No time was lost in acquainting the English Government with the disastrous failure of the Bounty’s mission, and, although there were some among the crew who, at the time of the mutiny, pleaded that no blame should be attached to them, the result showed that Bligh did not spare those whose hearts and hands were alike innocent of any wrong against him. Very soon the Pandora, commanded by Captain Edwards, a man devoid of the humane feelings of kindness and pity, was sent in search of the men who had so willfully forgotten their duty. Of these only fourteen were found, eight having accompanied Fletcher Christian, with the Bounty, and two of their number having been killed by the natives of Tahiti some little while before. These poor men were conveyed in irons on board the Pandora, where they were placed in a close room, with one small opening to admit light and air. Chained to the floor, exposed to the most cruel treatment that the mind of the inhuman Edwards could conceive, enduring the heaviest privations, and compelled to live in their noisome den from day-to-day without any means of having it cleansed, the condition of these sufferers can more readily be imagined than described.
In this cruel position they were forced to exist; and when at last the Pandora was wrecked on a coral reef, the unfeeling Edwards would not listen to the piteous pleadings of the prisoners and release them, even to afford what help they might be able to render in trying to save the ship. One sailor, however, possessed of humane feelings, would not willingly let so many of his fellow-creatures perish thus before his eyes, and, exerting all his strength, succeeded in accomplishing their release, but not until four of them had perished. On board the ship that finally conveyed them to England, they were treated as human beings, and allowed freedom from their chains. Of these ten men “four were acquitted; one was discharged on account of an informality in the indictment; the other five were found guilty and were condemned to death. Of these two received a pardon, and the three others were executed at Spithead,” from which place they had sailed on their eventful voyage four years before.
CHAPTER II.
The Arrival at Pitcairn
DURING all this time where were Christian and the other guilty men who followed him? After having set the boat containing Bligh and his companions adrift, Fletcher Christian assumed command of the Bounty, and returned toward Tahiti. The ship was taken first to Toobonai, the intention of the men being to settle there; but, finding the place destitute of animals, they went to Tahiti to procure a stock of pigs and goats. Obtaining what they needed, they returned again to Toobonai, but found the natives hostile to their landing. Once more, and for the third and last time, the Bounty was brought to Tahiti, where she was anchored in Matavai Bay, on the 20th of September, 1789. Sixteen of the crew here landed, taking with them their share of the arms and other articles on board the Bounty. These were the men, it will be understood, who were discovered and taken away by the Pandora, as related in the previous chapter.