His Majesty’s ship _Bounty_, an armed vessel, was fitted out under the
express desire of King George III., and sailed from England in the
winter of 1787, commanded by Lieutenant Bligh, on a voyage to the
Society Islands to gather bread-fruit trees, and to bring them for
transplantation to the British West India settlements, in which climate,
it was the opinion of Sir Joseph Banks, they might be successfully
cultivated, and prove a succeedaneum for other provisions in times of
scarcity.
The _Bounty_ actually departed on its voyage from Spithead on the 23rd
December, 1787, and after having to change its first intended course by
Cape Horn for the Cape of Good Hope, arrived at Otaheite, the chief of
the Society Islands, on the 25th October, 1788. Here Bligh and his crew
were received in the most friendly way by the gentle inhabitants of the
island, and here they passed a delightful but too enervating period of
five months and a half. The worst of it was, the charms of the place
proved too strong a temptation for the seamen of the _Bounty_. The women
of Otaheite had fascinated them to a degree that deprived them of all
sense of right or duty. Well might a locality in the island be termed
“Point Venus.” The whole territory seemed a Paphos, for in no savage
land had there before ever been found women so beautiful, so agreeable,
and so affectionate. I have it from one of Captain Bligh’s descendants,
that the captain always attributed the mutiny solely to the irresistible
desire of the crew to return to the society of the Otaheite women.
Byron, in his poem, agrees with Bligh in this view, and thus depicts
Otaheite:—
“The gentle island, and the genial soil,
The friendly hearts, the feasts without a toil,
The courteous manners but from Nature caught,
The wealth unhoarded, and the love unbought;
Could these have charms for rudest sea-boys, driven
Before the mast by every wind of heaven?
And now, even now prepared with others’ woes
To earn mild Virtue’s vain desire, repose?”
Byron’s description of the Otaheite girl, Neuha, gives a fair idea of
the charms of the female population of Otaheite:—
“There sat the gentle savage of the wild,
In growth a woman, though in years a child,
As childhood dates within our colder clime,
Where nought is ripen’d rapidly save crime;
The infant of an infant world, as pure
From Nature—lovely, warm, and premature,
Dusky like night, but night with all her stars;
Or cavern sparkling with its native spars;
With eyes that were a language and a spell,
A form like Aphrodite’s in her shell,
With all her loves around her on the deep,
Voluptuous as the first approach of sleep;
Yet full of life—for through her tropic cheek
The blush would make its way, and all but speak;
The sun-born blood suffused her neck, and threw
O’er her clear nut-brown skin a lucid hue,
Like coral reddening through the darken’d wave,
Which draws the diver to the crimson cave.”
A slight sign of a mutinous intention was shown at one time during the
stay on the island. Charles Churchill, the ship’s corporal, and two
seamen, William Musprat and John Millward, temporarily deserted; but,
after some days’ search for them, they surrendered, and threw themselves
on Bligh’s mercy. He generously, but not wisely, as it turned out,
forgave them. Bligh had made good, however, the object of his voyage, so
far as to have received on board a great number of the bread-fruit trees
in various stages of growth, and there was every prospect of their being
capable of preservation. The ship, thus laden, quitted Otaheite on the
4th of April, 1789, and continued her course in a westerly direction,
touching at one more island, and then meditating her progress through
the Pacific Ocean towards the Moluccas. The ship lost sight of the
Friendly Islands on the 27th of that month, and everything like good
order was supposed to prevail on board—even the mid-watch was relieved
without the least apparent disorder; but at daybreak on the 28th, the
cabin of Captain Bligh, who commanded the _Bounty_, was forcibly entered
by the officer of the watch, Fletcher Christian, assisted by Churchill,
Mills, and Burkitt, who dragged him instantly on the deck, menacing his
life if he attempted to speak. His endeavour to exhort and bring back
the conspirators to their duty proved of no avail. Each of the
desperadoes was armed with a drawn cutlass or a fixed bayonet, and all
their muskets were avowed to be charged.
