 Chapter 4 Part 3 of the eventful history of the mutiny and piratical seizure of HMS Bounty, its cause and consequences. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For further information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Eventful History of the Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of HMS Bounty by Sir John Barrow. Chapter 4 Part 3 The Open Boat Navigation On another occasion, when a stew of oysters was distributed among the people, Lieutenant Bly observes in the manuscript 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 occasion some murmuring with the master and carpenter, the former of whom endeavored 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 Bly 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 boson 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 it's 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 Bly? 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 Bly 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 Bly 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 Bly. His charge is not loosely asserted. It is founded on documentary evidence under his own hand. Since the death of the late Captain Hayward some papers have been brought to light that throw a still more unfavorable stigma on the character of the two commanders, Bly and Edwards, than any censure that has hid the two 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, Bly, it may be recollected, mentions young Hayward only as one of those left in the ship. He does not charge him with taking any active part in the mutiny. There is every reason, indeed, to believe that Bly did not, and indeed could not, see him on deck on that occasion, in point of fact he never was within thirty feet of Captain Bly, and the booms were between them. At the end of March 1790, two months subsequent to the death of a most beloved and lamented husband, Mrs. Hayward received the afflicting information, but by report only, of a mutiny having taken place on board the bounty. In that ship Mrs. Hayward's son had been serving as a midshipman, who, when he left his home in August 1787, was under fifteen years of age, a boy deservedly admired and beloved by all who knew him, and to his own family almost an object of adoration, for his superior understanding and the amiable qualities of his disposition. In a state of mind little short of distraction, on hearing this fatal intelligence which was at the same time aggravated by every circumstance of guilt that Calumny or Malice could invent with respect to this unfortunate youth, who was said to be one of the ring-leaders, and to have gone armed into the Captain's cabin. His mother addressed a letter to Captain Bly, dictated by mother's tenderness, and strongly expressive of the misery she must necessarily feel on such an occasion. The following is Bly's reply. London, April 2, 1790. Madam, I received your letter this day, and feel for you very much, being perfectly sensible of the extreme distress you must suffer from the conduct of your son, Peter. His baseness is beyond all description. But I hope you will endeavour to prevent the loss of him, heavy as the misfortune is, from afflicting you too severely. I imagine he is, with the rest of the mutineers, returned to our Tahiti. I am Madam," signed William Bly. Colonel Holwell, the uncle of young Hayward, had previously addressed Bly on the same melancholy subject, to whom he returned the following answer. 26 March, 1790. Sir, I have just this instant received your letter. With much concern I inform you that your nephew, Peter Hayward, is among the mutineers. His ingratitude to me is of the blackest dye, for I was a father to him in every respect, and he never once had an angry word from me through the whole course of the voyage, as his conduct always gave me much pleasure and satisfaction. I very much regret that so much baseness formed the character of a young man I had real regard for, and it will give me much pleasure to hear that his friends can bear the loss of him without much concern. I am Sir," etc., signed William Bly. The only way of accounting for this ferocity of sentiment towards a youth, who had in point of fact no concern in the mutiny, is by a reference to certain points of evidence given by Hayward, Hallett, and Purcell on the court marshal, each point wholly unsupported. Those in the boat would no doubt, during their long passage, often discuss the conduct of their messmates left in the bounty, and the unsupported evidence given by these three was well calculated to create in Bly's mind a prejudice against young Hayward, yet, if so, it affords but a poor excuse for harrowing up the feelings of near and dear relatives. As a contrast to these ungracious letters, it is a great relief to peruse the correspondence that took place on this melancholy occasion between this unfortunate young officer and his amiable but dreadfully afflicted family. The letters of his sister, Nessie Hayward, of which a few will be exerted in the course of this narrative, exhibit so lively and ardent an affection for her beloved brother, are couched in so high a tone of feeling for his honour and confidence in his innocence, and are so nobly answered by the suffering youth, that no apology seems to be required for their introduction, more especially as their contents are strictly connected with the story of the ill-fated crew of the bounty. After a state of long suspense, this amiable and accomplished young lady thus addresses her brother, Isle of Man, 2 June 1792. In a situation of mind only rendered supportable by the long and painful state of misery and suspense, we have suffered on his account. How shall I address my dear, my fondly beloved brother? How describe the anguish we have felt at the idea of this long and painful separation rendered still more distressing by the terrible circumstances attending it. O my ever-dearest boy, when I look back to that dreadful moment which brought us the fatal intelligence that you had remained in the bounty after Mr. Bly had quitted her, and were looked upon by him as a mutineer, when I contrast that day of horror with my present hopes of again beholding you, such as my most sanguine wishes could expect, I know not which is the most predominant sensation. Pity, compassion, and terror for your sufferings, or joy and satisfaction at the prospect of there being near a termination, and of once more embracing the dearest object of our affections. I will not ask you, my beloved brother, whether you are innocent of the dreadful crime of mutiny. If the transactions of that day were, as Mr. Bly has represented them, such is my conviction of your worth and honour that I will, without hesitation, stake my life on your innocence. If on the contrary you were concerned in such a conspiracy against your commander, I shall be as firmly persuaded his conduct was the occasion of it. But alas, could any occasion justify so atrocious an attempt to destroy a number of our fellow-creatures? No, my ever-dearest brother, nothing but conviction from your own mouth can possibly persuade me that you would commit an action in the smallest degree inconsistent with honour and duty, and the circumstance of your having swam off to the Pandora on her arrival at Otaihiti, which filled us with joy to which no words can do justice, is sufficient to convince all who know you that you certainly stayed behind either by force or from views of preservation. How strange does it seem to me that I am now engaged in the delightful task of writing to you. Alas, my beloved brother, two years ago I never expected again to enjoy such a felicity, and even yet I am in the most painful uncertainty whether you are alive. Gracious God, grant that we may be at length blessed by your return, but alas, the Pandora's people have been long expected and are not even yet arrived. Should any accident have happened after all the miseries you have already suffered, the poor gleam of hope with which we have been lately indulged will render our situation ten thousand times more insupportable than if time had endured us to your loss. I send this to the care of Mr. Hayward of Hackney, father to the young gentleman you so often mention in your letters, while you were on board the bounty, and who went out as Third Lieutenant of the Pandora, a circumstance which gave us infinite satisfaction, as you would on entering the Pandora, meet your old friend. On discovering old Mr. Hayward's residence I wrote to him, as I hoped he could give me some information respecting the time of your arrival, and in return he sent me a most friendly letter, and as promised this shall be given to you when you reach England, as I well know how great must be your anxiety to hear of us, and how much satisfaction it will give you to have a letter immediately on your return. Let me conjure you, my dearest Peter, to write to us the very first moment. Do not lose a post. It is of no consequence how short your letter may be if it only informs us you are well. I need not tell you that you are the first and dearest object of our affections. Think then, my adored boy, of the anxiety we must feel on your account. For my own part I can know no real joy or happiness independent of you, and if any misfortune should now deprive us of you, my hopes of felicity are fled forever. We are at present making all possible interest with every friend and connection we have, to ensure you a sufficient support and protection at your approaching trial, for a trial you must unavoidably undergo, in order to convince the world of that innocence which those who know you will not for a moment doubt, but alas, while circumstances are against you, the generality of mankind will judge severely. Bly's representations to the Admiralty are, I am told, very unfavourable, and hitherto the tide of public opinion has been greatly in his favour. My mama is at present well considering the distress she has suffered since you left us. For my dearest brother, we have experienced a complicated scene of misery from a variety of causes which, however, when compared with the sorrow we felt on your account, was trifling and insignificant. That misfortune made all others light, and to see you once more returned and safely restored to us will be the summit of all earthly happiness. Farewell, my most beloved brother. Lord Grant, this may soon be put into your hands. Perhaps at this moment you are arrived in England, and I may soon have the dear delight of again beholding you. My mama, brothers and sisters, join with me in every sentiment of love and tenderness. Write to us immediately, my ever-loved Peter, and may the Almighty preserve you until you bless with your presence your fondly affectionate family, and particularly your unalterably faithful friend and sister, Nessie Hayward. The gleam of joy which this unhappy family derived from the circumstance which had been related to them of young Hayward swimming off to the Pandora was dissipated by a letter from himself to his mother, soon after his arrival in England, in which he says, The question, my dear mother, in one of your letters concerning my swimming off to the Pandora is one falsity among the too many in which I have often thought of un-deceiving you and as frequently forgot. The story was this. On the morning she arrived, accompanied by two of my friends, natives, I was going up the mountains, and having got about a hundred yards from my own house, another of my friends, for I was a universal favourite among those Indians and perfectly conversant in their language, came running after me and informed me there was a ship coming. I immediately ascended a rising ground and saw, with indescribable joy, a ship laying too off Happyano. It was just after daylight, and thinking Coleman might not be awake, and therefore ignorant of this pleasing news, I sent one of my servants to inform him of it, upon which he immediately went off in a single canoe. There was a fresh breeze, and the ship working into the bay, he no sooner got alongside, than the rippling capsized the canoe, and he, being obliged to let go the tow rope to get her righted, went to stern, and was picked up the next tack and taken on board the Pandora, he being the first person. I, along with my messmate Stuart, was then standing upon the beach with a double canoe, manned with twelve paddles, ready for launching, and just as she made her last tack into her berth, for we did not think it requisite to go off sooner. We put off, and got alongside, just as they streamed