Solomon Islands

Pitcairn ⚫

Navigator 12

Society Islands
Tubuai.

1-40 East

Torres Str

Friendly Islands
Tajec

Tonga I.

Pandora

AUSTRALLY

near the boat. One was caught, divided into eighteen parts, and eaten raw, entrails and all. It never rains but it pours. In the evening a flock of "boobies"-a bird as large as a duck -appeared. One got his legs within seizing distance and was caught. He was quickly divided, the blood being given as a cordial to those who seemed the most exhausted.

Better than the birds themselves was the assurance which their presence gave that land was not far off; for these birds never fly far from shore. On the 28th was heard the sound of the breakers dashing upon the long barrier reef of what we now call Australia. They shot through an opening in the reef, and found themselves in water as smooth as that of an inland harbor. They landed on a little island apparently uninhabited, the rocky shores of which were covered with oysters. By the aid of a magnifying-glass a fire was made, and the men had a hearty meal. They staid here two days, faring sumptuously on oysters stewed with palm-tops and bits of bread and pork, and moreover filled their water-casks, when they were frightened off by the appearance of a band of armed natives. They landed on one or two other islands, upon one of which the men who had before been so obedient almost broke out into mutiny, which Bligh, however, quelled. At night a party of three was sent out to hunt for boobies. They returned, minus one of their number, with a dozen birds; but said that Lamb, the missing man, had gone ahead, and scared the birds from their roosting-places. Lamb made his appearance in the morning looking quite comfortable, but saying little. But he afterward owned that during the night he had caught and eaten nine birds -which, if true, is one of the greatest gastronomic feats on record.

On the 30th of June they left the coast of Australia, heading for Timor. On the 5th a booby was caught; next day the allowance of bread for supper was recommenced. On the 7th, the sea running high, and breaking over the whole boat, some of the men seemed fast giving way. A spoonful or two of wine-the last left, was given to these, and to the rest an ounce of dried clams, exhausting the store which they had made on the Australian key. This revived them somewhat. On the 8th a dolphin was caught. On the 10th matters seemed to And so on for another week, when Bligh be at the worst. "There was," says Bligh, took account of the provisions remaining. The "a visible alteration in many of the people, bread had been weighed out, the weight of a which gave me great apprehensions. An expistol-ball-twenty-five to the pound-being treme weakness, swelled legs, hollow and served out for breakfast, dinner, and supper. ghastly countenances, a more than common At this rate it would last twenty-nine days. inclination to sleep, with an apparent debility But as it was doubtful whether they would of understanding, seemed to me the melanreach Timor in that time, it was determined choly presage of an approaching dissolution." to make the supply last six weeks. This But the next day all was changed. Bligh, was done by omitting the allowance for sup- having succeeded in taking an observation, anper. The scanty meals were, however, now nounced that they had passed the meridian of and then increased from outside sources. On the eastern part of Timor. On the following the morning of the 25th, a flock of "noddies" morning the island was seen only two leagues -a bird about as large as a pigeon-came away.

IIL-THE PRISONERS OF THE PANDORA.

They coasted along until, on Sunday, the 14th of June, they entered the Dutch harbor of Cou- The British government decided to send a pang. "Our bodies," says Bligh, "were no- vessel to the South Seas to search out and bring thing but skin and bones; our limbs were full back the remainder of the mutineers of the of sores; we were clothed in rags. It appeared Bounty. The vessel selected was the Pandora, hardly credible to ourselves that in an open 24 guns and 160 men, Captain Edwards comboat, and so poorly provided, we should have mander. As lieutenants went Thomas Haybeen able to reach the coast of Timor in forty- ward and John Hallet, the two midshipmen of one days after leaving Tofoa, having in, that the Bounty whose falling asleep on their watch time run, by our log, a distance of 3618 miles; had given opportunity for Christian to seize the and that, notwithstanding our extreme dis- vessel. Many delays had taken place in fitting tress, no one should have perished on the voy-out the vessel; and it was not until the 23d of age.

Bligh and his companions were provided by the Dutch with passages for England. Five, however, died before reaching home; one was left behind at Batavia, and never afterward heard of; one had been killed at Tofoa; so that of the nineteen sent off from the Bounty, only twelve reached England.