Captain Bligh discovered, when he came upon deck, several of the crew
and most of the officers pinioned; and while he was thus contemplating
their perilous state, the ship’s boat was let over her side, and all who
were not on the part of the conspirators, to the number of nineteen
besides the captain, were committed to the boat, and no other
nourishment afforded to them than about 140 lbs. of bread, 30 lbs. of
meat, one gallon and a half of rum, a like portion of wine, and a few
gallons of water. A compass and quadrant were secured by one of these
devoted victims as he was stepping into the boat; and thus abandoned,
the mutineers, after giving them a cheer, stood away, as they said, for
Otaheite.[17] The captain, in the dreadful situation, found his
boatswain, carpenter, gunner, surgeon’s mate, with Mr. Daniel Nelson,
the botanist, and a few inferior officers, amongst those who were likely
to share his fate. After a short consultation, it was deemed expedient
to put back to the Friendly Islands: and accordingly they landed on one
of these, in hopes they might improve their small stock of provisions,
on the 30th of April, but were driven off by the natives two days after,
and pursued with such hostility that one man was killed and several
wounded. It was then deliberated whether they should return to Otaheite
and throw themselves on the clemency of the natives, but the
apprehension of falling in with the _Bounty_ determined them with one
assent to make the best of their way to Timor; and to effect this
enterprise—astonishing to relate!—they calculated the distance, near
4,000 miles, and in order that their wretched supply of provisions might
endure till they reached the place of destination, they agreed to
apportion their food to one ounce of bread and one gill of water a day
for each man. No other nourishment did they receive till the 5th or 6th
of June, when they made the coast of New Holland, and collected a few
shell-fish; and with this scanty relief they held on their course to
Timor, which they reached on the 12th, after having been forty-six days
in a crazy, open boat, too confined in dimensions to suffer any of them
to lie down for repose, and without the least awning to protect them
from the rain, which almost incessantly fell for forty days. A heavy sea
and squally weather for great part of their course augmented their
misery. The governor of this settlement, which belonged to the Dutch,
afforded them every succour they required. They remained here to recruit
their strength and spirits till the 20th of August, when they procured a
vessel to carry them to Batavia. They reached Batavia on the 2nd of
October, and from thence Captain Bligh and two of the crew embarked for
the Cape of Good Hope, and the rest of the crew were prepared to follow
as soon as a passage could be obtained. Captain Bligh reached the Cape
about the middle of December, and soon after took his passage for
England, which he reached on the evening of the 13th of March, and
arrived in London on the 14th. Bligh’s published narrative of this
wonderful escape, the result of his own indomitable courage and
perseverance, is a work elegantly written and full of the deepest
interest. It well deserves a place by the side of the great fiction
“Robinson Crusoe” and the true voyages of Captain Cook. Bligh’s own
account of the landing at Timor is so graphic, that I cannot refrain
from giving it here:—
“I now,” he writes, “desired my people to come on shore, which was as
much as some of them could do, being scarce able to walk; they, however,
were helped to the house, and found tea, with bread-and-butter, provided
for their breakfast.
“The abilities of a painter, perhaps, could seldom have been displayed
to more advantage, than in the delineation of the two groups of figures,
which at this time presented themselves to each other. An indifferent
spectator would have been at a loss which most to admire—the eyes of
famine sparkling at immediate relief, or the horror of their preservers
at the sight of so many spectres, whose ghastly countenances, if the
cause had been unknown, would rather have excited terror than pity. Our
bodies were nothing but skin and bones, our limbs were full of sores,
and we were clothed in rags. In this condition, with the tears of joy
and gratitude flowing down our cheeks, the people of Timor beheld us
with a mixture of horror, surprise, and pity. The governor, Mr. William
Adrian Van Este, notwithstanding extreme ill-health, became so anxious
about us, that I saw him before the appointed time. He received me with
great affection, and gave me the fullest proofs that he was possessed of
every feeling of a humane and good man. Sorry as he was, he said, that
such a calamity could ever have happened to us, yet he considered it was
the greatest blessing of his life that we had fallen under his
protection; and, though his infirmity was so great that he could not do
the office of a friend himself, he would give such orders as I might be
certain would procure us every supply we wanted. A house should be
immediately prepared for me, and, with respect to my people, he said
that I might have room for them either at the hospital or on board of
Captain Spikerman’s ship, which lay in the road; and he expressed much
uneasiness that Coupang (the Dutch capital in Timor) could not afford
them better accommodations, the house assigned to me being the only one
uninhabited, and the situation of the few families that lived at this
place such that they could not conveniently receive strangers. For the
present, till matters could be properly regulated, he gave directions
that victuals for my people should be dressed at his own house.