the boy. And being dressed in the country manner, tanned as brown as themselves, and I, tattooed like them in the most curious manner, I do not in the least wonder at their taking us for natives. I was tattooed, not to gratify my own desire, but theirs, for it was my constant endeavour to acquiesce in any little custom which I thought would be agreeable to them, though painful in the process, provided I gained by it their friendship and esteem, which, you may suppose, is no inconsiderable object in an island where the natives are so numerous. The more a man or woman there is tattooed, the more they are respected, and a person having none of these marks is looked upon as bearing an unworthy badge of disgrace, and considered as a mere outcast of society. Among the many anxious friends and family connections of the Haywoods was Commodore Paisley, to whom this affectionate young lady addressed herself on the melancholy occasion, and the following is the reply she received from this officer. She and S. June 8th, 1792. Would to God my dearest Nessie, that I could rejoice with you on the early prospect of your brother's arrival in England. One division of the Pandora's people has arrived, and now on board the vengeance, my ship, Captain Edwards, with the remainder, and all the prisoners late of the bounty, in number ten, for having been drowned on the loss of that ship, a daily expected. They have been most rigorously and closely confined since taken, and will continue so, no doubt, till Bly's arrival. You have no chance of seeing him, for no bail can be offered. Your intelligence of his swimming off on the Pandora's arrival is not founded. A man of the name of Coleman swam off ere she anchored your brother and Mr. Stewart the next day. This last youth, when the Pandora was lost, refused to allow his irons to be taken off to save his life. I cannot conceal it from you, my dearest Nessie, neither is it proper I should. Your brother appears, by all accounts, to be the greatest culprit of all. Christian alone accepted. Every exertion you may rest assured I shall use to save his life, but on trial I have no hope of his not being condemned. Three of the ten who are expected are mentioned in Bly's narrative, as men detained against their inclination. Good to God your brother had been one of that number. I will not distress you more by enlarging on this subject, as intelligence arises on their arrival. You shall be made acquainted. Adieu, my dearest Nessie, present my affectionate remembrances to your mother and sisters, and believe me always with the warmest affection your uncle Thomas Paisley. How unlike is this from the letter of Bly, while it frankly apprises this amiable lady of the real truth of the case without disguise, as it was then understood to be from Mr. Bly's representations, it assures her of his best exertions to save her brother's life. Every reader of sensibility will sympathize in the feeling displayed in her reply. Isle of Man, 22 June 1792 Harrest by the most torturing suspense and miserably wretched as I have been, my dearest uncle, since the receipt of your last, conceive, if it is possible, the heartfelt joy and satisfaction we experienced yesterday morning when, on the arrival of the packet, the dear delightful letter from our beloved Peter, a copy of which I send you enclosed, was brought to us. Surely, my excellent friend, you will agree with me in thinking there could not be a stronger proof of his innocence and worth, and that it must prejudice every person who reads it most powerfully in his favour. Such a letter, in less distressedful circumstances, the nose in which he writes, would I am persuaded, reflect honour on the pen of a person much older than my poor brother. But when we consider his extreme youth, only sixteen at the time of the mutiny, and now but nineteen, his fortitude, patience and manly resignation under the pressure of sufferings and misfortunes almost unheard of, and scarcely to be supported at any age, without the assistance of that which seems to be my dear brother's greatest comfort, a quiet conscience, and a thorough conviction of his own innocence, when I add at the same time with real pleasure and satisfaction, that his relation corresponds in many particulars with the accounts we have hitherto heard of the fatal mutiny, and when I also add, with inconceivable pride and delight, that my beloved Peter never was known to breathe a syllable inconsistent with truth and honour. When these circumstances, my dear uncle, are all united, what man on earth can doubt of the innocence which could dictate such a letter. In short, let it speak for him. The perusal of his artless and pathetic story will I am persuaded be a stronger recommendation in his favour than anything I can urge. I need not tire your patience, my ever-loved uncle, by dwelling longer on this subject, the dearest and most interesting on earth to my heart. Let me conjure you only, my kind friend, to read it, and consider the innocence and defenceless situation of its unfortunate author, which calls for, and I am sure deserves, all the pity and assistance his friends can afford him, and which I am sure also the goodness and benevolence of your heart will prompt you to exert in his behalf. It is perfectly unnecessary for me to add, after the anxiety I feel, and cannot but express, that no benefit conferred upon myself will be acknowledged with half the gratitude I must ever feel for the smallest instance of kindness shown to my beloved Peter. Farewell, my dearest uncle, with the firmest reliance on your kind and generous promises, I am ever with the truest gratitude and sincerity your most affectionate niece, Nessie Hayward. CHAPTER V. THE PANDORA. CHAPTER V. PART I. Oh, I have suffered with those that I saw suffer, a brave vessel who had no doubt some noble creatures in her dashed all to pieces. Oh, the cry didn't knock against my very heart. Poor souls they perished. Had I been any god of power, I would have sunk the sea within the earth, or I would should the good ships so have swallowed, and the freighting souls within her. The tide of public applause set us strongly in favor of Bly, on account of his sufferings and the successful issue of his daring enterprise, as its indignation was launched against Christian and his associates for the audacious and criminal deed they had committed. Bly was promoted by the admiralty to the rank of commander, and speedily sent out a second time to transport the breadfruit to the West Indies, which he, without the least obstruction, successfully accomplished. And his majesty's government, where no sooner made acquainted with the atrocious act of piracy and mutiny, then it determined to adopt every possible means to apprehend and bring to condine punishment the perpetrators of so foul a deed. For this purpose, the Pandora frigate of 24 guns and 160 men was dispatched under the command of Captain Edward Edwards, with orders to proceed in the first instance to O Tahiti, and not finding the mutineers there to visit the different groups of the society and friendly islands, and others in the neighboring parts of the Pacific, using his best endeavors to seize and bring home in confinement, the whole or such part of the delinquents as he might be able to discover. This voyage was in the sequel almost as disastrous as that of the bounty, but from a different cause. The waste of human life was much greater, occasioned by the wreck of the ship and the distress experienced by the crew, not much less owing to the famine and thirst they had to suffer in a navigation of 1100 miles and open boats. But the captain succeeded in fulfilling a part of his instructions by taking 14 of the mutineers, of whom 10 were brought safe to England, the other four being drowned when the ship was wrecked. The only published account of this voyage is contained in a small volume by Mr. George Hamilton, the surgeon, who appears to have been a coarse, vulgar and illiterate man, more disposed to relate licentious scenes and adventures in which he and his companions were engaged than to give any information of proceedings and occurrences connected with the main object of the voyage. From this book, therefore, much information is not to be looked for. In a more modern publication, many abusive epithets have been bestowed on Captain Edwards and observations made on the conduct of this officer highly injurious to his reputation in regards to his inhuman treatment of and disgraceful acts of cruelty towards his prisoners, which it is to be feared half but too much foundation in fact. The account of his proceedings rendered by himself to the admiralty is vague and unsatisfactory, and had it not been for the journal of Morrison and a circumstantial letter of young Haywood to his mother, no record would have remained of the unfeeling conduct of this officer towards his unfortunate prisoners, who were treated with a rigor, which could not be justified on any ground of necessity or prudence. The Pandora anchored on Madaya Bay on the 23rd March 1791. Captain Edwards in his narrative states that Joseph Coleman, the armorer of the bounty, attempted to come on board before the Pandora had anchored. That on reaching the ship, he began to make inquiries of him after the bounty and her people, and that he seemed to be ready to give him any information that was required. That the next who came on board just after the ship had anchored were Mr. Peter Haywood and Mr. Stewart, before any boat had been sent on shore. That they were brought down to his cabin when after some conversation, Haywood asked if Mr. Hayward, midshipman of the bounty, but now Lieutenant of the Pandora, was on board as he had heard that he was. That Lieutenant Hayward, whom he sent for, treated Haywood with a sort of contemptuous look, and began to enter into conversation with him respecting the bounty. But Edwards ordered him to desist and called in the sentinel to take the prisoners into safe custody, and put them in irons. That four other mutineers soon made their appearance, and that from them and some of the natives, he learned that the rest of the bounty's people had built a schooner, with which they had sailed the day before, from Matiai Bay to the northwest part of the island. He goes on to say that, on this intelligence, he dispatched the two Lieutenant's corner in Hayward with the penis in launch to endeavor to intercept her. They soon got sight of her and chased her out to sea, but the schooner gained so much upon them, and night coming on, they were compelled to give up the pursuit and return to the ship. It was soon made known, however, that she had returned to Papare, on which they were again dispatched in search of her. Lieutenant Corner had taken three of the mutineers, and Hayward, on arriving at Papare, found the schooner there, but the mutineers had abandoned her and fled to the mountains. He carried off the schooner and returned next day when he learned they were not far off. And the following morning, on hearing they were coming down, he drew up his party in order to receive them, and when within hearing called to them to lay down their arms and to go on one side, which they did, when they were confined and brought as prisoners to the ship. The following were the persons received on board the Pandora. Peter Hayward, mid-Chipman, George Stewart, mid-Chipman, James Morrison, Boson's mate, Charles Norman, Carpenter's mate, Thomas McIntosh, Carpenter's crew, Joseph Coleman, Armorer, Richard Skinner, Thomas Ellison, Henry Hill Brandt, Thomas Burkett, John Millward, John Sumner, William Musprat, Michael Byrne, All Seaman. In All Fourteen, the other two, which made up the sixteen that have been left on the island, were murdered, as will appear presently. Captain Edwards will himself explain how he disposed of his prisoners. I put the pirates, he says, into a round task which I built on the after part of the quarter deck, for their more effectual security in this airy and healthy situation, and to separate them from, and to prevent their having communication with, or to crowd and incommode, the ship's company. Dr. Hamilton calls it the most desirable place in the ship and adds that orders were given that the prisoners should be victualed in every respect, the same as the ship's company, both in meat, liquor, and all the extra indulgences with which they were so liberally supplied, notwithstanding the established laws of the service, which restrict prisoners to two-thirds allowance. But Captain Edwards very humanely