me, watched and suspected as I was, to separate from the s.h.i.+p. My information to Captain Edwards was open, sincere, and unqualified, and I had many opportunities given me at different times of repeating it. Had a track been open to my native country, I should have followed it; had a vessel arrived earlier, I should earlier with the same eagerness have embraced the opportunity, for I dreaded not an inquiry in which I foresaw no discredit. But Providence ordained it otherwise. I have been the victim of suspicion, and had nearly fallen a sacrifice to misapprehension. I have, however, hitherto surmounted it, and it only remains with this Court to say, if my sufferings have not been equal to my indiscretion.

'The decision will be the voice of honour, and to that I must implicitly resign myself.

'P. HEYWOOD.'

_Mr. Morrison's Defence_

Sets out by stating that he was waked at daylight by Mr. Cole the boatswain, who told him that the s.h.i.+p was taken by Christian; that he a.s.sisted in clearing out the boat at Mr. Cole's desire, and says, 'While I was thus employed Mr. Fryer came to me and asked if I had any hand in the mutiny; I told him No. He then desired me to see who I could find to a.s.sist me, and try to rescue the s.h.i.+p; I told him I feared it was then too late, but would do my endeavour; when John Millward, who stood by me, and heard what Mr. Fryer said, swore he would stand by me if an opportunity offered. Mr. Fryer was about to speak again, but was prevented by Matthew Quintal, who, with a pistol in one hand, collared him with the other, saying, "Come, Mr. Fryer, you must go down into your cabin"; and hauled him away. Churchill then came, and shaking his cutla.s.s at me, demanded what Mr. Fryer said. I told him that he only asked me if they were going to have the long-boat, upon which Alexander Smith (Adams), who stood on the opposite side of the boat, said, "It's a d--d lie, Charley, for I saw him and Millward shake hands when the master spoke to them." Churchill then said to me, "I would have you mind how you come on, for I have an eye upon you." Smith at the same time called out, "Stand to your arms, for they intend to make a rush." This, as it was intended, put the mutineers on their guard, and I found it necessary to be very cautious how I acted; and I heard Captain Bligh say to Smith, "I did not expect you would be against me, Smith"; but I could not hear what answer he made.'

He says that, while clearing the boat, he heard Christian order Churchill to see that no arms were put into her; to keep Norman, M'Intosh, and Coleman in the s.h.i.+p, and get the officers into the boat as fast as possible; that Mr. Fryer begged permission to stay, but to no purpose. On seeing Mr. Fryer and most of the officers going into the boat, without the least appearance of an effort to rescue the s.h.i.+p, I began to reflect on my own situation; and seeing the situation of the boat, and considering that she was at least a thousand leagues from any friendly settlement, and judging, from what I had seen of the Friendly Islanders but a few days before, that nothing could be expected from them but to be plundered or killed, and seeing no choice but of one evil, I chose, as I thought the least, to stay in the s.h.i.+p, especially as I considered it as obeying Captain Bligh's orders, and depending on his promise to do justice to those who remained. I informed Mr. Cole of my intention, who made me the like promise, taking me by the hand and saying, "G.o.d bless you, my boy; I will do you justice if ever I reach England."

'I also informed Mr. Hayward of my intention; and on his dropping a hint to me that he intended to knock Churchill down, I told him I would second him, pointing to some of the Friendly Island clubs which were sticking in the booms, and saying, "There were tools enough": but (he adds) 'I was suddenly damped to find that he went into the boat without making the attempt he had proposed.'

He then appeals to the members of the Court, as to the alternative they would themselves have taken:--'A boat alongside, already crowded; those who were in her crying out she would sink; and Captain Bligh desiring no more might go in--with a slender stock of provisions,--what hope could there be to reach any friendly sh.o.r.e, or withstand the hostile attacks of the boisterous elements? The perils those underwent who reached the island of Timor, and whom nothing but the apparent interference of Divine Providence could have saved, fully justify my fears, and prove beyond a doubt that they rested on a solid foundation; for by staying in the s.h.i.+p, an opportunity might offer of escaping, but by going in the boat nothing but death appeared, either from the lingering torments of hunger and thirst, or from the murderous weapons of cruel savages, or being swallowed up by the deep.