“On returning to Captain Spikerman’s house, I found that every kind
relief had been given to my people. The surgeon had dressed their sores,
and the cleaning of their persons had not been less attended to, several
friendly gifts of apparel having been presented to them. I desired to be
shown to the house that was intended for me, which I found ready, with
servants to attend. It consisted of a hall, with a room at each end, and
a loft over-head, and was surrounded by a piazza, with an outer
apartment in one corner, and a communication at the back part of the
house to the street. I therefore determined, instead of separating from
my people, to lodge them all with me, and I divided the house as
follows:—One room I took to myself, the other I allotted to the
master-surgeon, Mr. Nelson, and the gunner; the loft to the other
officers, and the outer apartment to the men. The hall was common to the
officers, and the men had the back piazza. Of this disposition I
informed the governor, and he sent down chairs, tables, and benches,
with bedding and other necessaries for the use of every one.
“The governor, when I took my leave, had desired me to acquaint him with
everything of which I stood in need; but it was only at particular times
that he had a few moments of ease, or could attend to anything, being in
a dying state with an incurable disease. On this account I transacted
whatever business I had with Mr. Timotheus Wanjon, the second of this
place, who was the governor’s son-in-law, and who also contributed
everything in his power to make our situation comfortable. I had been,
therefore, misinformed by the seaman, who told me that Captain Spikerman
was the next person in command to the governor.
“At noon a dinner was brought to the house, sufficiently good to make
persons, more accustomed to plenty, eat too much. Yet, I believe, few in
such a condition would have observed more moderation than my people did.
My greatest apprehension was, that they would eat too much fruit, of
which there was great variety in season at this time.
“Having seen every one enjoy this meal of plenty, I dined myself with
Mr. Wanjon; but I felt no extraordinary inclination to eat or drink.
Rest and quiet I considered as more necessary to the re-establishment of
my health, and, therefore, retired soon to my room, which I found
furnished with every convenience. But, instead of rest, my mind was
disposed to reflect on our late sufferings, and on the failure of the
expedition; but, above all, on the thanks due to Almighty God, who had
given us power to support and bear such heavy calamities, and had
enabled me at last to be the means of saving eighteen lives.”
All, however, did not live to reach England. David Nelson, the botanist,
died at Coupang, of fever, brought on by fatigue. Elphinstone, the
master’s mate, and two seamen, Hull and Linkletter, died at Batavia;
Robert Lamb and Mr. Ledward, the surgeon, were lost on the return
passage. “Thus,” concludes Bligh, “of nineteen who were forced by the
mutineers into the launch, it has pleased God that twelve should
surmount the difficulties and dangers of the voyage, and live to revisit
their native country.”
To now return to the mutineers.
They, to the number of twenty-five, after getting rid of the captain and
his adherents, sailed back, in the _Bounty_, to Otaheite, but on landing
there, Christian and eight of his comrades, in dread of the offended
majesty of the British Admiralty, sought a safer refuge in the
neighbouring Pacific Island of Pitcairn. From what ensued, the names of
Christian’s eight followers should be recorded. They were Edward Young,
midshipman; John Mills, gunner’s mate; Matthew Quintal, seaman; William
McCoy, seaman; ALEXANDER SMITH, otherwise JOHN ADAMS, seaman; John
Williams, seaman; Isaac Martin, seaman; and William Brown, gardener.
When the _Bounty_ reached Pitcairn’s Island she had on board these nine
of the crew, with nine Otaheitan women; six Otaheitan men, three of whom
had wives; and a little girl, who afterwards became the wife of Charles
Christian, of the family of Fletcher. They burnt the _Bounty_ after
arriving at Pitcairn’s Island.
They had not, writes the Rev. Mr. Murray, in his admirable account of
Pitcairn, long set foot on the island, ere it became a stage for the
display of every evil passion. They were “hateful, and hating one
another.” During the frightful period of domestic warfare between the
Europeans and the blacks, in which the former often adopted the
tremendously simple rule of might against right, the blacks made common
cause together; and having planned the murder of their imperious
masters, they went, from time to time, into the woods to practise
shooting at a mark, and thus became tolerably good marksmen. Their
murderous plot reached the ears of the wives of the mutineers; and the
females are said to have disclosed it to their husbands, just before the
time appointed for the massacre, by adding to one of their songs these
words, “Why does black man sharpen axe? To kill white man.”
