B L I 



514 



B L I 



lowered. Thoe pel-tons also who wore supposed to be well 

 affe. .1, or on whom they could nut reckon, were 



the ship. They were allowed to 



twine, canvass, lines, sails, cord.igc. a. twenty-eight gallon 

 cask of water, anil one of them got 1 JO Ibs. of bread with 

 a small quantity of rum and nine, and also a qi. 

 and ;i i>ut no map, ephcmeris, or sextant. It was 



- intention to turn them adrift in a crazy boat of 

 MTV small dimensions, but he was prevailed upon to let thorn 

 have the launch instead, which, though affording better ac- 

 commodation, was not at all adapted for navigating the open 

 sea, especially a* their own weight, together with their slender 

 stock of i- brought the gunwale almost to the 



water's edge. Lieutenant Bligh w as put into the boat last, 

 after he had fruitlessly endeavoured to restore the mut net TS 

 t.i a sense of their duty. He states in his journal that, 

 ' After having undergone a great deal of ridicule, and been 

 kept for some time to make sport for these unfeeling 

 \vretehes, we were cast adrift in the open sea.' The most 

 able of the ship's company, to the number of twenty-five, 

 were in possession of the Bounty ; the remainder, nineteen, 

 including Bligh, were left to struggle with cold and hunger 

 in an open bout deeply laden and some thousands of miles 

 horn any hospitable shore. They were near the island of 

 Tofoa at the time of leaving the ship, in 19 S. lat., 184 E. 

 long. ; and they landed, in order, if possible, to increase 

 their stock of provisions, but a sudden attack by the natives 

 compelled them to embark without obtaining more than a 

 trilling quantity of bread-fruit, plantains and cocoa-nuts. 

 Their whole stock of provisions for nineteen persons con 

 of 150 Ibs. of bread, 32 Ibs. of pork, six quarts of rum, six 

 bottles of wine, and 29 gallons of water. They caught 

 on their voyage a few sea-birds, and spent a few days 

 among the coral islands off the coast of New Holland, 

 which enabled them to get a comparatively comfortable 

 meal or two of oysters, clauis, and dog-fish, and relieved 

 them from the fatigue of being constantly in the same posi- 

 tion in the boat, and enabled them to enjoy good rest at 

 night. Their hungry condition and the selfishness which 

 ry engendered may be understood, when one of the 

 crew confessed afterwards that during one of their excur- 

 sions he hud separated from his companions, and having 

 caught nine boobies, he devoured the whole of them him- 

 self in a raw state. On the 1-lth of June they arrived at 

 Timor. They had reached this island in forty-one days 

 sifter leaving Tofoa, having in that time run by tin 

 distance of 3618 nautical miles with scarcely anything to 

 support life, without shelter from the weather, and without 

 the loss of a single man. To the prudence, firmness, and 

 scamanlike qualities of Bligh their safety may be chiefly 

 ascribed. After remaining a couple of months at ConpaiiL', 

 the capital of Timor, they obtained a schooner, in which 

 they reached Batavia Road on the 1st of October. Lieu- 

 tenant Bligh proceeded as soon as possible to England, 

 where he landed March 14th, 1 790. Twelve only of the 

 companions of his perilous voyage to Timor succeeded in 

 getting to their native country; five died; and one, wJio 

 was left behind, was never heard of afterwards. 



The relation of the treatment which Lieutenant Bligh had 

 experienced, and of the hardships which he had encountered, 

 highly excited the public sympathy. He was again sent out 

 to the South Seas, and was completely successful in con- 

 veying to the West Indies a supply of the bread-fruit plant. 

 He was also promoted to the rank of commander, and 

 the Pandora frigate, Captain Edwards, was sent out to Ola- 

 heite, for the purpose of apprehending the mutineers. The 

 Pandora reached this island March 23rd, 1791, where 

 fourteen of the mutineers were found, who were appre- 

 hended and kept on board in irons. As to the Bounty, it 

 appeared that she had in the first instance been ta! 

 the island of Toobouai, where the mutineers determined 

 upon forming a settlement ; but quarrels among them- 

 selves and disputes with the natives determined them upon 

 leaving the island, and proceeding to Olaheite, which they 

 reached on the 6th of June. Here they did not remain 

 long, but having taken on board 312 hogs, 38 goats, 96 

 fowl*, a pig, and a cow, a large quantity of bananas, and 

 '1 an addition of eight men, nine women, and seven 

 boys, they sailed on the 1'Jth of June, and arrived for the 

 second time at Toobouai, June 2Cth. Here they recom- 

 menced their labours to effect a settlement ; but the quarrels 

 among themselves soon became more inveterate than ! 