commiserated their unhappy and inevitable length of confinement. Mr. Morris and one of the prisoners gives a very different account of their treatment from that of Edwards or Hamilton. He says that Captain Edwards put both legs of the two midshipmen and irons, and that he branded them with the appropriate epithet of piratical villains. That they, with the rest, being strongly handcuffed, were put into a kind of roundhouse, only eleven feet long, built as a prison, an aptly named Pandora's Box, which was entered by a scuttle in the roof, about eighteen inches square. This was done in order that they might be kept separate from the crew, and also, the more effectually, to prevent them from having any communication with the natives. That such of those friendly creatures, as ventured to look pitifully towards them, were instantly turned out of the ship, and never again allowed to come on board. But two sentinels were kept constantly upon the roof of the prison, with orders to shoot the first of its inmates who should attempt to address another in the Otehedian dialect. That Captain Edwards took every precaution to keep his prisoners in safe custody, and placed him in confinement, as by his instructions he was directed to do, may be well imagined. End Note 14. But Mr. Morrison will probably be thought to go somewhat beyond credibility in stating that orders were given to shoot any of the prisoners when confined in irons. Captain Edwards must have known that such an act would have cost him his commission or something more. The fact is that information was given to Edwards, at least he so asserts, that the brother of the king of Otehedi, an intelligent chief, that a conspiracy was formed among the natives, to cut the ship's cables the first strong wind that should blow on the shore, which was considered to be the more probable, as many of the prisoners were said to be married to the most respectable chief daughters in the district opposite to the anchorage. That the midshipman Stewart, in particular, had married the daughter of a man of great landed property near Matiae Bay. This intelligence no doubt weighed with the captain in giving his orders for the close confinement of the prisoners, and particularly in restricting the visits of the natives. But so far is it from being true that all communication between the meeting years and the natives' words cut off, that we are distinctly told by Mr. Hamilton, that the prisoners' wives visited the ship daily and brought their children, who were prevented to be carried to their unhappy fathers. To see the poor captives in irons, he says, weeping over their tender offspring was too moving a scene for any feeling hot. Their wives brought them ample supplies of every delicacy that the country afforded while we lay there and behaved with the greatest fidelity and affection to them. End note 15. Of the fidelity and attachment of these simple minded creatures, an instant is afforded of the affecting story which is told in the first missionary voyage of the Duff, of the unfortunate wife of the reputed mutiny or Mr. Stewart. It would seem also to exonerate Edwards from some part of the charges which have been brought against him. The history of Peggy Stewart marks a tenderness of heart that never will be heard without emotion. She was the daughter of a chief and taken for his wife by Mr. Stewart, one of the unhappy mutineers. They had lived with the old chief in the most tender state of endearment. A beautiful little girl had been the fruit of their union and was at the breast when the Pandora arrived, seized the criminals and secured them in irons on board the ship. Frantic we grieve, the unhappy Peggy for so he had named her. Flew with her infant in a canoe to the arms of her husband. The interview was so affecting and afflicting that the officers on board were overwhelmed with anguish and Stewart himself, unable to bear the heart-rending scene, begs she might not be admitted again on board. She was separated from him by violence and conveyed on shore and has stated despair and grief too big for utterance. Withheld from him and forbidden to come any more on board, she sunk into the deepest ejection. It preyed on her vitals. She lost all relish for food and life, rejoiced no more, pined under a rapid decay of two months and fell a victim to her feelings, dying literally of a broken heart. Her child is yet alive and a tender object of our care, having been brought up by a sister who nursed it at her own and has discharged all the duties of an affectionate mother to the orphan infant. End note 16. It does not appear that young Haywood formed any matrimonial engagement during his abode in Otehidi. He was not, however, insensible to the amiable and good qualities of these people. In some laudatory verses which he wrote while on the island, their numerous good qualities are spoken of in terms of the highest commendation. All the mutineers that were left on the island being received on board the Pandora, that ship proceeded in search of those who had gone away in the bounty. It may be mentioned, however, that two of the most active in the mutiny, Church Hill and Thompson, had perished on the island before her arrival by violent deaths. These two men had accompanied a chief who was the Tayo, or sworn friend of Church Hill, and having died without children, this mutineer succeeded to his property indignity, according to the custom of the country. Thompson, for some real or fancied insult, took an opportunity of shooting his companion. The natives assembled and came to a resolution to avenge the murder, and literally stoned Thompson to death, and his skull was brought on board the Pandora. This horrible wretch had some time before slain a man and a child through mere wantonness, but escaped punishment by a mistake that had nearly proved fatal to young Haywood. It seems that the description of a person in Ohtahiti is usually given by some distinguishing figure of the tattoo, and Haywood, having the same mark as Thompson, was taken for him, and just as the club was raised to dash out his brains, the interposition of the old chief, with whom he was traveling around the island, was just in time to avert the blow. Captain Edwards had no clue to guide him as to the route taken by the bounty, but he learned from different people and from journals kept on board that ship, which were found in the chests of the mutineers at Ohtahiti. The proceedings of Christian and his associates after Lieutenant Bly and his companions had been turned adrift in the launch. From these it appears that the pirates proceeded in the first instance to the island of Tubuay in latitudes 20 degrees 13 minutes south, longitude 149 degrees 35 minutes west, where they anchored on the 25th of May 1789. They had thrown overboard the greater part of the breadfruit plants and divided among themselves the property of the officers and men who had been so inhumanely turned adrift. At this island they intended to form a settlement, but the opposition of the natives, the want of many necessary materials and quarrels among themselves determined them to go to Ohtahiti to procure what might be required to affect their purpose, provided they should agree to prosecute their original intention. They accordingly sailed from Tubuay about the later end of the month and arrived at Ohtahiti on the 6th of June. The O2 or reigning sovereign and other principal natives were very inquisitive and anxious to know what had become of Lieutenant Bly and the rest of the crew and also what had been done with the breadfruit plants. They were told they had most unexpectedly fallen in with Captain Cook at an island he had just discovered called Waitutaki where he intended to form a settlement and where the plants had been landed and that Lieutenant Bly and the others were stopping there to assist Captain Cook in the business he had in hand and that he had appointed Mr. Christian commander of the bounty and that he was now come by his orders for an additional supply of hogs, goats, fowls, breadfruit, and various other articles which Ohtahiti could supply. This awful story was quite sufficient to impose on the credulity of the humane and simple-minded islanders and so overcome with joy were they to hear that their old friend Captain Cook was alive and about to settle so near them that every possible means were forthwith made use of to procure the things that were wanted so that in the course of a few days the bounty received on board 312 hogs 38 goats eight dozen of fowls a bull and a cow and a large quantity of breadfruit plantains bananas and other fruits they also took with them eight men nine women and seven boys with these supplies they left Ohtahiti on the 19th of June and arrived a second time at Tugolai on the 26th they warped the ship up the harbor landed the livestock and set about building a fort of 50 yards square while this work was carrying on quarrels and disagreements were daily happening among them and continual disputes and skirmishes were taking place within natives generally brought on by the violent conduct of the invaders and by depredations committed on their property retaliations were attempted by the natives without success numbers of whom being pursued with firearms were put to death still the situation of the mutineers became so disagreeable and unsafe the work went on so slowly and reluctantly that the building of the fort was agreed to be discontinued Christian in fact had very soon perceived that his authority was on the wane and that no peaceful establishment was likely to be accomplished at Tugolai he therefore held a consultation as to what would be the most advisable step to take after much angry discussion it was at length determine that Tugolai should be abandoned that the ship should once more be taken to Ohtahiti and that those who might choose to go on shore there might do so and those who preferred to remain in the ship might proceed in her to whatever place they should agree upon among themselves in consequence of this determination they sailed from Tugolai on the 15th and arrived at Maraeae Bay on the 20th of September 1789 here 16 of the mutineers were put on shore at their own request 14 of whom were received on board the Pandora and two of them as before mentioned were murdered on the island the remaining nine agreed to continue in the bounty the small arms powder canvas and the small stores belonging to the ship were equally divided among the whole crew the bounty sailed finally from Ohtahiti on the night of the 21st of September and was last seen the following morning to the northwest of Point Venus they took with them seven Ohtahitan men and twelve women it was not even conjectured whether they meant to go but christian had frequently been heard to say that his object was to discover some unknown or uninhabited island in which there was no harbor for shipping that he would run the bounty on shore and make use of her materials to form a settlement but this was the only account vague as it was that could be procured to direct captain edwards in his intended search it appears that when the schooner of which we have spoken had been finished six of the 14 mutineers that were left on Ohtahiti embarked in her with the intention of proceeding to the east indies and actually put to sea but meeting with bad weather and suspecting the nautical abilities of Morrison whom they had elected as commanding officer to conduct her in safety they resolved on returning to Ohtahiti Morrison it seems first undertook the construction of the schooner being himself a tolerable mechanic in which he was assisted by the two carpenters the cooper and some others to this little band of architects we are told Morrison acted both as director and chaplain distinguishing the Sabbath day by reading to them the church liturgy and hoisting the British colors on a flagstaff erected near the scene of their operations conscious of his innocence his object is stated to have been that of reaching Batavia in time to secure a passage home in the next fleet bound to holland but that their return was occasioned not by any distrust of Morrison's talents but by a refusal on the part of the natives to give them a sufficient quantity of matting and other necessaries for so long a voyage being in fact desirous of retaining them on the island Stewart and young Haywood took no part in this transaction having made up their minds to remain at Ohtahiti and there to await the arrival of a kingship it being morally certain that air long one would