of Francis and Jane Bligh, was baptized at that church, Oct. 4th, 1754. The general residence of the family was near Bodmin.

After the Court Martial on the mutineers, in 1792, Bligh was made a Commander, and then a Post Captain; the three years' service, according to regulation, being, in his case, dispensed with as a mark of favour.

Having been again employed to visit the South Seas, he fully succeeded in conveying the bread-fruit plant to the West Indies; and for this, in 1794, he received a gold medal from the Society of Arts. He afterwards fought under Admiral Parker at the Dogger Bank, and under Lord Howe at Gibraltar.

In 1797, he commanded the Director, in Admiral Lord Duncan's fleet, at the battle of Camperdown. Miss Bligh has some drawings by Owen, one representing the Director coming up with the Vrijheid, the ship of the Dutch Admiral, De Winter; another showing the engagement between them; and the third, the Vrijheid, almost a hulk, silenced, and striking to the British flag.

In 1801, Bligh commanded the Glatton, at the battle of Copenhagen, under Lord Nelson,

who, having sent for him after the action, publicly thanked him for his services.

In 1805 he was appointed Governor of New South Wales. The steps which he took, with a view to the benefit of the colony, in accordance with instructions laid down for him by the government at home,* occasioned much dissatisfaction to some parties on the spot, though his measures obtained the written approbation of his Majesty's Government. In January, 1808, he was deposed at Sydney by the New South Wales Corps, headed by Lieut.-Colonel G. Johnston. In May 1811, Colonel Johnston was tried by Court-Martial at Chelsea Hospital, and was sentenced to be cashiered.

Captain Bligh afterwards became a ViceAdmiral. In advancing years he found much happiness in the midst of his family, to whom he was greatly endeared. A serious internal complaint obliged him to come to London from his residence at Farningham, Kent, for surgical advice; and he died shortly afterwards in Bond Street, on the 12th of December, 1817, at the age of sixty-three.

*

Dated, May 25, 1805. + Dated, December 31, 1807.

CHAPTER II.

LEGAL PROCEEDINGS IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE MUTINYCHURCHILL AND THOMPSON-WRECK OF THE PANDORAPETER HEYWOOD AND HIS FAMILY-LETTERS FROM NESSY HEYWOOD AND OTHERS-TRIAL OF THE MUTINEERS-THE KING'S PARDON-HONOURABLE CAREER OF CAPTAIN HEYWOOD HIS DEATH-LINES BY ONE OF HIS CREW.

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 every endeavour to seize and bring home the offenders. On the arrival of that officer at Matavai Bay, off Otaheite, on the 23d of March,

D

1791, just eighteen months after the Bounty's last departure from that Bay, three of the men, who had remained in the island nearly two years, namely, J. Coleman, P. Heywood, and G. Stewart, came on board the Pandora, and surrendered themselves to justice. They were instantly put in irons. The captain succeeded in taking eleven others at Otaheite, who were also carefully ironed.

Two of the mutineers, Churchill and Thompson, who had landed with the rest at Otaheite, were no longer in existence. The history of these two men has a dreadful kind of interest belonging to it. Within a short period of their quitting the Bounty, one of them became a king, and both were murdered! Marshall, in his Naval Biography, informs us, that Churchill, after residing a short time at Matavai, accepted an invitation to live with Waheeadooa, who was sovereign of Teiarraboo, when Captain Cook last visited that place. Thompson accompanied Churchill thither; but they very soon disagreed. Waheeadooa dying without children, Churchill, who had been his tayo, or chief friend, succeeded to his dignity and

property, according to the established custom of the country. Thompson, envious of Churchill's honours, and angry at some fancied insult, took an opportunity of shooting him. The natives rose to punish the murderer of their new sovereign, and stoned Thompson to death. This wicked man had before murdered a man and a child, but had then escaped punishment in consequence of an error as to his person. Peter Heywood had been mistaken for him, and was about to be destroyed with an axe, when an old chief, who knew him, interposed, and saved his life.

Captain Edwards, after many inquiries, could hear nothing of the Bounty, nor of the nine remaining mutineers. But he had on board fourteen prisoners, confined in a narrow space, which was called, "Pandora's Box.” It was built on the after part of the quarterdeck, and was only eleven feet in length. The voyage homeward was very disastrous, the ship being wrecked on her return on a coral reef, off the coast of New Holland, on the 29th of August, 1791, and the crew compelled to navigate 1,000 miles in open boats.