 and many of the natives who had attempted to resist their 



wanton aggressions were shot. AH spirit of co-operation 

 was entirely g >nc, and it was at last determined once more 

 to return to ' where those who were di*|> ><cd might 



rest be at liberty to proceed elsewhere with 

 the Bounty. They accordingly left Toobouai for the last 

 time on the 15th of September, and arrived at Otahcitc on 

 the 20th of September (1789). Here sixteen !' the 



cd upon leaving the ship, and the remainder of the 

 mutineers, nine in number, sailed on the night of September 

 21st, in search of another asylum. There wire a] 

 Otahcit.in men and twelve women. Out ot ; 

 who were left at Otaheite, one had been shot l>y UMM 

 the party, and the natives had stoned the murderer to death. 

 The Pandora therefore only took home for trial fourteen 

 individuals. On the 8th of May, 1791, the Pandora left 

 Otaheite, and, after an ineffectual search of several months. 

 with a view to discover the place of Christian's retreat an"! 

 the fate of the Bounty, she was wrecked on the 2'Jth August 

 on the coral rocks near New Holland, when four of the mu- 

 tineers and thirty-one of the ship's company lost their lues. 

 The survivors, consisting of eighty-one of the crew and 

 i 'Hirers of the Pandora, and ten of the mutineers of the 

 Bounty, proceeded in four open boats to Timor, which they 

 reached in sixteen days. Captain Edwards, ol the Pan- 

 dora, finally reached Spithcad with his prisoners on the 19th 

 of June, 1792. 



On the 12th of September following a court-martial was 

 assembled at Portsmouth, under the president' 

 I! i.il, i.irthe trial of the ten surviving mutineers, and on the 

 18th they delivered their verdict. Four ol them were ac- 

 quitted, and six were found guilty and sentenced to death, 

 of whom two were recommended to mercy. On the -Jlth 

 of October the king's warrant was received at" Portsmouth, 

 ordering the execution of three out of the four men who 

 were condemned without recommendation, and granting a 

 respite to the fourth ; the other two received a full pardon, 

 one of whom, a young midshipman named llcywond. after- 

 wards honourably distinguished himself in the service. The 

 man who was respited subsequently received his majesty's 

 pardon. 



It was much disputed at the time whether the mutiny 

 of the Bounty was occasioned by the harsh conduct of 

 Bligh, or whether the mutineers were seduced from their 

 duty by the prospects of a life of ease and pleasure in 

 the delightful islands of the South Seas. During their 

 stay at Otaheite they had been exposed to temptations 

 which must have had some influence on their future 

 duct. Experience too had taught them, that solitary de- 

 sertions would subject thorn to certain punishment, as the 

 chiefs had been compelled to give up all runaways. The 

 only mode of effecting their purpose (if their object was 

 to settle in some of the islands) evidently was to make 

 themselves masters of the ship. On the other hand, it 

 is certain that Bligh's conduct was ol'ien coarse and arbi- 

 trary, and that both officers and men fell indignant at his 

 treatment of them. His character also appears in an ex- 

 tremely unamiablc light, in a letter which he wrote to the 

 alllicted mother of Hoy wood. Bligh's reply to her in- 

 - consisted of some six or eight lines only, in which 

 he adds to a mother's distraction by representing her 

 son's ' baseness as beyond all description.' To the youth's 

 uncle lie expressed himself in a letter as follows : ' 1 very 

 much regret that so much baseness formed the character of 

 a young man I had a real regard for, and it will -give mo 

 much pleasure to hear that his friends can bear the loss of 

 him without much concern.' This was before the court- 

 martial was held. Hey wood was not in the secret of the 

 mutineers, and his error consisted in not endeavouring m 

 leave the ship along with his commanding officer. 'I 

 is the best reason for believing that the mutiny was not the 

 result of a maturely, formed conspiracy, but that 'the plot 

 was conceived and carried into execution between the hours 

 of four and eight A.M. of the 29th of April.' (Miimhulft 

 \nr<il A'/":,- '"7/iy, art. Heywood.) The two or three pre- 

 ceding days Bligh, in the united capacities of commander and 

 purser, had acted in a manner more than usually arbitrary. 

 In 18()f> Bligh was appointed governor of New South 

 Wales, where his acts appear to have been extremely 

 tyrannical, anil his use of the powers vested in lr.ni most 

 impolitic and even illegal. (See Wentworth's iflatinlii-nl, 

 //n/nririi/, anil Political Description oj AV> X-mt/i Hull's, 

 duct became at length so unbearable, that 

 on the 26th January, 1808, he was arrested by order of the 