be sent out wither to search for them whatever might have been the fate of Bly and his companions and that this was really their intention is evident by the alacrity they displayed on getting on board the Pandora the moment of her arrival on the 8th of May this frigate left Ohtahiti accompanied by the little schooner which the mutineers had built and the history of which is somewhat remarkable in point of size she was not a great deal larger than Lieutenant Bly's launch her dimensions being 30 feet length of keel 35 length on deck nine feet and a half extreme breadth five feet depth of the hold she parted from the Pandora near the Palmerston Islands when searching for the bounty and was not heard of till the arrival of the Pandora's crew at Samarang in Java where they found her lying in anchor the crew having suffered so dreadfully from famine and the want of water that one of the young gentlemen belonging to her became delirious she was a remarkably swift sailor and being afterwards employed in the sea otter trade is stated to have made one of the quickest passages ever known from China to the sandwich islands this memorable little vessel was purchased at Canton by the late Captain Broughton to assist him in his surveying the coast of Tartary and became the means of preserving the crew of his majesty ship Providence amounting to 112 men when wrecked to the eastward of Formosa in the year 1797 the Pandora called numerous islands without success but on left tenant corner having landed on one of the Palmerston's group he found a yard and some spars with the broad arrow upon them and marked bounty this induced the captain to cause a very minute search to be made in all these islands in the course of which the Pandora being driven out sea by blowing weather and very thick and hazy lost sight of the little tender and a jolly boat the latter of which was never more heard of this gives occasion to a little spenetic effusion from a writer in a periodic journal end note 17 which was hardly called for when this boat says the writer with a made shipment and several men for had been inhumanely ordered from alongside it was known that there was nothing in her but one piece of salt beef compassionately thrown in by a semen and horrid is must have been their fate the flippant surgeon after detailing the disgraceful fact adds that this is the way the world was peopled or was to that effect for we quote only from memory the following is quoted from the book it may be difficult to surmise says the surgeon what has been the fate of those unfortunate men they had a piece of salt beef thrown into the boat on them leaving the ship and it rained a good deal that night in the following day which might satiate their thirst it is by these accidents the divine ruler of the universe has peopled the southern hemisphere this is no more than asserting an acknowledged fact that you can hardly admit of a dispute and there appears nothing in the paragraph which at all affects the character of captain edwards against whom it is leveled after a fruitless search of three months the pandora arrived on the 29th of august on the coast of new holland and close to that extraordinary reef of coral rocks called the barrier reef which runs along the greater part of the eastern coast but at a considerable distance from it the boat had been sent out to look for an opening which was soon discovered but in the course of the night the ship had drifted past it on getting soundings said captain edwards in his narrative laid before the court marshal the topsils were filled but before the tax were all on board and the other sails made and trimmed the ship struck upon a reef we had a quarter less two fathoms on the labored side and three fathoms on the starboard side the sails were braced about different ways to endeavor to get her off but to no purpose they were then clued up and afterwards furled the top gallant yards got down and the top gallant mass struck boats were hoisted out with a view to carry out an anchor but before that could be affected the ship struck so violently on the reef that the carpenter reported she made 18 inches of water in five minutes and in five minutes after this that there were four feet of water in the hold finding the leak increasing so fast that it was thought necessary to turn the hands to the pumps and to bail at the different hatchways but she still continued to gain upon a soar fast that in little more than an hour and a half after she struck there were eight feet and a half of water in the hold about ten we perceived that the ship had beaten over the reef and was in 10 fathoms water we therefore let go of the small bower anchor cleared away a cable and let go of the best bower anchor and 15 and a half fathoms water underfoot to steady the ship some of her guns were thrown overboard and the water gained upon us only in a small degree and we flattered ourselves that by the assistance of a thrum topsoil which we were preparing to haul under the ship's bottom we might be able to lessen the leak and to free her of water but these flattering hopes did not continue long for as she settled in the water the leak increased again and in so great a degree that there was reason to apprehend she would sink before daylight during the night two of the pumps were unfortunately for a sometime rendered useless one of them however was repaired and we continued bailing and pumping the remainder of the night and every effort that was thought of was made to keep afloat and preserve the ship daylight fortunately appeared and gave us the opportunity of seeing our situation and the surrounding danger and it was evident the ship had been carried to the northward by a tide of current the officers whom I consulted on the subject of our situation gave it as their opinion that nothing more could be done for the preservation of the ship it then became necessary to endeavor to provide and to find means for the preservation of the people our four boats which consisted of one launch one eight-odd pinnace and two six-odd yolls with careful hands in them were kept astern of the ship a small quantity of bred water and other necessary articles were put into them two canoes which we had on board were lashed together and put into the water rafts were made and all floating things upon deck were unlashed about half past six in the morning of the 29th the hold was full and the water was between decks and it also washed in at the upper deck ports and there were strong indications that the ship was on the very point of sinking and we began to leap overboard and take to the boats and before everybody could get out of her she actually sunk the boats continued astern of the ship in the direction of the drifter the tide from her and took up the people that had hold of rafts and other floating things that had been cast loose for the purpose of supporting them in the water the double canoe that was able to support a considerable number of men broke adrift with only one man and was bulged upon a reef and afforded us no assistance when she was so much wanted on this trying in melancholy occasion two of the boats were laden with men and sent to a small sandy island or key about four miles from the wreck and I remained near the ship for some time with the other two boats and picked up all the people that could be seen and then followed the two first boats to the key and having landed the men and cleared the boats they were immediately dispatched again to look about the wreck and the adjoining reef for any that might be missing but they returned without having found a single person on muster in the people that was saved it appeared that 89 of the ship's company and 10 of the mutineers that had been prisoners on board answered to their names but 31 of the ship's company and four mutineers were lost with the ship it is remarkable enough that so little notice is taken of the mutineers in this narrative of the captain and as the following statement is supposed to come from the late lieutenant corner who was second lieutenant of the pandora it is entitled to be considered as authentic and if so captain edwards must have deserved the character ascribed to him of being altogether destitute of the common feelings of humanity three of the bounty's people colman, norman, and makentosh were now led out of irons and set to work at the pumps the others afforded their assistance and begged to be allowed a chance of saving their lives instead of which two additional sentinels were placed over them with orders to shoot any who should attempt to get rid of their fetters seeing no prospect of escape they betook themselves to prayer and prepared to meet their fate everyone expecting that the ship would soon go to pieces her rudder and part of the stern post being already beat away when the ship was actually sinking and every effort making for the preservation of the crew it is asserted that no notice was taken of the prisoners as is falsely stated by the author of pandora's voyage although captain edwards was untreated by mr hayward to have mercy upon them when he passed over their prison to make his own escape the ship then lying on her broadside with the labored bow completely underwater fortunately the master at arms either by accident or design when slipping from the roof of pandora's box into the sea let the keys of the irons fall through the scuttle or entrance which he had just before opened and thus enabled them to commence their own liberation in which they were generously assisted at the imminent risk of his own life by william molter a boson's mate who clung to the comings and pulled the long bars through the shackles saying he would set them free or go to the bottom with them scarcely was this affected when the ship went down leaving nothing visible but the top mass cross trees the master at arms and all the sentinels sunk to rise no more the cries of them and the other drowning men were awful in the extreme and more than half an hour had elapsed before the survivors could be taken up by the boats among the former were mr stewart john sumner richard skinner and henry hillbrandt the whole of whom perished with their hands still in manacles on this melancholy occasion mr haywood was the last person but three who escaped from the prison into which the water had already found its way through the bulkhead scuttles jumping overboard he seized a plank and was swimming towards a small sandy key about three miles distant when a boat picked him up and conveyed him thither in a state of nudity it is worthy of remark that james morrison endeavored to follow his young companion's example and although handcuffed managed to keep afloat until a boat came to his assistance this account would appear almost incredible it is true men are sometimes found to act the part of inhuman monsters but then they are generally actuated by some motive or extraordinary excitement here however there was neither but on the contrary the condition of the poor prisoners appealed more forcibly to the mercy and humanity of their jailer the surgeon of the ship states in his account of her loss that as soon as the spars booms handcoops and other buoyant articles were cut loose the prisoners were ordered to be let out of the irons one would imagine indeed that the officers on this dreadful emergency would not be witnessed to such inhumanity without remonstrating effectually against keeping these unfortunate men confined a moment beyond the period when it became evident that the ship must sink it will be seen however presently for mr haywood's own statement that they were so kept and that the brutal and unfeeling conduct which has been imputed to captain edwards is but too true end of chapter five part one recording by hailey flag of texas chapter five the pandora part two of the eventful history of the mutiny and piratical seizure of hms bounty its cause and consequences this is a libervox recording all libervox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libervox.org recording by hailey flag the eventful history of the mutiny and piratical seizure of hms bounty by sir john barrow chapter five part two it is an awful moment when a ship takes her last heel just before going down when the pandora sunk the surgeon says the crew had just time to leap over bold accompanying it with most dreadful yell the cries of the men drowning in the water was at first awful in the extreme but as they sunk and became faint they died away by degrees how accurately has byron described the whole progress of a