In the course of the deadly struggles occurring between the several
parties, Christian, Mills, Williams, Martin, and Brown, were murdered in
the year 1793, by the Otaheitan men, whom they had brought to the island
with them. Christian was the first to fall a victim to their revenge.
Mills was the next. Adams was shot, the ball entering at his shoulder
and coming out at his neck. He fell; but suddenly sprang up and ran.
They caught him; and a blow was aimed at his head with the butt-end of a
musket. This he warded off with his hand, having his finger broken by
the blow. On his again escaping, he ran down the rocks toward the sea;
but his pursuers called out to him, that if he would return, he should
not be hurt. He returned accordingly, and they troubled him no more. All
the Otaheitan men were killed in the same year, one of them having been
destroyed by Young’s wife, with an axe. As soon as she had killed the
last survivor but one of the Otaheitans, she gave a signal to her
husband to fire upon the remaining black, which was done with fatal
precision. This woman, Susannah, who afterwards married Thursday October
Christian, Fletcher Christian’s son, died at an advanced age, in the
year 1850. She was the last survivor of the _Bounty_.
But other horrors remained behind. In 1798, M‘Coy, in a fit of _delirium
tremens_, brought on by drunkenness, having thrown himself from the
rocks into the sea, was drowned. Quintal, a violent and headstrong man,
after threatening the lives of his companions, was killed by Young and
Adams, who, in 1799, took away his life with an axe, in self-defence.
Thus, six of the mutineers were murdered, and one committed suicide.
Edward Young died of asthma, in 1800. Adams, as has been seen, was
severely wounded in one of the contests that took place, but had
recovered. Only two of the fifteen men who had landed from the _Bounty_
(Young and Adams) died a natural death. The news of the mutiny and the
sufferings of Bligh excited a great sensation in England. Bligh was at
once made a commander; and Captain Edwards was forthwith dispatched to
Otaheite, in Her Majesty’s ship _Pandora_, to search for the _Bounty_,
and to arrest and bring back to England the mutinous crew. The _Pandora_
reached Otaheite the 23rd March, 1791, and before the vessel anchored,
Coleman, the armourer of the _Bounty_, came in a canoe, and gave himself
up. Two days afterwards the whole of the crew of the _Bounty_, who had
stayed at Otaheite, surrendered themselves, with the exception of two,
who fled to the mountains, and were murdered by the natives.
After a tempestuous voyage and a shipwreck, in which four of his
prisoners perished, Captain Edwards succeeded in bringing ten of the
mutineers to England. These were tried by court-martial.
By the 15th article of war, statute 22 George II., cap. 33, every person
in, or belonging to, the fleet, who shall run away with any of His
Majesty’s ships or vessels of war, shall, on being convicted of such
offence, by the sentence of the court-martial, suffer death; and by the
16th article of war of the same statute, every person in, or belonging
to, the fleet, who shall desert or entice others to do so, shall suffer
death, or such other punishment as the circumstances of the offence
shall deserve, and a court-martial shall judge fit: and by the 19th
article of war of the same statute, if any person in, or belonging to,
the fleet, shall make, or endeavour to make, any mutinous assembly, upon
any pretence whatever, every person offending herein, and being
convicted thereof by the sentence of the court-martial, shall suffer
death.
The court-martial in this case was held at Portsmouth, on board His
Majesty’s ship _Duke_, on the 12th September, 1792. Vice-Admiral Lord
Hood was the President. The officers who sat at the trial were Captains
Sir A. S. Hamond, Bart., John Colpoys, Sir George Montagu, Sir Roger
Curtis, John Bazeley, Sir Andrew S. Douglas, John T. Duckworth, John N.
Inglefield, John Knight, Albemarle Bertie, (afterwards Admiral of the
White, K.B., and a Baronet), and R. G. Keats.
The names of the ten prisoners, capitally charged with mutiny and
piracy, were Peter Heywood, James Morrison, Thomas Ellison, Thomas
Burkitt, John Millward, William Muspratt, Charles Norman, Joseph
Coleman, Thomas M^cIntosh, and Michael Byrne.
