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Mutiny on the Bounty
_Lieutenant Corner_, of the _Pandora_, merely states his being sent to
bring the rest of the mutineers on board, who were at some distance
from Matavai Bay.
The prisoners being called on for their defence, the witnesses were
again separately called and examined on the part of the prisoners.
_Mr. Fryer_, the master, called in and examined by Mr. Heywood.--'If
you had been permitted, would you have stayed in the ship in
preference to going into the boat?' _Witness_--'Yes.' _Prisoner_--'Had
you stayed in the ship in expectation of retaking her, was my conduct
such, from the first moment you knew me to this, as would have induced
you to intrust me with your design; and do you believe I would have
favoured it, and given you all the assistance in my power?'
_Witness_--'I believe he would: I should not have hesitated a moment
in asking of him when I had had an opportunity of opening my mind to
him.'
The same question being put to _Mr. Cole_, the boatswain, _Mr.
Peckover_, the gunner, and _Mr. Purcell_, the carpenter, they all
answered in the affirmative.
Mr. Heywood asked, 'What was my general conduct, temper, and
disposition on board the ship?' _Witness_--'Beloved by everybody, to
the best of my recollection.' To the same question, _Mr. Cole_
answers, 'Always a very good character.' _Mr. Peckover_--'The most
amiable, and deserving of every one's esteem.' _Mr. Purcell_--'In
every respect becoming the character of a gentleman, and such as
merited the esteem of everybody.'
_Mr. Cole_ being examined, gave his testimony,--that he never saw Mr.
Heywood armed; that he did not consider him of the mutineers' party;
that he saw nothing of levity or apparent merriment in his conduct;
that when he was below with Stewart, he heard Churchill call out,
'Keep them below,' and that he believes Heywood was one of the persons
meant--has no doubt of it at all; that Bligh could not have spoken to
him, when on the booms, loud enough to be heard; that Hayward was
alarmed, and Hallet alarmed; that he by no means considers Heywood or
Morrison as mutineers.
_Mr. Purcell_ being examined, states,--that, respecting the cutlass on
which he saw Mr. Heywood's hand resting, he does not consider him as
being an armed man; that he never thought him as of the mutineers'
party; that he never heard Captain Bligh speak to him; that he thinks,
from his situation, he could not have heard him; that he was by no
means guilty of levity or apparent merriment; that he heard the
master-at-arms call out to keep them below; that Mr. Hallet appeared
to him to be very much confused; and that Mr. Hayward likewise
appeared to be very much confused.
_The Court_ asked,--'As you say you did not look upon the prisoner as
a person armed, to what did you allude when you exclaimed, "Good God,
Peter, what do you do with that?"' _Witness_--'I look upon it as an
accidental thing.'
_Captain Edwards_, being asked by Heywood--'Did I surrender myself to
you upon the arrival of the _Pandora_ at Otaheite?' _Witness_--'Not to
me, to the Lieutenant. I apprehend he put himself in my power. I
always understood he came voluntarily; our boats were not in the
water.' _Prisoner_--'Did I give you such information respecting myself
and the _Bounty_ as afterwards proved true?' _Witness_--'He gave me
some information respecting the people on the island, that
corroborated with Coleman's. I do not recollect the particular
conversation, but in general it agreed with the account given by
Coleman.' _Prisoner_--'When I told you that I went away the first time
from Otaheite with the pirates, did I not at the same time inform you
that it was not possible for me to separate myself from Christian, who
would not permit any man of the party to leave him at that time, lest,
by giving intelligence, they might have been discovered whenever a
ship should arrive?' _Witness_--'Yes, but I do not recollect the
latter part of it, respecting giving intelligence.'
_Mr. Fryer_ again called in and examined by Mr. Morrison.--Mr. Fryer
states, he saw him assist in hoisting out the boats; that he said to
him (Fryer), 'Go down below.' _The Court_ asked, 'Whether it might not
have been from a laudable motive, as supposing your assistance at that
time might have prevented a more advantageous effort?'
_Witness_--'Probably it might: had I stayed in the ship, he would have
been one of the first that I should have opened my mind to, from his
good behaviour in the former part of the voyage': states his belief,
that he addressed him as advice; and that, in hoisting out the boat,
he was assisting Captain Bligh.
_Mr. Cole_, the boatswain, states, that he ordered Morrison to go and
help them with the cutter; that he told him the boat was overloaded;
that Captain Bligh had begged that no more people should go in her,
and said he would take his chance in the ship; that he shook Morrison
by the hand, and said he would do him justice in England; that he had
no reason to suppose him concerned in the mutiny.