shipwreck to the final catastrophe he might have been a spectator of the pandora at the moment of her foundering when she gave a heel and then a lurch to port and going down head foremost sunk then rose from sea to sky the wild farewell then shrieked the timid and stood still the brave then some leaped overboard with dreadful yell as eager to anticipate their grave and the sea yawned around her like a hell and down she sucked with her the whirling wave like one who grapples with his enemy and strives to strangle him before he die and first one universal shriek there rushed louder than the loud ocean like a crash of echoing thunder and then all was hushed saved the wild wind and the remorseless dashed billows but it intervened they're gushed accompanied with a convulsive splash a solitary shriek the bubbling cry of some strong swimmer in his agony on the sandy key which fortunately presented itself the shipwrecked seaman hauled up the boats to repair those that were damaged and to stretch canvas around the gunwales the better to keep out the sea from breaking into them the heat of the sun and the reflection from the sand are described as excruciating and the thirst of the men was rendered intolerable from their stomachs being filled with salt water in the length of time they had to swim before being picked up Mr. Hamilton says they were greatly disturbed in the night by the irregular behavior of one of the seaman named Connell which made them suspect he had got drunk with some wine that had been saved but it turned out that the excruciating torture he suffered from thirst had induced him to drink salt water by which means he went mad and died in the sequel of the voyage it seems a small keg of water and some biscuits had been thrown into one of the boats which they found by calculation would be sufficient to last 16 days on an allowance of two wine glasses of water per day to each man and a very small quantity of bread the weight of which was accurately ascertained by a musket ball and a pair of wooden scales made for each boat the crew and the prisoners were now distributed among the four boats at Bly's mountainous island they entered a bay where swarms of natives came down and made signs for their landing but this they declined to do on which an arrow was discharged and struck one of the boats and as the savages were seen to be collecting their bows and arrows a volley of muskets a few of which happened to be in the boats was discharged which put them to flight while sailing among the islands and near the shore they now and then stopped to pick up a few oysters and procure a little fresh water on the 2nd of December they passed the northwest point of New Holland and launched into the great Indian Ocean having a voyage of about a thousand miles still to perform it will be recollected that Captain Bly's people received warmth and comfort by ringing out their clothes in saltwater the same practice was adopted by the crews of the Pandora's boats but the doctor observes that this wetting their bodies with saltwater is not advisable if protracted beyond three or four days as after that time the great absorption from the skin that takes place taints the fluids with the bitter part of saltwater so that the saliva becomes intolerable in the mouth their mouths indeed he says became so parched that few attempted to eat the slender allowance of bread he also remarks that as the sufferings of the people continued their temper became cross and savage in the captain's boat it is stated one of the mutineers took to praying but that the captain suspecting the purity of his doctrines and unwilling that he should have a monopoly of the business gave press himself on the 13th they saw the island of Timor and the next morning landed and got some water and a few small fish from the natives and on the night of the 15th anchored opposite the fort of coupang nothing could exceed the kindness and hospitality of the governor and other dutch officers of this settlement in affording every possible assistance and relief in their distress condition having remained here three weeks they embarked on the 6th of october on board the rembang dutch indian men and on the 30th anchored at samarang where they were agreeably surprised to find their little tender which they had so long given up for lost on the 7th of november they arrived at batavia where the captain edwards agreed with the dutch east india company to divide the whole of the ship's company and prisoners among four of their ships proceeding to europe the latter the captain took with him in the reidenberg but finding his master ship gorgon at the cape he trans shipped himself and the prisoners and proceeded in her to spithead where he arrived on the 19th of june 1792 captain edwards in his meager narrative takes no more notice of his prisoners with regard to the mode in which they were disposed of at coupang in batavia then he does when the pandora went down in fact he suppresses all information respecting them from the day in which they were consigned to pandora's box from this total indifference toward these unfortunate men and their almost unparalleled sufferings captain edwards must be set down as a man whose only feeling was to stick to the letter of his instructions and rigidly to adhere to what he considered the strict line of his duty that he was a man of a cold phlegmatic disposition whom no distress could move and whose feelings were not easily disturbed by the sufferings of his fellow creatures he appears to have been one of those mortals who might say with manfred my spirit walked not with the souls of men my joys my griefs my passions and my powers made me a stranger though i wore the form i had no sympathy with breathing flesh there seems to have been a general feeling at and before the court marshal that captain edwards had exercised a harsh unnecessary an undue degree of severity on his prisoners it is the custom sanctioned no doubt by long usage to place in irons all such as may have been guilty of mutiny in a ship of war and the necessity of so doing is obvious enough to prevent in the most effectual manner communication with the rest of the ship's company who might be contaminated by their intercourse with such mischievous and designing men men whose crime is of that die that if found guilty they have little hope to escape the punishment of death to which a mutineer must by the naval articles of war be sentenced no alternative being left to a court marshal in such a case but to pronounce a sentence of acquittal or of death in the present case however most of the prisoners had surrendered themselves many of them had taken no active part in the mutiny and others had been forcibly compelled to remain in the ship it was not likely therefore that any danger could arise from indulging them occasionally and in turns with a few hours of fresh air on deck as little danger was there of their escaping where indeed could they escape too especially when the ship was going down at a great distance for many shore and the nearest one known to be inhabited by savages all or most of them were desirous of getting home and throwing themselves on God in their country the captain however had no compunctious visitings of nature to shake his purpose which seems to have been to keep them strictly in irons during the whole passage and to deliver them over in that state on his arrival in England perhaps the circumstance of the crime of piracy being super added to that of mutiny may have operated on his stern nature and induced him to inflict a greater severity of punishment than he might otherwise have done and which he certainly did far beyond the letter in spirit of his instructions he might have considered that in all ages and among all nations with the exception of some of the Greek states end note 18 Piracy has been held in the utmost abhorrence and those guilty of it treated with singular and barbarous severity and that the most sanguinary laws were established for the protection of person and property in maritime adventure the laws of Oleron which were composed under the immediate direction of our Richard I and became the common usage among maritime states whose vessels passed through British seas are conceived in his spirit of the most barbarous cruelty end note 19 thus if a poor pilot through ignorance lost the vessel he was either required to make full satisfaction to the merchant for damages sustained or to lose his head in the case of Rex where the Lord of the Coast something like our present vice admiral should be found to be in league with the pilots and run the ship on the rocks in order to get a salvage the said Lord the salvers and all concerned are declared to be a cursed and excommunicated and punished his thieves and robbers and the pilot condemned to be hanged upon a high jibbit which is to abide and remain to succeeding ages on the place where erected as a visible caution to other ships sailing thereby nor was the fate of the Lord of the Coast less severe his property was to be confiscated and himself fastened to a post in the midst of his own mansion which being fired at the four corners were all to be burned together the walls thereof demolished and the spot on which it stood be converted into a marketplace for the sale only of hogs and swine to all posterity these and many other barbarous usages were transferred into the institutions of wisby which formed the jus mercatorum for a long period and in which great care was taken for the security of ships against their crews among other articles are the following whoever draws a sword upon the master of a vessel or willfully falsifies the compass shall have his right hand nailed to the mast whoever behaves riotously shall be punished by being keelhauled whoever is guilty of rebellion or mutiny shall be thrown overboard for the suppression of piracy the portuguese in their early intercourse with india had a summary punishment and accompanied it with a terrible example to deter others from the commission of the crime whenever they took a pirate ship they instantly hanged every man carried away the sails rudder and everything that was valuable in the ship and left her to be buffeted about by winds and waves with the carcasses of the criminals dangling from the yards a horrid object of terror to all who might chance to fall in with her even to this day a spice of the laws of oleron still remains in the maritime code of european nations as far as regards mutiny and piracy and a feeling of this kind may have operated on the mind of captain edwards especially as a tendency even to mutiny or mutinous expressions are considered by the usage of the service as justifying the commander of a ship of war to put the offenders in irons besides the treatment of bly whose admirable conduct under the unparalleled sufferings of himself and all who accompanied him in the open boat had roused the people of england to the highest pitch of indignation against christian and his associates in which edwards no doubt participated the following letter of mr. peter haywood to his mother removes all doubt as to the character and conduct of this officer it is an artless empathetic tale and as his amiable sister says breathes not a syllable inconsistent with truth and honor batavia november 20th 1791 my ever-honored and dearest mother at length the time has arrived when you are once more to hear from your ill-fated son whose conduct at the capture of that ship in which it was my fortune to embark has i fear from what has since happened to me been grossly misrepresented to you by lieutenant bly who by not knowing the real cause of my remaining on board naturally suspected me unhappily for me to be a co-agitor in the mutiny but i never to my knowledge whilst under his command behaved myself in a manner unbecoming the station i occupied nor so much as even entertained a thought derogatory to his honor so as to give him the least ground for entertaining in an opinion of me so ungenerous and undeserved for i flatter myself he cannot give a character of my conduct whilst i was under his tuition that could merit the slightest scrutiny oh my dearest mother i hope you have not so easily credited such an account of me do but let me vindicate my conduct and declare to you the true cause of my remaining in the ship and you will then see how little i deserve censure and how i have been injured by so gross an espersion i shall then give you a short and cursory account of what has happened to me since but i am afraid to say a hundredth part