The trial was concluded on the sixth day, the 18th of September, when
the prisoners were brought in. The court having agreed that the charges
of running away with the ship and deserting His Majesty’s service had
been proved against six of the prisoners, they found Heywood, Morrison,
Ellison, Burkitt, Millward, and Muspratt _guilty_, and adjudged them to
suffer death by being hanged by the neck on board one of His Majesty’s
ships-of-war. The court acquitted Norman, Coleman, McIntosh, and Byrne,
and recommended Peter Heywood and James Morrison to His Majesty’s mercy.
On the 24th of October, 1792, the royal warrant was dispatched, granting
a free pardon to Heywood (he died a captain, R.N., the 10th of February,
1831) and to Morrison, with a respite for Muspratt. At the same time was
sent a warrant for executing Burkitt, Ellison, and Millward. Muspratt
was afterwards pardoned. Millward and Muspratt, with Churchill, were the
men who had been deserters at Otaheite, and who had been forgiven by
Bligh for that offence. Burkitt had been forward in the mutiny on board
the _Bounty_. Ellison was a mere boy on the occasion of that act of
violence; he is thus described in the list forwarded from Batavia in
October, 1789:—“Thomas Ellison, seaman, aged seventeen years, five feet
three inches high, fair complexion, dark hair, strong made; has got his
name tattooed on his right arm, and dated October 25, 1788.”
Morrison, before his connection with the _Bounty_, had served in the
navy as a midshipman, and, after his pardon, had been appointed gunner
of the _Blenheim_, in which he perished with Admiral Sir Thomas
Troubridge. In a violent gale on the 1st of February, 1807, that vessel
was lost, with all the passengers and crew on her way from Madras to the
Cape of Good Hope.
Burkitt, Ellison and Millward were executed, pursuant to their sentence,
on the 26th of October, 1792, on board the ship _Brunswick_, in
Portsmouth Harbour. Captain Hammond reported that the criminals had
behaved with great penitence and decorum, had acknowledged the justice
of their sentence, and exhorted their fellow-sailors to take warning by
their untimely fate, enjoining them, whatever might be their hardships,
never to forget their obedience to their officers, but to remember the
duty which they owed to their king and country. The captain said that a
party from each ship in the harbour, and at Spithead, had attended the
execution; and that from the accounts he had received, the example seems
to have made a salutary impression on the minds of all the ships’
companies present.
More than sixteen years elapsed after that act of justice before aught
more was heard of the remaining mutineers of the _Bounty_, when, in
1808, the captain of an American schooner, by chance wintering at
Pitcairn’s Island, made the wonderful discovery thus narrated by
himself:—
“We left the friendly Marquesans on the 2nd of September, and were
proceeding on our voyage, to regain the port of Valparaiso, steering a
course which ought, according to the charts, and every other authority,
to have carried us nearly three degrees of longitude to the eastward of
Pitcairn’s Island, our surprise was greatly excited by its sudden
appearance; it was in the second watch that we made it. At daylight we
proceeded to a more close examination, and soon perceived huts,
cultivation, and people; of the latter, some were making signs, others
launching their little canoes through the surf, into which they threw
themselves with great dexterity, and pulled towards us.
“At this moment, I believe, neither Captain Bligh (of the _Bounty_) nor
Christian had entered any of our thoughts; and in waiting the approach
of strangers, we prepared to ask them some questions in the language of
those people we had so recently left. They approached us; and for me to
picture the wonder which was conspicuous in every countenance at being
hailed in perfect English, ‘What was the name of the ship, and who
commanded her?’ would be impossible; our surprise can alone be
conceived. The captain answered, and now a regular conversation
commenced. He requested them to come alongside, and the reply was, ‘We
have no boat-hook to hold on by.’ ‘I will throw you a rope.’ ‘If you do
we have nothing to make it fast to.’ was the answer. However, they at
length came on board, exemplifying not the least fear, but their
astonishment was unbounded. After the friendly salutation of ‘Good
morrow, sir,’ from the first man who entered, Mackay, for that was his
name, said, ‘Do you know one William Bligh in England?’ This question
threw a new light on the subject, and he was immediately asked ‘If he
knew one Christian?’ and the reply was given with so much natural
simplicity, that I shall here use his own words: ‘Oh, yes,’ said he,
‘very well; his son is in the boat there, coming up; his name is Friday
Fletcher October Christian; his father is dead now—he was shot by a
black fellow.’ Several of them had now reached the ship, and the scene
was become exceedingly interesting; every one betrayed the greatest
anxiety to know the ultimate fate of that misled young man, of whose end
so many vague reports had been in circulation, and those who did not ask
questions, devoured with avidity every word which led to an elucidation
of the mysterious termination of the unfortunate _Bounty_.
