Section 11 of 28 - Table of Contents
On Sunday the 14th they came safely to anchor in Coupang Bay, where they
were received with every mark of kindness, hospitality, and humanity.
The houses of the principal people were thrown open for their reception.
The poor sufferers when landed were scarcely able to walk; their
condition is described as most deplorable. 'The abilities of a painter
could rarely, perhaps, have been displayed to more advantage than in the
delineation of the two groups of figures which at this time presented
themselves to each other. An indifferent spectator (if such could be
found) would have been at a loss which most to admire, the eyes of
famine sparkling at immediate relief, or the horror of their preservers
at the sight of so many spectres, whose ghastly countenances, if the
cause had been unknown, would rather have excited terror than pity. Our
bodies were nothing but skin and bones, our limbs were full of sores,
and we were clothed in rags, in this condition, with the tears of joy
and gratitude flowing down our cheeks, the people of Timor beheld us
with a mixture of horror, surprise, and pity.
'When,' continues the commander, 'I reflect how providentially our lives
were saved at Tofoa, by the Indians delaying their attack? and that,
with scarcely anything to support life, we crossed a sea of more than
twelve hundred leagues, without shelter from the inclemency of the
weather; when I reflect that in an open boat, with so much stormy
weather, we escaped foundering, that not any of us were taken off by
disease, that we had the great good fortune to pass the unfriendly
natives of other countries without accident, and at last to meet with
the most friendly and best of people to relieve our distresses--I say,
when I reflect on all these wonderful escapes, the remembrance of such
great mercies enables me to bear with resignation and cheerfulness the
failure of an expedition, the success of which I had so much at heart,
and which was frustrated at a time when I was congratulating myself on
the fairest prospect of being able to complete it in a manner that would
fully have answered the intention of his Majesty, and the humane
promoters of so benevolent a plan.'
Having recruited their strength by a residence of two months among the
friendly inhabitants of Coupang, they proceeded to the westward on the
20th August in a small schooner, which was purchased and armed for the
purpose, and arrived on the 1st October in Batavia Road, where Mr. Bligh
embarked in a Dutch packet, and was landed on the Isle of Wight on the
14th March, 1790. The rest of the people had passages provided for them
in ships of the Dutch East India Company, then about to sail for Europe.
All of them, however, did not survive to reach England. Nelson, the
botanist, died at Coupang; Mr. Elphinstone, master's-mate, Peter
Linkletter and Thomas Hall, seamen, died at Batavia; Robert Lamb, seaman
(the booby-eater), died on the passage; and Mr. Ledward, the surgeon,
was left behind, and not afterwards heard of. These six, with John
Norton, who was stoned to death, left twelve of the nineteen, forced by
the mutineers into the launch, to survive the difficulties and dangers
of this unparalleled voyage, and to revisit their native country. With
great truth might Bligh exclaim with the poet,
--'Tis mine to tell their tale of grief,
Their constant peril and their scant relief;
Their days of danger, and their nights of pain;
Their manly courage, even when deem'd in vain;
The sapping famine, rendering scarce a son
Known to his mother in the skeleton;
The ills that lessen'd still their little store,
And starved even Hunger till he wrung no more;
The varying frowns and favours of the deep,
That now almost engulphs, then leaves to creep
With crazy oar and shatter'd strength along
The tide, that yields reluctant to the strong;
Th' incessant fever of that arid thirst
Which welcomes, as a well, the clouds that burst
Above their naked bones, and feels delight
In the cold drenching of the stormy night,
And from the outspread canvas gladly wrings
A drop to moisten Life's all-gasping springs;
The savage foe escaped, to seek again
More hospitable shelter from the main;
The ghastly spectres which were doom'd at last
To tell as true a tale of dangers past,
As ever the dark annals of the deep
Disclosed for man to dread or woman weep.
It is impossible not fully to accord with Bligh when he says, 'Thus
happily ended, through the assistance of Divine Providence, without
accident, a voyage of the most extraordinary nature that ever happened
in the world,[11] let it be taken either in its extent, duration, or
the want of every necessary of life.' We may go further and say, it is
impossible to read this extraordinary and unparalleled voyage, without
bestowing the meed of unqualified praise on the able and judicious
conduct of its commander, who is in every respect, as far as this
extraordinary enterprise is concerned, fully entitled to rank with
Parry, Franklin, and Richardson. Few men, indeed, were ever placed for
so long a period in a more trying, distressing, and perilous situation
than he was; and it may safely be pronounced, that, to his discreet
management of the men and their scanty resources, and to his ability as
a thorough seaman, eighteen souls were saved from imminent and otherwise
inevitable destruction, it was not alone the dangers of the sea, in an
open boat, crowded with people, that he had to combat, though they
required the most consummate nautical skill, to be enabled to contend
successfully against them; but the unfortunate situation, to which the
party were exposed, rendered him subject to the almost daily murmuring
and caprice of people less conscious than himself of their real danger.