of what i have got in store for i'm not allowed the use of writing materials if known so that this is done by stealth and if it should ever come to your hands it will i hope have the desired effect of removing your uneasiness on my account when i assure you before the face of god of my innocence of what is laid to my charge how i came to remain on board was thus the morning the ship was taken it being my watch below happening to awake just after daylight and looking out of my hammock i saw a man sitting upon the arm chest in the main hatchway with a drawn cutlass in his hand the reason of which i could not divine so i got out of bed and inquired of him what was the cause of it he told me that mr christian assisted by some of the ship's company had seized the captain and put him in confinement had taken the command of the ship and meant to carry Bly home a prisoner in order to try him by court-martial for his long tyrannical and impressive conduct to his people i was quite thunderstruck and hurrying into my birth again told one of my messmates whom i awakened out of his sleep what had happened then dressing myself i went up the four hatchway and saw what he had told me was but too true and again i asked some of the people who were under arms what was going to be done with the captain who was then on the labored side of the quarter deck with his hands tied behind his back and mr christian alongside him with a pistol and drawn bayonet i now heard a very different story and that the captain was to be sent ashore to Tufua in the launch and that those who would not join mr christian might either accompany the captain or would be taken in irons to otahiti and left there the relation of two stories so different left me unable to judge which could be the true one but seeing them hoisting the boats out it seemed to prove the latter in this trying situation young and experienced as i was and without an advisor every person being as it were infatuated and not knowing what to do i remained for a while a silent spectator of what was going on and after revolving the matter in my mind i determined to choose what i thought the lesser of two evils and stay by the ship for i had no doubt that those who went on shore in the launch would be put to death by the savage natives whereas the otahitans being a humane and generous race one might have a hope of being kindly received and remain there until the arrival of some ship which seemed to silly me the most consistent with reason and rectitude while this resolution possessed my mind at the same time lending my assistance to hoist out the boats the hurry and confusion affairs were in and thinking my intention just i never thought of going to mr bligh for advice besides what confirmed me in it was my seeing two experienced officers when ordered into the boat by mr christian desire his permission to remain in the ship one of whom my own messmate mr hayward and i being assisting to clear the launch of yams he asked me what i intended to do i told him to remain in the ship now this answer i imagine he has told mr bligh i made to him from which together with my not speaking to him that morning his suspicions of me have arisen construing my conduct into what is foreign to my nature thus my dearest mother it was all owing to my youth and unadvised inexperience but has been interpreted into villainy and disregard of my country's laws the ill effects of which i at present and still am to labor under for some months longer and now after what i have asserted i may still once more retrieve my injured reputation be again reinstated in the affection and favor of the most tender of mothers and be still considered as her ever-dutiful son i was not undeceived in my erroneous decision till too late which was after the captain was in the launch for while i was talking to the master at arms one of the ring leaders in the affair my other messmate whom i had left in his hammock in the berth mr stewart came up to me and asked me if i was not going in the launch i replied no upon which he told me not to think of such a thing as remaining behind but take his advice and go down below with him to get few necessary things and make haste to go with him into the launch adding that by remaining in the ship i should incur an equal share of guilt with mutineers themselves i reluctantly followed his advice i say reluctantly because i knew no better and was foolish and the boat swimming very deep in the water the land being far distant the thoughts of being sacrificed by the natives and the self-consciousness of my first intention being just all these considerations almost staggered my resolution however i preferred my companion's judgment to my own and we both jumped down the main hatchway to prepare ourselves for the boat but no sooner were we in the berth than the master at arms ordered the sentry to keep us both in the berth till he should receive orders to release us we desired the master at arms to acquaint mr blire of our intention which we had reason to think he never did nor were we permitted to come on deck until the launch was a long way astern i now went too late saw my error at the latter end of may we got to an island to the southward of tahiti called tabua where they intended to make a settlement but finding no stock there of any kind they agreed to go to tahiti and after procuring hogs and fowls to return to tabua and remain so on the 6th of june we arrived at tahiti where i was in hopes i might find an opportunity of running away and remaining on shore but i could not affect it as there was always too good lookout kept to prevent any such steps being taken and besides they had all sworn that should anyone make his escape they would force the natives to restore him and would then shoot him as an example to the rest well knowing that anyone by remaining there might be the means should a ship arrive of discovering their intended place of abode finding it therefore impracticable i saw no other alternative but to rest as content as possible and return to tabua and there wait till the massive bounty should be taken out and then take the boat which might carry me to tahiti and disable those remaining from pursuit end no 20 but providence so ordered it that we had no occasion to try our fortune at such a hazard for upon returning there and remaining till the later end of august in which time a fort was almost built but nothing could be affected and as the natives could not be brought to friendly terms and with whom we had many skirmishes and narrow escapes from being cut off by them and what was still worse internal broils and discontent these things determined part of the people to leave the island and go to tahiti which was carried by a majority of votes this being carried into execution on the 22nd of september and being anchored in mataiyai bay the next morning my messmate mr steward and i went on shore to the house of an old land proprietor our former friend and being now set free from a lawless crew determined to remain as much apart from them as possible and wait patiently for the arrival of a ship fourteen more of the bounty's people came likewise on shore and mr christian and eight men went away with the ship but god knows wither whilst we remained here we were treated by our kind and friendly natives with a generosity and humanity almost unparalleled and such as we get hardly ever expected from the most civilized people to be brief having remained here till the later end of march 1791 on the 26th of that month his majesty ship pandora arrived and had scarcely anchored when my messmate and i went on board and made ourselves known and having learned from one of the natives who had been off in a canoe at our former messmate mr hayward now promoted to the rank of lieutenant was on board we asked for him supposing he might prove the assertions of our innocence but he like all worldlings when raised a little in life received us very coolly and pretended ignorance of our affairs yet formally he and i were bound and brotherly love and friendship appearances being so much against us we were ordered to be put in ions and looked upon oh infernal words as piratical villains a rebuff so severe as this was to a person unused to troubles would perhaps have been unsupportable but to me who had now been long enured to the frowns of fortune and feeling myself supported by an inward consciousness of not deserving it it was received with the greatest composure and a full determination to bear it with patience my sufferings however i have not power to describe but though they are great yet i thank god for enabling me to bear them without repining i endeavor to qualify my affliction with these three considerations first my innocence not deserving them secondly that they cannot last long and thirdly that the change may be for the better the first improves my hope the second my patience and the third my courage i am young in years but old in what the world calls adversity and it has had such an effect as to make me consider it's the most beneficial incident that could have occurred at my age it has made me acquainted with three things which are little known and as little believed by any but those who have felt their effects first the villainy and censoriness of mankind secondly the futility of all human hopes and thirdly the happiness of being content in whatever station it may please providence to place me in in short it has made me more of a philosopher than many years of a life spent in ease and pleasure would have done as they will no doubt proceed to the greatest lengths against me i being the only surviving officer and they most inclined to believe a prior story all that can be said to confute it will probably be looked upon as mere falsity and invention should that be my unhappy case and they resolve upon my destruction as an example to futurity may god enable me to bear my fate with the fortitude of a man conscious that misfortune not any misconduct is the cause and that the almighty can attest my innocence yet why should i despond i have i hope still a friend in that provident which hath preserved me amidst many greater dangers and upon whom alone i now depend for safety god will always protect those who deserve it these are the sole considerations which have enabled me to make myself easy and content other my past misfortunes twelve more of the people who were at odohiti having delivered themselves up there was a sort of prison built on the after part of the quarterdeck into which we were all put in close confinement with both legs and both hands and irons and were treated with great rigor not being allowed ever to get out of this den and being obliged to eat drink sleep and obey the cause of nature here you may form some idea of the disagreeable situation i must have been in unable as i was to help myself being deprived of the use of both my legs and hands but by no means adequate to the reality on the ninth of may we left odohiti and proceeded to the friendly islands and about the beginning of august got in amongst the reefs of new holland to endeavor to discover a passage through them but it was not affected for the pandora ever unlucky and as if devoted by heaven to destruction was driven by a current upon the patch of a reef and on which there being a heavy surf she was soon almost bulged to pieces but having thrown all the guns on one side overboard and the tide flowing at the same time she beat over the reef into a basin and brought up in fourteen or fifteen fathoms but she was so much damaged while on the reef that imagining she would go to pieces every moment we had contrived to wrench ourselves out of our irons and applied to the captain to have mercy on us and suffer us to take our chance for the preservation of our lives but it was all in vain he was even so inhuman as to order us all to be put in irons again though the ship was expected to go down every moment being scarcely able to keep her under with all the pumps at work in this miserable situation with an expected death before our eyes without the least hope of relief and in the most trying state of suspense we spent the night the ship being by the hand of providence kept up till the morning the boats by this time had all been prepared and as the captain and officers were coming upon the poop or roof of our prison to abandon the ship the water being then up to the comings of the hatchways we again implored his mercy upon which he sent the corporal and an armourer down to let some of us out of irons but three only