“Christian was shot by a black fellow—it was supposed through a jealousy
which was known to exist between the people of Otaheite and the English;
he was shot while at work in the yam plantation; the man who shot
Christian was afterwards shot by an Englishman. A further dispute arose
between the Otaheitans and English after the death of Christian, when
the blacks rose and shot two Englishmen and wounded John Adams, the only
surviving man of the mutineers, who saved himself from being murdered by
hiding himself in the wood; and the same night the women, enraged by the
murder of the English, to whom they were more partial than their
countrymen, rose and put every Otaheitan to death in his sleep. This
saved Adams. His wounds were soon healed; and, although old, he enjoys
good health. Christian brought with him from Otaheite, in the _Bounty_,
nine white men, six blacks, and eleven women; and at that time there
were forty-eight persons on the island. Adams had told them he had been
on the island about twenty-five years; that the _Bounty_ was run on
shore, and everything useful taken out of her, and then set fire to and
burnt. Christian was shot about two years after he came to the island,
his wife having died soon after the birth of his son; and he taking by
force the wife of one of the blacks to supply her place, was the chief
cause of his being shot; and his son, Friday Fletcher October Christian,
was the oldest person on the island, except John Adams. They were
allowed to marry at the age of nineteen or twenty, but not to have more
than one wife, as it was considered wicked to have more; and being asked
if they had been taught any religion, they answered, ‘A very good
religion,’ and to their credit they went through the whole of the
Belief, and said that John Adams had taught it them by order of F.
Christian; and he caused a prayer to be said every day at noon: ‘I will
arise and go to my father, and say unto him, Father, I have sinned
against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy
son,’ which they continued to say every day, and never neglected it.
“John Adams was a fine-looking old man, approaching to sixty years of
age. We conversed with him a long time relative to the mutiny of the
_Bounty_ and the ultimate fate of Christian; he denied being accessary
to, or having the least knowledge of, the conspiracy.
“He told me he was perfectly aware how deeply he was involved; that by
following the fortune of Christian he had not only sacrificed every
claim to his country, but that his life was the necessary forfeiture for
such an act, and he supposed would be exacted from him was he ever to
return. Notwithstanding all these circumstances, nothing would give him
so much gratification as that of seeing once more, prior to his death,
that country which gave him birth, and from which he had been so long
estranged. There was sincerity in his speech; I can hardly describe it,
but it had a very powerful influence in persuading me that these were
his real sentiments. My interest was excited to so great a degree that I
offered him a conveyance for himself and any of his family who chose to
accompany him. He appeared pleased at the proposal, and, as no one was
then present, he sent for his wife and children; the rest of the little
community surrounded the door. He communicated his desire, and solicited
their acquiescence. Appalled at a request not less sudden than in
opposition to their wishes, they were all at a loss for a reply. His
charming daughter, although inundated with tears, first broke silence.
‘Oh, do not, sir,’ said she, ‘take from me my father—do not take away my
best, my dearest friend.’ Her voice failed her—she was unable to
proceed; she leaned her head on her hand, and gave full vent to her
grief. His wife, too (an Otaheitan), expressed a lively sorrow. The
wishes of Adams soon became known among the others, who joined in
pathetic solicitation for his stay on the island. Not an eye was dry;
the big tears stood in those of the men; the women shed them in full
abundance: I never witnessed a scene so fully affecting, or more replete
with interest. To have taken him from a circle of such friends would
have ill become a feeling heart; to have forced him away, in opposition
to their joint entreaties, would have been an outrage to humanity. With
an assurance that it was neither our wish nor intention to take him away
against his inclination, their fears were at length dissipated. His
daughter, too, had gained her usual serenity; but she was lovely in her
tears, for each seemed to add an additional charm. Forgetting the
unhappy deed which placed Adams in that spot, and seeing him only in the
character he now is, at the head of a little community, adored by all,
instructing all in religion, industry, and friendship, his situation
might be truly envied, and one is almost inclined to hope that his
unremitting attention to the government and morals of this extraordinary
little colony, will ultimately form an equivalent for the part he
formerly took.
