more than twelve hundred leagues, without shelter from the inclemency of the weather; when I reflect that in an open. boat, with so much stormy weather, we escaped foundering, that not any of us were taken off by disease, that we had the great good fortune to pass the unfriendly natives of other countries without accident, and at last to meet with the most friendly and best of people to relieve our distresses-I say, when I reflect on all these wonderful escapes, the remembrance of such great mercies enables me to bear with resignation and cheerfulness the failure of an expedition, the success of which I had so much at heart, and which was frustrated at a time when I was congratulating myself on the fairest prospect of being able to complete it in a manner that would fully have answered the intention of his majesty and the humane promoters of so benevolent a plan."

Having recruited their strength by a residence of two months among the friendly inhabitants of Coupang, they proceeded

to the westward on the 20th August in a small schooner, which was purchased and armed for the purpose, and arrived on the 1st October in Batavia Road, where Mr. Bligh embarked in a Dutch packet, and was landed on the Isle of Wight on the 14th of March, 1790. The rest of the people had passages provided for them in ships of the Dutch East India Company, then about to sail for Europe. All of them, however, did not survive to reach England. Nelson, the botanist, died at Coupang; Mr. Elphinstone, master's mate, Peter Linkletter and Thomas Hall, seamen, died at Batavia; Robert Lamb, seaman, (the booby-eater,) died on the passage; and Mr. Ledward, the surgeon, was left behind, and not afterward heard of. These six, with John Norton, who was stoned to death, left twelve of the nineteen forced by the mutineers into the launch, to survive the difficulties and dangers of this unparalleled voyage, and to revisit their native country.

One cannot read this narrative without

admiration of the manner in which Captain Bligh contended with dangers and hardships so appalling, and of the firmness, wisdom, and disinterestedness with which he husbanded their resources so as to make the food of five days last for fifty. Not only did his situation demand nautical skill, but great prudence in avoiding danger from savage islanders, and resisting the entreaties of his men for increased allowances of food. Having obtained a solemn agreement that the settled allowance should not be swerved from, he never suffered them to move him by threats or otherwise from this compact. Thus eighteen lives were preserved in a passage of 3618 miles through a trackless ocean!

While we admire his conduct at this trying period, we cannot but lament that a man possessed of so many noble qualities should have so yielded to the outbreaks of temper when in authority as to be indirectly the occasion of this train of crime and misery. May the youthful readers of this history, while they emulate the

resolution, the prudence, and the disinterestedness of Captain Bligh in his perilous boat-voyage, shun the sin that led to so much suffering the sin of an unrestrained temper venting itself in oaths and abuse!

CHAPTER III.

LEGAL PROCEEDINGS IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE MUTINYCHURCHILL AND THOMPSON-WRECK OF THE PANDORAPETER HEYWOOD AND HIS FAMILY-LETTERS FROM NESSY HEYWOOD AND OTHERS-PETER HEYWOOD'S NARRATIVETRIAL OF THE MUTINEERS-THE KING'S PARDON-HONOURABLE CAREER OF CAPTAIN HEYWOOD.

LIEUTENANT BLIGH, on his return to England in 1790, published an interesting narrative of the mutiny, and the hardships which he had endured until his landing at Timor. This excited much sympathy in his favour, and no little indignation. against the mutineers.

As soon as the English government were made acquainted with the atrocious act of mutiny and piracy of which Christian and his party had been guilty, they sent out the Pandora frigate, under Captain Edward Edwards, with orders to visit the Society and Friendly Islands, and use