Bligh himself landed at the Isle of Wight on the 14th of March, 1790, ten months and a half after the outbreak of the mutiny. His journal was soon published. In this he says nothing of the outrageous conduct on his part which had led to the mutiny. Of the cause of this, he says, "I can only conjecture that the mutineers had flattered themselves with the hopes of a more happy life among the Tahitans than they could possibly enjoy in England; and this, joined to some female connections, most probably occasioned the whole transaction." Of his conduct on the open-boat voyage there could be no question; and he was welcomed with extraordinary favor. In 1791 he was sent in command of another vessel, the Providence, to the South Seas, to collect breadfruit plants. He reached Tahiti in the spring of 1792. In three months he collected 1200 young plants, which he carried to the West Indies; and for the successful result of his expedition he received the gold medal of the Society of Arts. But the bread-fruit did not flourish in its new home, where it was found every way inferior to the plantain. So, as far as ultimate results were concerned, the enterprise proved a failure.

March, 1791, eighteen months after Christian and his companions had left the island, that the Pandora entered Maatavaye Bay in Tahiti.

The sixteen men who had refused to follow the fortunes of Christian had meanwhile separated into various parties, and resided in different parts of the island. The two midshipmen, George Stewart and Peter Heywood, became favorites of Tippaoo, a chief who owned most of the land near the bay, whose daughter was soon married to Stewart. Young Heywood allowed himself to be tattooed, to please his island friends, but formed none of the alliances so common between Europeans and native women. He busied himself in studying the language, of which he wrote a long vocabulary, which afterward became of great use to the missionaries.

Morrison and four others set at work to build a vessel, in which they hoped to leave the island and make their way to Batavia, whence they could find a passage to England. In November, 1789, the keel of the boat was laid; and in the July following she was launched. She was named the Resolution; she was schoonerrigged, measuring thirty feet in length, with a breadth of nine feet and a half, and a depth of five feet. Considering the means at the disposal of the builders, the Resolution was a marvel. All the tools which taey had consisted of a hand-saw and some small axes, with which they had to cut down the trees and hew them into planks. For pitch they used the gum of the bread-fruit tree, of which a man could gather only a quarter of a pound in a day. Bligh rose rapidly in the navy. In 1797 he They had also to deceive the chiefs, by pretendgained great credit for his conduct in suppress- ing that the purpose of the boat was that of a ing the famous mutiny at the Nore; command-pleasure-vessel, for voyaging around the island. ed a ship in the naval battles of Cape St. Vincent and Camperdown, and in 1801, at the bombardment of Copenhagen, upon which occasion he was publicly thanked by Nelson for the efficient support which he had given during the action. In 1805 he was appointed Governor of New South Wales, where, in 1808, his arbitrary conduct occasioned a mutiny. Colonel Johnstone, the military commander, deposed Bligh, and sent him back to England; for which the Colonel was tried by court-martial and cashiered. Bligh then retired from active service, but rose to the rank of Vice-Admiral of the Blue. In private life, as Lady Belcher admits, "he displayed amiability of character." He died at London in 1829.

VOL. XLII.-No. 251.-42

Unfortunately, they had no adequate material for sails, and were forced to conclude that without them there was no chance of reaching Batavia.

Those of the people who had taken no part in the mutiny had been anxiously awaiting some means of returning to England. When the Pandora appeared in the offing Coleman put off to her in a canoe, which was swamped, and he narrowly escaped drowning. Heywood and Stewart soon followed, announced who they were, and were immediately put in irons. The remainder were sought out in different parts of the island and brought on board. Two were missing. They had been killed in a quarrel.