From the experience they had acquired at Tofoa of the savage disposition
of the people against the defenceless boat's crew, a lesson was learned
how little was to be trusted, even to the mildest of uncivilized people,
when a conscious superiority was in their hands. A striking proof of
this was experienced in the unprovoked attack made by those amiable
people, the Otaheitans, on Captain Wallis's ship, of whose power they
had formed no just conception; but having once experienced the full
force of it, on no future occasion was any attempt made to repeat the
attack. Lieutenant Bligh, fully aware of his own weakness, deemed it
expedient, therefore, to resist all desires and temptations to land at
any of those islands, among which they passed in the course of the
voyage, well knowing how little could be trusted to the forbearance of
savages, unarmed and wholly defenceless as his party were.
But the circumstance of being tantalized with the appearance of land,
clothed with perennial verdure, whose approach was forbidden to men
chilled with wet and cold, and nearly perishing with hunger, was by no
means the most difficult against which the commander had to struggle.
'It was not the least of my distresses,' he observes, 'to be constantly
assailed with the melancholy demands of my people for an increase of
allowance, which it grieved me to refuse.' He well knew that to reason
with men reduced to the last stage of famine, yet denied the use of
provisions within their reach, and with the power to seize upon them in
their own hands, would be to no purpose. Something more must be done to
ensure even the possibility of saving them from the effect of their own
imprudence. The first thing he set about, therefore, was to ascertain
the exact state of their provisions, which were found to amount to the
ordinary consumption of five days, but which were to be spun out so as
to last fifty days. This was at once distinctly stated to the men, and
an agreement entered into, and a solemn promise made by all, that the
settled allowance should never be deviated from, as they were made
clearly to understand that on the strict observance of this agreement
rested the only hope of their safety; and this was explained and made so
evident to every man, at the time it was concluded, that they
unanimously agreed to it; and by reminding them of this compact,
whenever they became clamorous for more, and showing a firm
determination not to swerve from it, Lieutenant Bligh succeeded in
resisting all their solicitations.
This rigid adherence to the compact, in doling out their miserable
pittance,--the constant exposure to wet,--the imminent peril of being
swallowed up by the ocean,--their cramped and confined position,--and
the unceasing reflection on their miserable and melancholy
situation;--all these difficulties and sufferings made it not less than
miraculous, that this voyage, itself a miracle, should have been
completed, not only without the loss of a man from sickness, but with so
little loss of health. 'With respect to the preservation of our health,'
says the commander, 'during the course of sixteen days of heavy and
almost continual rain, I would recommend to every one in a similar
situation, the method we practised of dipping their clothes in
salt-water, and to wring them out, as often as they become soaked with
rain; it was the only resource we had, and I believe was of the greatest
service to us, for it felt more like a change of dry clothes than could
well be imagined. We had occasion to do this so often, that at length
all our clothes were wrung to pieces.'
But the great art of all was to divert their attention from the almost
hopeless situation in which they were placed, and to prevent despondency
from taking possession of their minds; and in order to assist in
effecting this, some employment was devised for them; among other
things, a logline, an object of interest to all, was measured and
marked; and the men were practised in counting seconds correctly, that
the distance run on each day might be ascertained with a nearer
approach to accuracy than by mere guessing. These little operations
afforded them a temporary amusement; and the log being daily and hourly
hove gave them also some employment, and diverted their thoughts for the
moment from their melancholy situation. Then, every noon, when the sun
was out, or at other times before and after noon, and also at night when
the stars appeared, Lieutenant Bligh never neglected to take
observations for the latitude, and to work the day's work for
ascertaining the ship's place. The anxiety of the people to hear how
they had proceeded, what progress had been made, and whereabouts they
were on the wide ocean, also contributed for the time to drive away
gloomy thoughts that but too frequently would intrude themselves. These
observations were rigidly attended to, and sometimes made under the most
difficult circumstances, the sea breaking over the observer, and the
boat pitching and rolling so much, that he was obliged to be 'propped
up,' while taking them. In this way, with now and then a little
interrupted sleep, about a thousand long and anxious hours were consumed
in pain and peril, and a space of sea passed over equal to four thousand
five hundred miles, being at the rate of four and one-fifth miles an
hour, or one hundred miles a day.
Lieutenant Bligh has expressed his conviction, that the six days spent
among the coral islands, off the coast of New Holland, were the
salvation of the whole party, by the refreshing sleep they here
procured, by the exercise of walking about, and, above all, by the
nutriment derived from the oysters and clams, the beans and berries,
they procured while there; for that such, he says, was the exhausted
condition of all on their arrival at the 'barrier reef,' that a few days
more at sea must have terminated the existence of many of them. This
stoppage, however, had likewise been nearly productive of fatal
consequences to the whole party. In fact, another mutiny was within an
ace of breaking out, which, if not checked at the moment, could only, in
their desperate situation, have ended in irretrievable and total
destruction. Bligh mentions, in his printed narrative, the mutinous
conduct of a person to whom he gave a cutlass to defend himself. This
affair, as stated in his original manuscript journal, wears a far more
serious aspect.