'I have endeavoured,' he says, 'to recall to Mr. Hayward's remembrance a proposal he at one time made, by words, of attacking the mutineers, and of my encouraging him to the attempt, promising to back him. He says he has but a faint recollection of the business--so faint indeed that he cannot recall to his memory the particulars, but owns there was something pa.s.sed to that effect. Faint, however, as his remembrance is (which for me is the more unfortunate), ought it not to do away all doubt with respect to the motives by which I was then influenced?' And, in conclusion, he says, 'I beg leave most humbly to remind the members of this honourable Court, that I did freely, and of my own accord, deliver myself up to Lieutenant Robert Corner, of H.M.S. _Pandora_, on the first certain notice of her arrival.'

_William Muspratt's Defence_

Declares his innocence of any partic.i.p.ation in the mutiny; admits he a.s.sisted in hoisting out the boat, and in putting several articles into her; after which he sat down on the booms, when Millward came and mentioned to him Mr. Fryer's intention to rescue the s.h.i.+p, when he said he would stand by Mr. Fryer as far as he could; and with that intention, and for that purpose only, he took up a musket which one of the people had laid down, and which he quitted the moment he saw Bligh's people get into the boat. Solemnly denies the charge of Mr. Purcell against him, of handing liquor to the s.h.i.+p's company. Mr. Hayward's evidence, he trusts, must stand so impeached before the Court, as not to receive the least attention, when the lives of so many men are to be affected by it--for, he observes, he swears that Morrison was a mutineer, because he a.s.sisted in hoisting out the boats; and that M'Intosh was not a mutineer, notwithstanding he was precisely employed on the same business--that he criminated Morrison from the appearance of his countenance--that he had only a faint remembrance of that material and striking circ.u.mstance of Morrison offering to join him to retake the s.h.i.+p--that, in answer to his (Muspratt's) question respecting Captain Bligh's words, 'My lads, I'll do you justice' he considered them applied to the people in the boat, and not to those in the s.h.i.+p--to the same question put by the Court, he said they applied to persons remaining in the s.h.i.+p. And he notices some other instances which he thinks most materially affect Mr. Hayward's credit; and says, that if he had been under arms when Hayward swore he was, he humbly submits Mr. Hallet must have seen him. And he concludes with a.s.serting (what indeed was a very general opinion), 'that the great misfortune attending this unhappy business is, that no one ever attempted to rescue the s.h.i.+p; that it might have been done, Thompson being the only sentinel over the arm-chest.'

_Michael Byrne's Defence_

was very short. He says, 'It has pleased the Almighty, among the events of His unsearchable providence, nearly to deprive me of sight, which often puts it out of my power to carry the intentions of my mind into execution.

'I make no doubt but it appears to this honourable Court, that on the 28th of April, 1789, my intention was to quit his Majesty's s.h.i.+p _Bounty_ with the officers and men who went away, and that the sorrow I expressed at being detained was real and unfeigned.

'I do not know whether I may be able to repeat the exact words that were spoken on the occasion, but some said, "We must not part with our fiddler"; and Charles Churchill threatened to send me to the shades if I attempted to quit the cutter, into which I had gone for the purpose of attending Lieutenant Bligh': and, without further trespa.s.sing on the time of the Court, he submits his case to its judgement and mercy.

It is not necessary to notice any parts of the defence made by Coleman, Norman, and M'Intosh, as it is clear, from the whole evidence and from Bligh's certificates, that those men were anxious to go in the boat, but were kept in the s.h.i.+p by force.

It is equally clear, that Ellison, Millward, and Burkitt, were concerned in every stage of the mutiny, and had little to offer in their defence in exculpation of the crime of which they were accused.

On the sixth day, namely, on the 18th of September, 1792, the Court met,--the prisoners were brought in, audience admitted, when the president, having asked the prisoners if they or any of them had anything more to offer in their defence, the Court was cleared, and agreed,--

'That the charges had been proved against the said Peter Heywood, James Morrison, Thomas Ellison, Thomas Burkitt, John Millward, and William Muspratt; and did adjudge them, and each of them, to suffer death, by being hanged by the neck, on board such of his Majesty's s.h.i.+p or s.h.i.+ps of war, and at such time or times, and at such place or places, as the commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral of Great Britain and Ireland, etc., or any three of them, for the time being, should, in writing, under their hands, direct; but the Court, in consideration of various circ.u.mstances, did humbly and most earnestly recommend the said Peter Heywood and James Morrison to his Majesty's mercy; and the Court further agreed, that the charges had not been proved against the said Charles Norman, Joseph Coleman, Thomas M'Intosh, and Michael Byrne, and did adjudge them, and each of them, to be acquitted.'