And well did his future conduct fulfil that promise Notwithstanding the inauspicious manner in which the first five years of his servitude in the navy had been passed, two of which were spent among mutineers and savages, and eighteen months as a close prisoner in irons, in which condition he was shipwrecked and within an ace of perishing,-notwithstanding this unpromising commencement, he reentered the naval service under the auspices of his uncle, Commodore Pasley, and Lord Hood, who presided at his trial, and who earnestly recommended him to embark again as a midshipman without delay, offering to take him into the Victory, under his own immediate patronage. In the course of his service, to qualify for the commission of lieutenant, he was under the respective commands of three or four distinguished officers who had sat on his trial, from all of whom he received the most flattering proofs of esteem and approbation. To the application of Sir Thomas Pasley to Lord Spencer, for his promotion, that nobleman, with that due regard he was always Still stranger treatment, rude and harsh! so much Then pious Resignation, meek-ey'd pow'r, Sustain me still! Composure still be mine. Where rests it? Oh, mysterious Providence! Silence the wild idea.-I have found No mercy yet -no mild humanity, With cruel, unrelenting rigour torn, And lost in prison-lost to all below!" And the following appears to have been written on the day of the ring's pardon being received. Oh deem it not own to pay to the honour and interests of the navy, while individual claims were never overlooked, gave the following reply, which must have been highly gratifying to the feelings of Mr. Heywood and his family. "Sir, 66 'Admiralty, Jan. 13th, 1797. "I should have returned an earlier answer to your letter of the 6th instant, if I had not been desirous, before I answered it, to look over, with as much attention as was in my power, the proceedings on the court-martial held in the year 1792, by which court Mr. Peter Heywood was condemned for being concerned in the mutiny on board the Bounty. I felt this to be necessary, from having entertained a very strong opinion that it might be detrimental to the interests of his majesty's service, if a person under such a predicament should be afterward advanced to the higher and more conspicuous situations of the navy; but having, with great attention, perused the minutes of that court-martial, as far as they relate to Mr. Peter Heywood, I have now the satisfaction of being able to inform you, that I think his case was such a one as, under all its circumstances (though I do not mean to say that the court were not justified in their sentence), ought not to be considered as a bar to his further progress in his profession; more especially when the gallantry and propriety of his conduct in his subsequent service are taken into consideration. I shall therefore have no difficulty in mentioning him to the commander-in-chief on the station to which he belongs, as a person from whose promotion, on a proper opportunity, I shall derive inuch satisfaction, more particularly from his being so nearly connected with you. "I have the honour to be, &c. It is not here intended to follow Mr. Heywood through his honourable career of service, during the long and arduous contest, with France, and in the several commands with which he was intrusted. In a note of his own writing it is stated, that on paying off the Montagu, in July, 1816, he came on shore, after having been actively employed at sea twenty-seven years, six months, one week, and five days, out of a servitude in the navy of twenty-nine years, seven months, and one day. Having reached nearly the top of the list of captains, he died in the year 1831, leaving behind him a high and unblemished character in that service of which he was a most honourable, intelligent, and distinguished member CHAPTER VIII. THE LAST OF THE MUTINEERS. Who by repentance is not satisfied, TWENTY years had passed away, and the Bounty and Fletcher Christian, and the piratical crew that he had carried off with him in that ship, had long ceased to occupy a thought in the public mind. Throughout the whole of that eventful period, the attention of all Europe had been absorbed in the con templation of "enterprises of great pith and moment," of the revolutions of empires-the bustle and business of warlike preparations-the movements of hostile armies-battles by sea and land, and of all "the poinp and circumstance of glorious war." If the subject of the Bounty was accident. ally mentioned, it was merely to express an opinion that this vessel and those within her had gone down to the bottom, or that some savage islanders had inflicted on the mutineers that measure of retribution so justly due to their crime. It happened however some years before the conclusion of this war of unexampled duration, that an accidental discovery, as interesting as it was wholly unexpected, was brought to light in consequence of an American trading vessel having, by mere chance, approached one of those numerous islands in the Pacific against whose steep and iron-bound shore the surf almost everlastingly rolls with such tremendous violence as to bid defiance to any attempt of boats to land, except at particular times and in very few places. The first intimation of this extraordinary discovery was transmitted by Sir Sydney Smith from Rio de Janeiro, and received at the Admiralty 14th May, 1809. It was conveyed to him from Valparaiso by Lieutenant Fitzmaurice, and was as follows:: "Captain Folger, of the American ship Topaz, of Boston, relates, that upon landing on Pitcairn's Island, in lat. 25° 2′ S., long. 130 W., he found there an Englishman, of the name of Alexander Smith, the only person remaining of nine that escaped in his majesty's late ship Bounty, Captain W. Bligh. Smith relates that, after putting Captain Bligh in the boat, Christian, the leader of the mutiny, took command of the ship and went to Otaheite, where great part of the crew left her, except Christian, Smith, and seven others, who each took wives, and six Otaheitan men-servants, and shortly after arrived at the said island (Pitcairn), where they ran the ship on shore, and broke her up; this event took place in the year 1790. "About four years after their arrival (a great Jealousy existing), the Otaheitans secretly revolted, and killed every Englishman except himself whom they severely wounded in the neck with a pistol ball. The same night, the widows of the denight. ceased Englishmen arose and put to death the whole of the Otaheitans, leaving Smith the only man alive upon the island, with eight or nine women and several small children. On his recovery, he applied himself to tilling the ground, so that it now produces plenty of yams, cocoanuts, bananas, and plantains; hogs and poultry in abundance. There are now some grown-up men and women, children of the mutineers, on the island, the whole population amounting to about thirty-five, who acknowledge Smith as father and commander of them all; they all speak English, and have been educated by him (as Captain Folger represents) in a religious and moral way. "The second mate of the Topaz asserts that Christian, the ringleader, became insane shortly after their arrival on the island, and threw himself off the rocks into the sea; another died of a fever before the massacre of the remaining six took place. The island is badly supplied with water, sufficient only for the present inhabitants, and no anchorage. "Smith gave to Captain Folger a chronometer made by Kendall, which was taken from him by the Governor of Juan Fernandez. "Extracted from the log-book of the Topaz, 29th Sept. 1808. (Signed) "WM. FITZMAURICE, Lieut. "Valparaiso, Oct. 10th, 1808." This narrative stated two facts that established its general authenticity-the name of Alexander Smith, who was one of the mutineers, and the name of the maker of the chronometer with which the Bounty was actually supplied. Interesting as this discovery was considered to be, it does not appear that any steps were taken in consequence of this authenticated information, the government being at that time probably too much engaged in the events of the war; nor vas any thing further heard of this |