'The carpenter (Purcell) began to be insolent to a high degree, and at
last told me, with a mutinous aspect, he was as good a man as I was. I
did not just now see where this was to end; I therefore determined to
strike a final blow at it, and either to preserve my command or die in
the attempt; and taking hold of a cutlass, I ordered the rascal to take
hold of another and defend himself, when he called out that I was going
to kill him, and began to make concessions. I was now only assisted by
Mr. Nelson; and the master (Fryer) very deliberately called out to the
boatswain, to put me under an arrest, and was stirring up a greater
disturbance, when I declared, if he interfered, when I was in the
execution of my duty to preserve order and regularity, and that in
consequence any tumult arose, I would certainly put him to death the
first person. This had a proper effect on this man, and he now assured
me that, on the contrary, I might rely on him to support my orders and
directions for the future. This is the outline of a tumult that lasted
about a quarter of hour'; and he adds, 'I was told that the master and
carpenter, at the last place, were endeavouring to produce altercations,
and were the principal cause of their murmuring there.' This carpenter
he brought to a court-martial on their arrival in England, on various
charges, of which he was found guilty in part, and reprimanded. Purcell
is said to be at this time in a mad-house.
On another occasion, when a stew of oysters was distributed among the
people, Lieutenant Bligh observes (in the MS. Journal), 'In the
distribution of it, the voraciousness of some and the moderation of
others were very discernible. The _master_ began to be dissatisfied the
first, because it was not made into a larger quantity by the addition of
water, and showed a turbulent disposition, until I laid my commands on
him to be silent.' Again, on his refusing bread to the men, because they
were collecting oysters, he says, 'this occasioned some murmuring with
the master and carpenter, the former of whom endeavoured to prove the
propriety of such an expenditure, and was troublesomely ignorant,
tending to create disorder among those, if any were weak enough to
listen to him.'
If what Bligh states with regard to the conduct of the master and the
carpenter be true, it was such, on several occasions, as to provoke a
man much less irritable than himself. He thus speaks of the latter, when
in the ship and in the midst of the mutiny. 'The boatswain and carpenter
were fully at liberty; the former was employed, on pain of death, to
hoist the boats out, but the latter I saw acting the part of an idler,
with an impudent and ill-looking countenance, which led me to believe he
was one of the mutineers, until he was among the rest ordered to leave
the ship, for it appeared to me to be a doubt with Christian, at first,
whether he should keep the carpenter or his mate (Norman), but knowing
the former to be a troublesome fellow, he determined on the latter.'
The following paragraph also appears in his original journal, on the day
of the mutiny, but is not alluded to in his printed narrative. 'The
master's cabin was opposite to mine; he saw them (the mutineers) in my
cabin, for our eyes met each other through his door-window. He had a
pair of ship's pistols loaded, and ammunition in his cabin--a firm
resolution might have made a good use of them. After he had sent twice
or thrice to Christian to be allowed to come on deck, he was at last
permitted, and his question then was, "Will you let me remain in the
ship?"--"No." "Have _you_ any objection, Captain Bligh?" I whispered to
him to knock him down--Martin is good (this is the man who gave the
shaddock), for this was just before Martin was removed from me.
Christian, however, pulled me back, and sent away the master, with
orders to go again to his cabin, and I saw no more of him, until he was
put into the boat. He afterwards told me that he could find nobody to
act with him; that by staying in the ship he hoped to have retaken her,
and that, as to the pistols, he was so flurried and surprised, that he
did not recollect he had them.' This master tells a very different story
respecting the pistols, in his evidence before the court-martial.
Whatever, therefore, on the whole, may have been the conduct of Bligh
towards his officers, that of some of the latter appears to have been on
several occasions provoking enough, and well calculated to stir up the
irascible temper of a man, active and zealous in the extreme, as Bligh
always was, in the execution of his duty. Some excuse may be found for
hasty expressions uttered in a moment of irritation, when passion gets
the better of reason; but no excuse can be found for one, who deeply and
unfeelingly, without provocation, and in cold blood, inflicts a wound on
the heart of a widowed mother, already torn with anguish and tortured
with suspense for a beloved son, whose life was in imminent jeopardy:
such a man was William Bligh. This charge is not loosely asserted; it is
founded on documentary evidence under his own hand. Since the death of
the late Captain Heywood, some papers have been brought to light, that
throw a still more unfavourable stigma on the character of the two
commanders, Bligh and Edwards, than any censure that has hitherto
appeared in print, though the conduct of neither of them has been
spared, whenever an occasion has presented itself for bringing their
names before the public.
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