were suffered to go up and the scuttle being then clapped on and the master at arms upon it the armourer had only time to let two persons out of irons the rest except three letting themselves out two of these three went down with them on their hands and the third was picked up she now began to heel over to port so very much that the master at arms sliding overboard and leaving the scuttle vacant we all tried to get up and I was at last out but three the water was then pouring in at the bulkhead scuttles yet I succeeded in getting out and was scarcely in the sea when I could see nothing above it for the cross trees and nothing around me but a scene of the greatest distress I took a plank being stark naked and swam towards an island about three miles off but was picked up on my passage by one of the boats when we got ashore to the small sandy key we found there were 34 men drowned four of whom were prisoners and among these was my unfortunate messmate Mr. Stewart ten of us and 89 of Pandora's crew were saved when a survey was made of what provisions had been saved they were found to consist of two or three bags of bread two or three beakers of water and a little wine so we subsisted three days upon two wine glasses of water and two ounces of bread per day on the 1st of September we left the island and on the 16th arrived at Coupang on the island of Timor having been on short allowance 18 days we were put in confinement in the castle where we remained till October and on the 5th of that month we were sent on board a Dutch ship bound for Batavia though I have been eight months in close confinement in hot climate I have kept my health in a most surprising manner without the least in disposition and I'm still perfectly well in every respect in mind as well as body but without a friend and only a shirt and a pair of trousers to put on and carry me home yet with all this I have a contented mind entirely resigned to the will of Providence which conduct alone enables me to saw above the reach of unhappiness in a subsequent letter to a sister he says I send you two little sketches of the manner in which his majesty ship Pandora went down on the 29th of August and of the appearance which we who survived made on small sandy quay within the reef about 90 yards long and 60 broad in all 99 souls here we remained three days subsisting on a single wine glass of wine or water and two ounces of bread a day with 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 the only shelter we had was to bury ourselves up to the neck in the burning sand which scorched the skin entirely off our bodies for we were quite naked and we appeared as if dipped in large tubs of boiling water we were 19 days in the same miserable situation before we landed at Coupang I was in the ship in ions hands and feet much longer than till the position you now see her in the poop alone being above the water and that knee deep when a kind of providence assisted me to get out of ions and escape from her End of Chapter 5 Part 2 Recording by Haley Flag of Texas Chapter 5 The Pandora Part 3 of the eventful history of the mutiny and piratical seizure of HMS Bounty its cause and consequences This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Haley Flag The Eventful History of the Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of HMS Bounty by Sir John Barrow Chapter 5 Part 3 The treatment of these unhappy men was almost as bad at Batavia as in the Pandora being closely confined in irons in the castle and fed on very bad provisions and the hardships they endured on their passage to England in Dutch ships were very severe having as he says slept on nothing but hard boards on wet canvas without any bed for 17 months always subsisting on short allowance of execrable provisions and without any clothes for some time except such as the charity of two young men in the ship supplied him with He had during his confinement at Batavia learned to make straw hats and finished several with both his hands and fetters which he sold for half a crown apiece and with the produce of these he procured a suit of coarse clothes in which with a cheerful and light heart notwithstanding all his sufferings he arrived at Portsmouth how he preserved his health under the dreadful sufferings he endured and in eight months close confinement in a hot climate is quite wonderful on the second day after the arrival of the Gorgon at Spithead the prisoners were transferred to the Hector commanded by Captain the late Admiral Sir George Montague where they were treated with the greatest humanity and every indulgence allowed that could with propriety be extended to men in their unhappy situation until the period when they were to be arraigned before the competent authority and put on their trials for mutiny and piracy which did not take place until the month of September in this period of anxious and awful suspense a most interesting correspondence was carried on between this unfortunate youth and his numerous friends which exhibits the character of himself and the whole family in the most amiable and affectionate colors and in a more particular manner of that adorable creature his sister Nessie who in one of her letters accounts for the peculiar warmth of her attachment and expressions by their being nearly of the same age and engaged in the same pursuits whether of study or amusement in their juvenile years the poor mother on hearing of his arrival thus addresses her unfortunate son Isle of Man June 29th 1792 O my ever dearly beloved and long lost son with what anxiety have I waited for this period I have counted the days hours and even minutes since I first heard of the horrid and unfortunate mutiny which has so long deprived me of my dearest boy but now the happy time has come when though I cannot have the unspeakable pleasure of seeing and embracing you yet I hope we may be allowed to correspond surely there can be nothing improper in a liberty of this sort between an affectionate mother and her dutiful and beloved son who I am perfectly convinced was never guilty of the crime he has been suspected of by those who did not know his worth and truth I have not the least doubt but that the all gracious God who of his good providence has protected you so long and brought you safe through so many dangers and difficulties will still protect you and at your trial make your innocence appear as clear as the light all your letters have come safe to me and to my very dear good Nessie ah Peter with what real joy did we all receive them and how happy are we that you are now safe in England I will endeavour my dearest lad to make your present situation as comfortable as possible for so affectionate and good a son deserves my utmost attention Nessie has written to our faithful and kind friend Mr. Hayward of Plymouth for his advice whether it would be proper for her to come up to you if he consents to her so doing not a moment shall be lost and how happy shall I be when she is with you such a sister she is oh Peter she is a most valuable girl etc on the same day this most valuable girl thus writes end note 21 my dearest and most beloved brother thanks to that almighty providence which is so miraculously preserved you you're fond anxious until now miserable Nessie is at last permitted to address the object of her tenderest affection in England oh my admirable my heroic boy what have we felt on your account yet how small how infinitely trifling was the misery of our situation when compared with the horror of yours let me now however with confidence hope that the god of all mercies has not so long protected you in vain but will at length crown your fortitude and pious resignation to his will with that peace and happiness you so richly merit how blessed did your delightful and yet dreadful letter from Batavia make us all surely my beloved boy you could not for a moment imagine we ever supposed you guilty of the crime of mutiny no no believe me no earthly power could have persuaded us that it was possible for you to do anything inconsistent with strict honor and duty so well did we know your amiable steady principles that we were assured your reasons for staying behind would turn out such as you represent them and I firmly trust that providence will at length restore you to those dear and affectionate friends who can know no happiness until they are blessed with your loved society take care of your precious health my angelic boy I shall soon be with you I have written to Mr. Haywood your and our excellent friend and protector for his permission to go to you immediately which my uncle Haywood without first obtaining it would not allow fearing lest any precipitate step might injure you at present and I only wait the arrival of his next letter to fly into your arms oh my best beloved Peter how I anticipate the rapture of that moment for alas I have no joy no happiness but in your beloved society and no hopes no fears no wishes but for you Mr. Haywood's sisters all address their unfortunate brother in the same affectionate but less impassioned strain and a little trait of good feeling is mentioned on the part of an old female servant that shows what a happy and attached family the Haywoods were previous to the melancholy affair in which their boy became entangled Mrs. Haywood says my good honest bucket is very well and says your safe return has made her more happy than she has been for these two and forty years she has been in our family and Ms. Nessie tells him poor Birkitt the most faithful and worthiest of servants desires me to tell you that she almost dies with joy at the thought of your safe arrival in England what agony my dear boy has she felt on your account her affection for you knows no bounds and her misery has indeed been extreme but she still lives to bless your virtues the poor prisoner thus replies from his majesty's ship Hector to his beloved sisters all this day I had the supreme happiness of your long expected letters and I am not able to express the pleasure and joy they afforded me at the sight of them my spirits low and ejected were at once exhilarated my heart had long and greatly suffered from my impatience to hear of those most dear to me and was tossed and tormented by the storms of fearful conjecture but they are now subsided and my bosom has at length attained that long lost serenity and calmness it once enjoyed for you may believe me when I say it never yet has suffered any disquiet from my own misfortunes but from a truly anxious solicitude for and desire to hear of your welfare God be thanked you still entertain such an opinion of me as I will flat myself I have deserved but why do I say so can I make myself too worthy the affectionate praises of such amiable sisters oh my nessie it grieves me to think I must be under the necessity however heartbreaking to myself of desiring you will relinquish your most affectionate design of coming to see me it is too long and tedious a journey and even on your arrival you would not be allowed the wish for happiness both to you and myself of seeing much less conversing with your unfortunate brother the rules of the service are so strict that prisoners are not permitted to have any communication with email relations thus even the sight of and conversation with so truly affectionate a sister is for the present denied me the happiness of such an interview let us defer till time which please God will arrive when it can be enjoyed with more freedom and unobserved by the gazing eyes of an inquisitive world which in my present place of confinement would of course not be the case I am very happy to hear that poor old Burkett is still alive remember me to her and tell her not to heave her back until God grants me the pleasure of seeing her and now my dear Nessie cease to anticipate the happiness of personal communication with your poor but resigned brother until wished for freedom removes the indignant shackles I now bear from the feet of your fond and most affectionate brother pH in a subsequent letter to his sister he says let us at present be resigned to our fate contented with this sort of communication and be thankful to God for having even allowed us that happiness for be assured the present confinement is liberty compared with what it has been for the 15 months last past on the 15th of July Commodore Paisley addressed the following businesslike letter to Miss Haywood I received your letter my dearest Nessie with the enclosure her brother's narrative but did not choose to answer it until I had made a thorough investigation that