_Lieutenant Thomas Hayward_ states, that Morrison appeared joyful, and
supposed him to be one of the mutineers; on being asked by Morrison if
he could declare before God and the Court that what he stated was not
the result of a private pique? _Witness_--'Not the result of any
private pique, but an opinion formed after quitting the ship, from his
not coming with us, there being more boats than one; cannot say they
might have had the cutter.' This witness was pleased to remember
nothing that was in favour of the prisoner.
_Lieutenant Hallet_ states, he saw Morrison under arms; being asked in
what part of the ship, he says, 'I did not see him under arms till the
boat was veered astern, and he was then looking over the taffrail, and
called out, in a jeering manner, "If my friends inquire after me, tell
them I am somewhere in the South Seas."'
_Captain Edwards_ bore testimony that Morrison voluntarily surrendered
himself.
_Mr. Fryer_ did not see Morrison armed; he was in his watch, and he
considered him a steady, sober, attentive, good man; and acknowledged,
that if he had remained in the ship, with the view of retaking her,
Morrison would have been one of the first he should have called to his
assistance.
_Mr. Cole_ gave testimony to his being a man of good character,
attentive to his duty, and he never knew any harm of him.
_Mr. Purcell_ bore witness to his good character, being always
diligent and attentive; did not see him under arms on the taffrail;
never heard him use any jeering speeches. Respecting the prisoner
_Muspratt, Mr. Cole's_ evidence proves that he had a musket in his
hands, but not till the latter part of the business; it is also proved
that he assisted in getting things into the launch. _Mr. Peckover_ saw
him standing on the forecastle doing nothing--he was not armed.
_Lieutenant Hayward_ saw Muspratt among the armed men: was asked, when
Captain Bligh used the words, 'Don't let the boat be overloaded, my
lads'--'I'll do you justice'; do you understand the latter words, 'My
lads, I'll do you justice,' to apply to clothes or to men, whom he
apprehended might go into the boat? _Witness_--If Captain Bligh made
use of the words "my lads," it was to the people already in the boat,
and not to those in the ship.' _The Court_--'To whom do you imagine
Captain Bligh alluded: was it, in your opinion, to the men in the boat
with him, or to any persons then remaining in the ship?'
_Witness_--'To persons remaining in the ship.'
Against the prisoners Ellison, Burkitt, and Millward, the evidence
given by all the witnesses so clearly and distinctly proved they were
under arms the whole time, and actively employed against Bligh, that
it is unnecessary to go into any detail as far as they are concerned.
The Court having called on the prisoners, each separately, for his
defence, Mr. Heywood delivered his as follows:--
'My lords and gentlemen of this honourable Court,--Your attention has
already been sufficiently exercised in the painful narrative of this
trial; it is therefore my duty to trespass further on it as little as
possible.
'The crime of mutiny, for which I am now arraigned, is so seriously
pregnant with every danger and mischief, that it makes the person so
accused, in the eyes, not only of military men of every description,
but of every nation, appear at once the object of unpardonable guilt
and exemplary vengeance.
'In such a character it is my misfortune to appear before this
tribunal, and no doubt I must have been gazed at with all that horror
and indignation which the conspirators of such a mutiny as that in
Captain Bligh's ship so immediately provoke; hard, then, indeed is my
fate, that circumstances should so occur to point me out as one of
them.
'Appearances, probably, are against me, but they are appearances only;
for unless I may be deemed guilty for feeling a repugnance at
embracing death unnecessarily, I declare before this Court and the
tribunal of Almighty God, I am innocent of the charge.
'I chose rather to defer asking any questions of the witnesses until I
heard the whole of the evidence; as the charge itself, although I knew
it generally, was not in its full extent, nor in particular points,
made known to me before I heard it read by the Judge Advocate at the
beginning of the trial: and I feel myself relieved by having adopted
such a mode, as it enables me to set right a few particulars of a
narrative which I had the honour to transmit to the Earl of Chatham,
containing an account of all that passed on the fatal morning of the
28th of April, 1789, but which, from the confusion the ship was in
during the mutiny, I might have mistaken, or from the errors of an
imperfect recollection I might have mis-stated; the difference,
however, will now be open to correction; and I have great satisfaction
in observing, that the mistakes but very slightly respect my part of
the transaction, and I shall consequently escape the imputation of
endeavouring to save myself by imposing on my judges.
'When first this sad event took place I was sleeping in my hammock;
nor, till the very moment of being awakened from it, had I the least
intimation of what was going on. The spectacle was as sudden to my
eyes, as it was unknown to my heart; and both were convulsed at the
scene.