The treatment of the prisoners was barbar

ous.

ters.

box;' we observed that they were armed, and preparing to go into the boats by the stern ladders. We begged that we might not be forgotten, when by the captain's orders the armorer's mate was sent down to take the irons off Muspratt and Skinner, and send them and Byrne (who was then out of irons) up; but Skinner was hauled up with his handcuffs on, and the other two following close, the scuttle was shut and barred before the mate could get to it, and he, in the mean time, knocked off my hand-irons and Stewart's. I begged the master-at-arms to leave the scuttle open. when he answered, 'Never fear, my boys, we will all his mouth when the ship took a sally, and a general go down together.' The words were scarcely out of cry of, 'There she goes!' was heard. The master-atarms, corporal, and sentinels rolled overboard, and I saw Captain Edwards swimming to the pinnace, which Birkett and Heildbrant was some distance astern. far as the main-mast. It was now beginning to flow were yet handcuffed, and the ship was under water as

They were put in irons and a sentinel placed over them, with orders to shoot any one who should speak in the Tahitan language. A "box" was soon constructed on the deck for their reception. It measured eleven feet by eighteen, and was entered by a scuttle from the top. Two sentries paced upon its top. All the prisoners were heavily ironed by the ankles and wrists. One man, whose limbs were slight, managed one night to slip a leg from the fetThese were ordered to be made tighter. "The lieutenant," writes Morrison, "in trying the handcuffs, placed his foot against our breasts, and hauling them over our hands with all his strength, in several cases took off the skin with them. All the irons that could be hauled off in this manner were reduced, and fit-in upon us, when Providence directed the boatswain's ted so close that there was no possibility of turning the hand in them. When our wrists began to swell he told us that the handcuffs were not intended to fit like gloves."

Their native friends swarmed around the Pandora; but few were permitted to speak with the prisoners. An exception was made in the case of "Peggy," the girl whom Stewart had married. She came on board with her infant in her arms. She clung to her husband, who was lying heavily ironed, until it was necessary to remove her by force. He begged that she might not be allowed to see him again. But day after day, until far into the night, she remained on the beach, where she could at least see his prison. In vain did her father urge her to take rest. She kept ever at her post, and in a few weeks after the departure of the Pandora she died of a broken heart.

mate to the place. He was scrambling up on the box, when, hearing our cries, he said he would either set us free or go to the bottom with us, and took out the bolts, throwing them and the scuttle overboard, though he was forced to follow instantly, as he was nearly drowning."

Morrison swam to one of the gangways which was drifting by, upon which was one of his fellow-prisoners. The top of the "box" had floated, and upon it were Heywood and four others. These were all rescued by one of the boats, and landed on a little sandy quay two or three miles from the ship. Of the crew of the Pandora thirty-one were lost; of the prisoners four, among whom was Stewart, the husband of "Peggy," daughter of the Tahitan chief. Peter Heywood, in a letter to his sister, written while he was awaiting his trial, gives a brief account of what occurred on shore:

"I send you two little sketches of the manner in which the Pandora went down, and of the appearance we who survived made on the small sandy quay within the reef (about ninety yards long and sixty athwart), in all ninety-nine souls. There we remained three days, subsisting upon two ounces of bread and a single wineglass of wine and water a day, and 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 all the shelter we had was to bury ourselves up to the neck in the burning sand, which scorched the skin as if we had been dipped in boiling water."

The Pandora cruised about for weeks vainly searching for Christian and his companions. At length, in August, she sailed homeward, heading first for the island of Timor. The sufferings of the prisoners were intolerable. They had no means of steadying themselves, and when the ship lurched they were pitched together in a heap, wounding themselves and each other with their irons. Some pieces of plank were at length fastened to the deck to keep them apart. On the 28th of August, while passing through Endeavor Straits, at the northern extremity of Australia, the Pandora ran upon a reef. For what followed we quote from Mor-nal gives details of what followed. They tried rison's journal:

"The ship was forced farther on the reef with violent and repeated shocks, and we expected every surge that the masts would go by the board. As we were in danger at every shock of killing each other with our irons, we broke them that we might be ready to had done. In the mean time the ship lost her rudder, and with it a part of her stern-post, and having beat over the reef she was brought up in fifteen feet water with both anchors, and the first news was, nine feet of water in the hold!' Coleman, Norman, and M'Intosh were ordered out of the box to the pumps, and the boats were got out. As soon as Captain Edwards was informed that we had broken our irons, he ordered us to be handcuffed and leg-ironed again, with all

assist ourselves, and informed the officers of what we

the irons that could be mustered.