is seen personally all the principal evidences which has ever since occupied my whole thoughts and time I have also had some letters from himself and notwithstanding he must still continue in confinement every attention and indulgence possible is granted him by Captain Montague of the Hector who is my particular friend I have no doubt of the truth of your brother's narrative the master, Boson, Gunner and Carpenter late of the bounty I have seen and have the pleasure to assure you that they are all favorable and corroborate what he says that fellow Captain Edwards who's inhuman rigor of confinement I shall never forget I have likewise seen he cannot deny that Peter avowed himself late of the bounty when he came voluntarily aboard this is a favorable circumstance I have been at the Admiralty and read over all the dispositions taken and sent home by Bly and his officers from Batavia likewise the court-martial on himself in none of which appears anything against Peter as soon as Lieutenant Haywood arrives with the remainder of the Pandora's crew the court-martial is to take place I shall certainly attend and we must have an able counsellor to assist for I will not deceive you, my dear Nessie however favorable circumstances may appear our martial law is severe by the tenor of it the man who stands newter is equally guilty with him who lifts his arm against his captain in such cases his extreme youth and his delivering himself up are the strong points of his defence adieu, my dearest Nessie present my love to your mother and sisters and rest assured of my utmost exertions to extricate your brother your affectionate uncle T. Paisley this excellent man did not stop here knowing that sea officers have a great aversion from council he writes to say a friend of mine Mr. Graham who has been secretary to the different admirals on the Newfoundland station for these 12 years and consequently has acted as judge advocate at court-martials all that time has offered me to attend you he has a thorough knowledge of the service uncommon abilities and is a very good lawyer he has already had most of the evidences with him adieu my young friend keep up your spirits and rest assured I shall be watchful for your good my heart will be more at ease if I can get my friend Graham to go down than if you were attended by the first council in England end note 22 Mr. Graham accordingly attended N was of the greatest service at the trial Nessie Haywood end note 23 having in one of her letters inquired of her brother how tall he was and having received information on this point expressed some surprise that he was not taller and so he replies you aren't surprised I'm not taller ah Nessie let me ask you this suppose the two last years of your growth had been retarded by close confinement nearly deprived of all kinds of necessary element shut up from the old shearing light of the sun for the space of five months and never suffered to breathe the fresh air an enjoyment which Providence denies to none of his creatures during all that time and without any kind of exercise to stretch and supple your limbs besides many other inconveniences which I will not pay you by mentioning how tall should you have been my dear sister answer four feet nothing but enough of nonsense Nessie Haywood had expressed a strong desire to see her brother but was told the rules of the service would not allow it also that it would agitate him when he sought to be cool and collected to meet his approaching trial that was quite enough but as for myself she says no danger no fatigue no difficulties would deter me I have youth and health and excellent natural spirits these and the strength of my affection would support me through it all if I were not allowed to see you yet being in the same place which contains you would be joy inexpressible I will not however any longer desire it but will learn to imitate your fortitude and patience Mr. Haywood of Maristow and his daughter Ms. Birdie had intimated the same thing these excellent people from the moment of young Haywood's arrival had shown him every kindness supplied him with money and what was better with friends who could give him the best advice to this worthy lady Ms. Nessie Haywood thus addresses herself overwhelmed with sensations of gratitude and pleasure which she is too much agitated to express permit me dearest madam at my mamad's request to offer you her and our most sincere acknowledgements for your invaluable letter which from the detention of the packet she did not receive till yesterday by a letter from my beloved brother of the same date we are informed that Mr. Larkham who I suppose to be the gentleman you mentioned having sent to see him has been on board the Hector and has kindly offered him the most salutary advice relative to his present situation for which allow me to request you will present him our best thanks he also speaks with every expression a grateful heart can dictate of your excellent father's goodness in providing for all his wants even before he could have received any letters from us to that purpose our my dear madam how truly characteristic is this of kind friendship with which he has ever honored our family but my beloved Peter does not know that Mr. Haywood has a daughter whose generosity is equal to his own and whose amiable compassion for his sufferings it will be as impossible for us to forget as it is to express the admiration and gratitude it has inspired it would I am convinced be unnecessary as well as a very bad compliment to you madam were I to presume to point out anything particular to be done for our poor boy as I have not the least out your goodness and kind intention have long ago rendered every care of that sort on our part unnecessary I shall only add that my mama begs every wish he forms may be granted and sure I am he will not desire a single gratification that can be deemed in the smallest degree improper in one of my brother's letters dated the 23rd he hints that he shall not be permitted to see any of his relations till his trial is over and that he therefore does not expect us I have however written to Mr. Haywood without whose approbation I would by no means take any step for permission to go to him if it is absolutely impossible for me to see him though in the presence of witnesses yet even that prohibition cruel as it is I could bear with patience provided I might be near him to see the ship in which he at present exists to behold those objects which perhaps at the same moment attracts his notice to breathe the same air which he breathes my dearest madam these are inestimable gratifications and will convey sensations of rapture and delight to the fond bosom of a sister which it is far very far beyond my power to describe besides the anxiety and impatience produced by the immense distance which now separates us from him and the uncertainty attending the packet render it difficult and sometimes impossible to hear of him so often as we would wish and may or not add though heaven in its mercy forbid it for alas the bare ideas too dreadful yet it is in the scale of possibility that some accident might happen to deprive us of my dearest brother how insupportably bitter would then be our reflections for having omitted the opportunity when it was in our power of administering comfort and consolation to him in person for these reasons I earnestly hope Mr. Hayward will not judge improper to comply with my request and shall wait with eager impatience the arrival of his next letter think not my dear madam that it is want of confidence in your care and attention which makes me solicitous to be with my beloved brother be assured we are all as perfectly easy in that respect as if we were on the spot but I am convinced you will pardon the dictates of an affection which in absence of five years rendered still more painful by his sufferings has heightened almost to a degree of adoration I shall with your permission take the liberty of enclosing a letter to my brother which I'll leave open for perusal and at the same time request your pardon for mentioning you to him in such terms as I am a prehensive will wound the delicacy which ever accompanies generosity like yours but indeed my dearest madam I cannot must not suffer my beloved boy to remain in ignorance of that worth and excellent which has prompted you to become his kind protectress I have the honor to be with every sentiment of gratitude etc etc etc nessie hayward among the numerous friends that interested themselves in the fate of this unhappy youth was his uncle colonel hallwell the testimony he bears to his excellent character is corroborated by all who knew him while a boy at home about a fortnight before the trial he writes to him thus 21st of august 1792 my very dear peter I have this day received yours of the 18th and I'm happy to find by its contents that notwithstanding your long and cruel confinement you still preserve your health and write in good spirits preserve it my dear boy awful as the approaching period must be even to the most innocent but from which all who know you have not a doubt of your rising as immaculate as a newborn infant I have known you from your cradle and have often remarked with pleasure and surprise the many assiduous instances far beyond your years you have given a filial duty and paternal affection to the best of parents and to brothers and sisters who doted on you your education has been the best and from these considerations alone without the very clear evidence of your own testimony I would assume believe the archbishop of canterbury would set fire to the city of london as suppose you could directly or indirectly join in such an absurd piece of business truly sorry am I that my state of health will not permit me to go down to port smith to give this testimony publicly before that respectable tribunal where your country's laws have justly ordained you must appear but consider this as the touchstone my dear boy by which your worth must be known six years and navy myself and 28 years a soldier I flatter myself my judgment will not prove erroneous that power my dear peter of whose grace and mercy you seem to have so just a sense will not now forsake you your dear aunt is as must be expected in such a trying situation but more from your present sufferings than any apprehension of what is to follow etc with similar testimonies and most favorable auguries from comrade or paisley the reverend dr. scott of the isle of man and others young haywood went to his long and anxiously expected trial which took place on the 12th of september and continued to the 18th of that month mrs. haywood had been anxious that urskine and mingay should be employed as counsel but mr. graham whom comodore paisley had so highly recommended gave his best assistance as did also mr. conste who had been retained for which the comodore expresses his sorrow as c officers he says have great version to lawyers mr. peter haywood assigns a better reason in a letter to his sister mary he says that counsel to enable prisoners of no effect and as they are not allowed to speak their eloquence is not of the least efficacy i request therefore you will desire my dear mother to revoke the letter she has been so good to write to retain mr. urskine and mr. mingay and to forbear putting herself to so great and needless and expense from which no good can accrue no no mary it is not the same as a trial unsure it would then be highly requisite but in this case i alone must fight my own battle and i think my telling the truth undisguised in a plain short and concise manner is as likely to be deserving the victory as the most elaborate eloquence of a cicero upon the same subject at this anxious moment many painfully interesting letters pass to and from the family in the isle of man the last letter from his beloved nessie previous to the awful event thus concludes may that almighty providence whose tender care has hitherto preserved you be still your powerful protector may he instill into the heart of your judge's every sentiment of justice generosity and compassion may hope innocence and integrity be your firm support and liberty glory and honor your just reward may all good angels guard you from even the appearance of danger and may you at length be restored to us the delight the pride of your adoring friends and the soul happiness and felicity of that fond heart which animates the bosom of my dear peter's most faithful and truly affectionate sister in h end of chapter five part three recording by hailey flag of texas