WRECK OF THE PANDORA. 71 
with an axe, when an old chief, who knew Peter, 
interposed, and saved his life. The only simi- 
larity between these persons must have been in 
their both having been Europeans ; for Thomp- 
son, at the time of the mutiny, was forty years 
old, and of very dark complexion, with short 
black hair ; whilst Peter Heywood is described 
as but seventeen years of age, with a fair com- 
plexion, and light brown hair. 
Captain Edwards, after many inquiries, could 
hear nothing of the Bounty, nor of the nine 
remaining mutineers. But he had secured, and 
had with him on board the Pandora, fourteen 
prisoners, confined in a narrow space, which 
was called " Pandora's Box/' It was built on 
the after-part of the quarter-deck, and was only 
eleven feet in length. 
The voyage homeward was very disastrous, 
the ship being wrecked on her return on a coral 
reef, off the coast of New Holland, on the 29th 
of August, 1791. Before she went down, Hey- 
wood and some other prisoners were able to 
disengage their hands and feet from the irons 
with which they had been fastened- the key 
of their chains having been dropped through 
the scuttle into their prison, which was, at the 
time, fast filling with water. The master-at- 
arms, who, whether by design or accident, had 
dropped the key, was drowned, with thirty of 
the ship's company, and four of the unhappy 
prisoners. These four Stewart, Sumner, Skin- 
ner, and Hillbrant sunk in their irons. Eighty- 
nine of the Pandoras crew and ten prisoners 
were saved. 
