We know how the recommendation to mercy prevailed. King George the Third was then enjoying a visit at Weymouth, with the queen and the royal family. It appears from the public records of that date, that he found pleasure in doing acts of kindness; and doubtless this exercise of the royal prerogative was a cause of much inward satisfaction to the king.

On the 24th of October, 1792, the royal warrant was despatched, granting a free pardon to Heywood and Morrison, with a respite for Musprat, which was followed by a pardon; and for executing Ellison, Burkitt, and Millward.

Millward and Musprat, with Churchill, were the men who had been deserters at Tahiti, and who had been forgiven by Bligh for that offence.

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

and crew, in

lost, with all the passengers and her way from Madras to the Cape of Good Hope.

Ellison, Burkitt, and Millward were executed, pursuant to their sentence, on the 29th of October, on board the ship Brunswick, in Portsmouth Harbour. Captain Hamond 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 seemed to have made a salutary impression on the minds of all the ships' companies present.

The following words were used by Mr. Heywood, when Captain Montague had

read to him his majesty's free and unconditional pardon, on the 27th of October:

"Sir, when the sentence of the law was passed upon me, I received it, I trust, as became a man; and if it had been carried into execution, I should have met my fate, I hope, in a manner becoming a Christian. Your admonition cannot fail to make a lasting impression upon my mind. I receive with gratitude my sovereign's mercy, for which my future life shall be faithfully devoted to his service."

The pardon was a source of unspeakable delight to his family, especially to his sister Nessy, whose peace of mind had been broken by the terror of losing him by an ignominious death, and whose joy, on hearing of his pardon was, perhaps, more difficult to bear than her previous grief had been:

"For sudden joys, like griefs, confound at first."

She had written to her mother and sisters on the 26th, enclosing a statement of the pardon having been transmitted to Portsmouth. In this letter she said, "O blessed

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hour! Little did I think, my beloved friends, when I closed my letter this morning, that before night I should be out of my senses with joy. This moment, this ecstatic moment, brought the enclosed. I cannot speak my happiness. I am too mad to write sense; but 'tis a pleasure I would not forego to be the most reasonable being on earth."*

In this way the family received the delightful intelligence; and the warm-hearted and untiring Mr. Graham, unable to remain easy at home, hastened to Portsmouth to congratulate his young friend, and bring him to London. Nothing can be more hearty or natural than the following:

MR. GRAHAM TO NESSY HEYWOOD.

"Portsmouth, October 27, 1792.

"MY DEAREST NESSY,

"If you expect me to enter into particulars as to how I got him, when I got him, and where I have him, you will be disap

*This is a very extravagant way of asserting that she would rather have lost her reason than that her brother -should have lost his life.

pointed; for that is not in my power at present. Suffice it to say that he is now with me, and well; not on board the Hector, but at the house of a very worthy man. To-day we dine with Mr. Delafons; tomorrow we shall, perhaps, sleep on the London road; and on Tuesday,-Oh, my dear little girl! Kiss Maria for me, and tell her I love her dearly, and am, "Yours most affectionately,

"A. GRAHAM."

To this letter the following postscript was added:

FROM PETER HEYWOOD TO NESSY.

"P. S. Be patient, my dearest Nessy, A few hours, and you will embrace your long-lost and most affectionate brother, "PETER HEYWOOD."

Mr. Graham's impatience, and generous anxiety to crown this joyful event, would not permit him to delay one moment; and on the Monday morning the happy party arrived in London.

On the 29th October a letter was written, apprizing the anxious mother of her