“Several books belonging to Captain Bligh, which were taken out of the
_Bounty_, were then in the possession of Adams, and the “First Voyage of
Captain Cook” was brought on board the _Briton_. In the title-page of
each volume the name of Captain Bligh was written, and I suppose in his
own writing. Christian had written his own name immediately under it,
without running his pen through, or in any way defacing, that of Captain
Bligh. On the margin of several of the leaves were written, in pencil,
numerous remarks on the work; but, as I consider them to have been the
private remarks of Captain Bligh, and written unsuspecting the
much-lamented event which subsequently took place, they shall by me be
held sacred.”
From that time forward the colony at Pitcairn’s Island was again and
again visited, and eventually became a continual subject of public
interest. Adams remained its revered patriarch till 1829, when he died
at the age of sixty-nine. The colony was afterwards admirably directed
by the Rev. G. H. Nobbs, who, as chaplain of the Island, was ordained by
the Rt. Rev. Dr. Bloomfield, bishop of London; and before returning to
Pitcairn after his ordination he had an interview with the Queen and the
Prince Consort, who both evinced the warmest and most cordial concern in
the welfare and happiness of the colonists. As time went on and the
numbers in the colony increased, Pitcairn’s Island became too small for
their support, and they were, on their own wish, removed by Government
to Norfolk Island, a lovely spot which had recently been given up as a
convict settlement. I cannot better conclude this account of the
Islanders than with the following interesting extract, which is from a
letter written by Captain W. H. Denhem, of Her Majesty’s ship _Herald_,
in charge of the survey in the South-Western Pacific Ocean, under date
“Norfolk Island, 16th June, 1856,” having reference to the Pitcairn
Islanders taking possession of their new settlement, Norfolk Island:—
“On the morning of the 31st instant, having arranged with Lieut. John
Hutchinson and Mr. J. W. Smith, assistant-surveyors, in regard to
completing the survey of the island and its inlets, together with lines
of soundings to the edge of the bank upon its surrounding aspects, in
connection with our survey of last year, I effected a landing.
“Looking to the date of the transport _Morayshire_, which left Sydney
under the instructions of his Excellency the Governor-General and of
Captain Stephen G. Fremantle, to bring the Pitcairn Island community to
this island, I had reason to expect them every day. And as the presence
of one of Her Majesty’s ships at the new home of that interesting people
would doubtlessly cheer them, as well as afford them essential aid in
landing and organising, on the one hand, whilst as simultaneously as
possible clearing the island of its residue as a penal settlement (upon
all of which points and general views I was cognizant of the wishes of
the Government), I became solicitous of being on the spot. I therefore
had only to hope that the transport would arrive before my primary
object in taking Norfolk Island _en route_, to the Polynesian Islands
could be accomplished.
“Fortunately, on Sunday the 8th instant, although a gloomy and
boisterous day, with considerable surf, the _Morayshire_ not only closed
with the island, but being joined by the _Herald_, and assisted by a
tracing of our survey, she took up a favourable position for
disembarkation, and by sunset the Pitcairn community, numbering 194
persons, were comfortably housed as well as landed without accident. I
was invited to their first evening Church service at their new home,
when a special thanksgiving was rendered unto God for the preservation
vouchsafed, and His guidance implored in the new era they had just
entered upon. It was an exemplary manifestation of habitual piety that
would not allow fatigue, amounting with many to almost exhaustion, nor
that excitement in the robust at the extreme novelty of matters around
them, to interfere with their wonted primary duty in life; on the
contrary, these artless, self-denying people, seemed to gather physical
comfort and energy as they responded to our beautiful Church Service,
rendered the more touchingly so by their admirable chanting, as they
listened patiently and devoted to the well-adapted exhortation of their
reverend pastor and counsellor, the Rev. George Hunn Nobbs. This
gentleman could not rest until he had explained to me the pervading
gratitude which the arrangements for the transit and reception of his
flock had excited.
“To the manner in which Acting-Lieut. Gregorie managed their
embarkation, so that every moveable article, even to the ‘gun’ and
‘anvil’ of the _Bounty_, has been transferred; to the accommodating
spirit in which the master of the transport followed out his undertaking
on a five weeks’ passage, during which the most tender treatment was
necessary for alarming cases of sea-sickness that ceased not from island
to island, including a birth which took place; and finally, to the
joyful sight of one of the Queen’s ships, in whose boats, under Lieut.