'Matthew Thompson was the first that claimed my attention upon waking:
he was sitting as a sentinel over the arm-chest and my berth, and
informed me that the captain was a prisoner, and Christian had taken
the command of the ship. I entreated for permission to go upon deck;
and soon after the boatswain and carpenter had seen me in my berth, as
they were going up the fore-hatchway, I followed them, as is stated in
their evidence. It is not in my power to describe my feelings upon
seeing the captain as I did, who, with his hands tied behind him, was
standing on the quarter-deck, a little abaft the mizen-mast, and
Christian by his side. My faculties were benumbed, and I did not
recover the power of recollection until called to by somebody to take
hold of the tackle-fall, and assist to get out the launch, which I
found was to be given to the captain instead of the large cutter,
already in the water alongside the ship. It were in vain to say what
things I put into the boat, but many were handed in by me; and in
doing this it was that my hand touched the cutlass (for I will not
attempt to deny what the carpenter has deposed), though, on my
conscience, I am persuaded it was of momentary duration, and innocent
as to intention. The former is evident, from its being unobserved by
every witness who saw me upon deck, some of whom must have noticed it
had it continued a single minute; and the latter is proved by the only
person who took notice of the circumstance, and has also deposed that,
at the moment he beheld me, I was apparently in a state of absolute
stupor. The poison, therefore, carries with it its antidote; and it
seems needless to make any further comment on the subject, for no man
can be weak enough to suppose, that if I had been armed for the
purpose of assisting in the mutiny, I should have resumed a weapon in
the moment of triumph, and when the ship was so completely in the
possession of the party, that (as more than one witness has
emphatically expressed it) all attempts at recovering her would have
been impracticable.
'The boat and ship, it is true, presented themselves to me without its
once occurring that I was at liberty to choose, much less that the
choice I should make would be afterwards deemed criminal; and I
bitterly deplore that my extreme youth and inexperience concurred in
torturing me with apprehensions, and prevented me from preferring the
former; for as things have turned out, it would have saved me from the
disgrace of appearing before you as I do at this day--it would have
spared the sharp conflicts of my own mind ever since, and the
agonizing tears of a tender mother and my much-beloved sisters.
'Add to my youth and inexperience, that I was influenced in my conduct
by the example of my messmates, Mr. Hallet and Mr. Hayward, the former
of whom was very much agitated, and the latter, though he had been
many years at sea, yet, when Christian ordered him into the boat, he
was evidently alarmed at the perilous situation, and so much overcome
by the harsh command, that he actually shed tears.
'My own apprehensions were far from being lessened at such a
circumstance as this, and I fearfully beheld the preparations for the
captain's departure as the preliminaries of inevitable destruction,
which, although I did not think could be more certain, yet I feared
would be more speedy, by the least addition to their number.
'To show that I have no disposition to impose upon this Court, by
endeavouring to paint the situation of the boat to be worse than it
really was, I need only refer to the captain's own narrative, wherein
he says that she would have sunk with them on the evening of the 3rd
May, had it not been for his timely caution of throwing out some of
the stores, and all the clothes belonging to the people, excepting two
suits for each.
'Now what clothes or stores could they have spared which in weight
would have been equal to that of two men? (for if I had been in her,
and the poor fellow, Norton, had not been murdered at Tofoa, she would
have been encumbered with our additional weight), and if it be true
that she was saved by those means, which the captain says she was, it
must follow that if Norton and myself had been in her (to say nothing
of Coleman, M'Intosh, Norman, and Byrne, who, 'tis confessed, were
desirous of leaving the ship), she must either have gone down with us,
or, to prevent it, we must have lightened her of the provisions and
other necessary articles, and thereby have perished for want--dreadful
alternative!
'A choice of deaths to those who are certain of dying may be a matter
of indifference; but where, on one hand, death appears inevitable, and
the means of salvation present themselves on the other, however
imprudent it might be to resort to those means in any other less
trying situation, I think (and hope even at my present time of life)
that I shall not be suspected of a want of courage for saying, few men
would hesitate to embrace the latter.
'Such, then, was exactly my situation on board the _Bounty_; to be
starved to death, or drowned, appeared to be inevitable if I went in
the boat; and surely it is not to be wondered at, if, at the age of
sixteen years, with no one to advise with, and so ignorant of the
discipline of the service (having never been at sea before) as not to
know or even suppose it was possible that what I should determine upon
might afterwards be alleged against me as a crime--I say, under such
circumstances, in so trying a situation, can it be wondered at, if I
suffered the preservation of my life to be the first, and to supersede
every other, consideration.
'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
ship. Such is the master's assertion, 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 assisting to accomplish so
desirable a wish of the captain.
'Let it not--for God'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 ship, 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 ship. 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
ship 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 assist
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 incumbent 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 assist 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 ship) 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 dispassionate 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 wishing
to do so had not been overheard by the man who was in the
bread-room.