"At daylight, August 29th, the boats were hauled up, most of the officers being aft on the top of the

These pictures, drawn of course from memory, are given upon the next page. Morrison's jour

for water, but could find none. The lieutenant filled a kettle with salt water, set it a-boiling, and watched all night collecting the steam which was condensed from the spout. The result was a spoonful of fresh water. On the third day they embarked in four boats, and headed for the Dutch settlement on Timor, four or five hundred leagues distant. The conduct of Captain Edwards was as brutal as it had been on the Pandora, and the sufferings of all were not inferior to those of Bligh and his companions on the same voyage. On the 16th of September they reached Coupang, the same place where Bligh had landed more than two years before. Here the prisoners remained in irons for three weeks; then sailed for Batavia, which they

reached after a tedious voyage of a month.
Thence they were shipped to the Cape of Good
Hope, where they arrived on the 15th of Janu-
ary, 1792.
Here they remained, still in irons,
till April, when they were sent on to England,
landing on the 19th of June, four years and
three months after they had sailed in the Bounty.
Fifteen months had been passed in irons since
they had come on board the Pandora.

ON THE SANDY ISLET.

In 1808 the whale-ship Topaz, of Boston, Captain Folger, chanced to be cruising near a rocky islet, upon the shore of which the surf was breaking so furiously that it seemed inaccessible. A canoe was seen putting off through the breakers, and the occupants hailed the ship, offering. in good English, their services if any one wished to land. One of the sailors volunteered to go ashore in the canoe. He soon came back with a strange report. The first man whom he met on the island said his name was Alexander Smith, and that he was the sole survivor of the crew of the Bounty; that including himself there were now thirty-five persons on the island. Captain Folger then went ashore, received some further information, and in return told the islanders something of what had happened in the world for the last score of years: how there had been a revolution in France; how there was a man named Bonaparte who had become emperor; how there had been great wars; and England had won glorious victories on the sea. Upon hearing this the islanders broke into a loud hurrah, exclaiming, "Old England forever!"

A court-martial, presided over by Admiral Hood, was convened on the 12th of September. The court lasted a week. Of the ten prisoners three were acquitted, it being clearly shown that they took no part in the mutiny, and were detained by Christian against their will. The others were found guilty, but the verdict in the case of Heywood and Morrison was accompanied by a recommendation that they should receive an unconditional pardon. So fully, indeed, must the court have been convinced of their innocence that as soon as the pardon was granted Morrison was promoted to the rank of gunner in the navy; and Admiral Hood offered to take Heywood on board his own vessel. Heywood, now only nineteen years of age, rose with almost unexampled rapidity from the rank of Captain Folger returned to his ship, made a midshipman to those of commander, post-cap-note in his log-book, and upon reaching Valtain, and flag-captain; being finally placed in paraiso furnished an account of what he had command of a 74-gun ship. At the close of seen, which was duly forwarded to England. the war in 1814 he retired from the navy, mar-But just then the British government had matried a widow, whose daughter by a former hus-ters of more importance on hand than to attend band is the Lady Belcher who wrote the book to the case of a few people on a lonely island under notice; and being in possession of an am- upon the other side of the globe. So the curple fortune, devoted himself to literary, scien-tain which had been lifted for a moment fell tific, and philanthropic enterprises. In 1818 again for another six years, when it was again he was offered the command on the lakes of raised by accident. Canada, which he declined. In 1829 he was urged to accept the post of head of the Hydrographical Department of the Admiralty. This he declined on account of failing health. He died in 1831.

IV.-PITCAIRN'S ISLAND.

We left Fletcher Christian and his companions in the Bounty on the 23d of September, 1789, sailing northward. For nineteen years no human eye beheld the wanderers; and only one of the refugees ever thereafter saw a human being except his companions.

In 1814 the frigates Briton, Captain Staines, and Tagus, Captain Pipon, were cruising in the Pacific in search of the American sloop-of-war Essex, which had captured several British whalers. As evening fell they suddenly came in sight of a small but lofty island, two hundred miles from where, according to their charts, any island ought to have been. They looked at their charts; no island was there. They looked to sea, and there the island certainly was, rising sheer up a thousand feet from the water's edge. Morning broke, and there still stood the island, and groups of people were standing on the rocks.