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 Matavai Bay to the "orth-west part of the island.

He goes on to say, that on this intelligence he despatched the two lieutenants, Corner and Hay. ward, with the pinnace and launch, to endeavour 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 Paparré, on which they were again despatched in search of her. Lieutenant Corner had taken three of the mutineers, and Hayward, on arriving at Paparré, 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 Heywood..
George Stewart..
James Morrison..
Charles Norman..
Thomas M'Intosh.
Joseph Coleman
Richard Skinner
Thomas Ellison
Henry Hillbrant
Thomas Burkitt

John Millward

.Midshipman.
..Ditto.

.....Boatswain's Mate.
..Carpenter's Mate.
..Carpenter's Crew
.Armourer.

...... Seamen.

John Sumner

William Musprat

Richard Byrn

An all fourteen. The other two, which made up the

sixteen that had been left on the island, were mur. dered, as will appear presently.

Captain Edwards will himself explain how he disposed of his prisoners. "I put the pirates," he says, "into a round-house which I built on the afterpart of the quarter-deck, for their more effectual security in this airy and healthy situation, and to sepa. rate 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 victualled 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. Morrison, 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 in irons, and that he branded them with the opprobrious epithet of "piratical villains;" that they, with the rest, being strongly handcuffed, were put into a kind of round-house, only eleven feet long, built as a prison, and 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 Otaheitan dialect.

That Captain Edwards took every precaution to keep his prisoners in safe custody, and place them in confinement, as by his instructions he was directed to do, may be well imagined,* but Mr. Morrison will probably be thought to go somewhat beyond credi. bility 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, by the brother of the King of Otaheite, 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 chiefs' 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 Matavai 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 mutineers and the natives was cut off, that we are distinctly told by Mr. Hamilton, that "the prisoners' wives visited the ship daily, and brought their children, who were permitted 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 heart. 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."t

* His orders ran thus :-"You are to keep the mutineers as closely confined as may preclude all possibility of their escaping, having, however, proper regard to the preservation of their lives, that they may he Drought home, to undergo the punishment due to their demerits."

Voyage round the World, by Mr. George Hamilton, p. 34.

Of the fidelity and attachment of these simple. minded creatures an instance is afforded in the affecting story which is told, in the first Missionary Voyage of the Duff, of the unfortunate wife of the reputed mutineer 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 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 with grief, 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, begged she might not be admitted again on board. She was separated from him by violence, and conveyed on shore in a state of despair and grief too big for utterance. Withheld from him, and forbidden to come any more on board, she sunk into the deepest dejection; 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 the tender object of our care, having been brought up by a sister, who nursed it as her own, and has discharged all the duties of an affectionate mother to the orphan infant."*

It does not appear that young Heywood formed any matrimonial engagement during his abode is

* A Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific. » 960

Otaheite. 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, Churchill 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 Churchill, and having died without children, this mutineer succeeded to his property and dignity, 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 scull 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 Heywood. It seems that the description of a person in Otaheite is usually given by some distinguishing figure of the tattoo, and Heywood, having the same marks as Thompson, was taken for him; and just as the club was raised to dash out his brains, the interposition of an old chief, with whom he was travelling round the island, was just in time to avert the blow.

Captain Edwards had no clew 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 Otaheite, the proceedings of Christian and his associates after Lieutenant Bligh and his companions had been turned adrift in the launch. From