John Hutchinson, of the _Herald_, and in the separate charge of Messrs.
Nixon, Howard, and Nugent, they were landed, while the commissariat
officer and myself greeted them individually as they set foot on shore,
and conducted them to the comfortably-prepared quarters, until they made
their own selections from the ample dwellings erected for them, may be
attributed the happy accomplishment of an event so vitally important to
this peculiar community, in conformity with the deep interest taken in
them by Her Majesty and the Government.
“The ensuing week has been successfully employed in landing all the
seventy years’ gathering of chattels belonging to the Pitcairners,
notwithstanding the precarious seaboard of this island, causing the
ships to put to sea every night. They could, therefore, duly observe
yesterday’s Sabbath in the fitted-up church they had seen, and in which
the sacrament was most impressively administered to us, together with
every adult of the new congregation—a privilege I can never forget.
Another solemnity marked this Sabbath, which, by our attending, assuaged
the general depression which their first mourning visit to the cemetery
was calculated to inflict; it being their custom for the whole of the
community to attend each funeral. In the present case it was to inter a
female infant, which had been embarked in a most delicate state, but had
survived the voyage, though beyond medical relief when placed under the
care of one of my medical officers, Mr. Denis Macdonald, in whose arms,
as a slight consolation to its parents, it expired.
“Adverting to Pitcairn Island, future voyagers may find fresh beef
there, as its late settlers left a bull and nine cows upon it. The pigs
were destroyed, lest they might, in time, break through the fence and
disturb the graveyard.”
A word or two remain to be said about Bligh. His subsequent career was
also one of public distinction: he was made a post-captain, and went on
a second and successful voyage, with the same object as the first, to
Otaheite. He was absent on it at the time of the court-martial. In 1797
the Admiralty employed him to go among the mutineers of the Nore, to
endeavour to call the misguided men to a sense of duty; he behaved on
the occasion with great courage and discretion. In 1801 Bligh commanded
the _Glatton_, at the battle of Copenhagen, under Lord Nelson, and was
publicly thanked by his Lordship after the action. He was subsequently
Governor of New South Wales, and became finally a Vice-Admiral of the
Blue. He died in Bond-street, London, on the 7th December, 1817, and was
interred in the churchyard of St. Mary’s, Lambeth, where a tomb has been
erected to his memory. Admiral Bligh married, at Douglas, Isle of Man,
Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Beetham, LL.D., Comptroller of the
Customs, Isle of Man, by his wife, Miss Campbell, daughter of Principal
Campbell, of Glasgow College. (Dr. Beetham was a contemporary at college
of David Hume, Adam Smith, and Lord Selkirk, and an intimacy was kept up
between them in after-life.)
Admiral Bligh, by his marriage, had two sons, who died in infancy, and
six daughters, one of whom only, Miss Jane Bligh, still survives. Three
of the daughters were married—viz., 1. Harriet, who married Henry
Barker, Esq., of Willsbridge, and left issue; 2. Mary, who married,
first, Lieutenant Putland, of the family of Putland, of Brayhead, in the
county of Wicklow, by whom she had no issue; and secondly,
Lieutenant-General Sir Maurice O’Connell, K.C.H., and by him left
Lieutenant-Colonel R. O’Connell, R.A., and other issue; 3. Elizabeth,
who married Richard Bligh, Esq., barrister-at-law, and left issue.
I cannot conclude without expressing how very much I am indebted in the
above particulars to the work entitled, “Pitcairn: the Island, the
People, and the Pastor,” by the Rev. Thomas Boyles Murray, M.A., which
has had merited success, and which deserves even still more extensive
perusal.
The mutiny of the _Bounty_ is an event that should be a solemn warning
to every seaman in the navy, showing, as it does, the magic power of
discipline, and the misery of insubordination. Bligh, and those who
adhered to him, were preserved for nearly 4,000 miles in an open boat by
the mere maintenance of discipline; while Christian and most of his
guilty comrades, though having an armed vessel of war in their absolute
power, perished miserably, because they had forsaken that system of duty
and obedience which is the life-spring and the sacred safeguard of their
profession.