It is difficult to believe that an officer in his Majesty's service could condescend to make use of such language to the meanest of the crew, much less to gentlemen: it is to be feared, however, that there is sufficient ground for the truth of these statements: with regard to the last, it is borne out by the evidence of Mr. Fryer, the master, on the court-martial. This officer, being asked, 'what did you suppose to be Mr. Christian's meaning, when he said he had been in hell for a fortnight?' answered, 'From the frequent quarrels they had had, and the abuse which he had received from Mr. Bligh.'—'Had there been any very recent quarrel?'—'The day before Mr. Bligh challenged all the young gentlemen and people with stealing his cocoa-nuts.' It was on the evening of this day that Lieutenant Bligh, according to his printed narrative, says Christian was to have supped with him; but excused himself on account of being unwell; and that he was invited to dine with him on the day of the mutiny.
Every one of these circumstances, and many others, which might be stated from Mr. Morrison's Journal, are omitted in Bligh's published narrative; but many of them are alluded to in his original Journal, and others that prove distinctly the constant reproofs to which his officers were subject, and the bad terms on which they stood with their commander. A few extracts from this Journal will sufficiently establish this point.
In so early a part of the voyage as their arrival in Adventure Bay, he found fault with his officers, and put the carpenter into confinement. Again, at Matavai Bay, on the 5th December, Bligh says, 'I ordered the carpenter to cut a large stone that was brought off by one of the natives, requesting me to get it made fit for them to grind their hatchets on, but to my astonishment he refused, in direct terms, to comply, saying, "I will not cut the stone, for it will spoil my chisel; and though there may be law to take away my clothes, there is none to take away my tools." This man having before shown his mutinous and insolent behaviour, I was under the necessity of confining him to his cabin.'
On the 5th January three men deserted in the cutter, on which occasion Bligh says, 'Had the mate of the watch been awake, no trouble of this kind would have happened. I have therefore disrated and turned him before the mast; such neglectful and worthless petty officers, I believe, never were in a ship as are in this. No orders for a few hours together are obeyed by them, and their conduct in general is so bad, that no confidence or trust can be reposed in them; in short, they have driven me to every thing but corporal punishment, and that must follow if they do not improve.'
By Morrison's Journal it would appear that 'corporal punishment' was not long delayed; for, on the very day, he says, the midshipman was put in irons, and confined from the 5th January to the 23rd March—eleven weeks!
On the 17th January, orders being given to clear out the sail-room and to air the sails, many of them were found very much mildewed and rotten in many places, on which he observes, 'If I had any officers to supersede the master and boatswain, or was capable of doing without them, considering them as common seamen, they should no longer occupy their respective stations; scarcely any neglect of duty can equal the criminality of this.'
On the 24th January, the three deserters were brought back and flogged, then put in irons for further punishment. 'As this affair,' he says, 'was solely caused by the neglect of the officers who had the watch, I was induced to give them all a lecture on this occasion, and endeavour to show them that, however exempt they were at present from the like punishment, yet they were equally subject, by the articles of war, to a condign one.' He then tells them, that it is only necessity that makes him have recourse to reprimand, because there are no means of trying them by court-martial; and adds a remark, not very intelligible, but what he calls an unpleasant one, about such offenders having no feelings of honour or sense of shame.
On the 7th March, a native Otaheitan, whom Bligh had confined in irons, contrived to break the lock of the bilboa-bolt and make his escape. 'I had given,' says Bligh, 'a written order that the mate of the watch was to be answerable for the prisoners, and to visit and see that they were safe in his watch, but I have such a neglectful set about me, that I believe nothing but condign punishment can alter their conduct. Verbal orders, in the course of a month, were so forgotten, that they would impudently assert no such thing or directions were given, and I have been at last under the necessity to trouble myself with writing, what, by decent young officers, would be complied with as the common rules of the service. Sir. Stewart was the mate of the watch.'
These extracts show the terms on which Bligh was with his officers; and these few instances, with others from Morrison's Journal, make it pretty clear, that though Christian, as fiery and passionate a youth as his commander could well be, and with feelings too acute to bear the foul and opprobious language constantly addressed to him, was the sole instigator of the mutiny;—the captain had no support to expect, and certainly received none, from the rest of his officers. That Christian was the sole author appears still more strongly from the following passage in Morrison's Journal. 'When Mr. Bligh found he must go into the boat, he begged of Mr. Christian to desist, saying "I'll pawn my honour, I'll give my bond, Mr. Christian, never to think of this, if you'll desist," and urged his wife and family; to which Mr. Christian replied, "No, Captain Bligh, if you had any honour, things had not come to this; and if you had any regard for your wife and family, you should have thought on them before, and not behaved so much like a villain." Lieutenant Bligh again attempted to speak, but was ordered to be silent. The boatswain also tried to pacify Mr. Christian, to whom he replied, "It is too late, I have been in hell for this fortnight past, and am determined to bear it no longer; and you know, Mr. Cole, that I have been used like a dog all the voyage."'
It is pretty evident, therefore, that the mutiny was not, as Bligh in his narrative states it to have been, the result of a conspiracy. It will be seen by the minutes of the court-martial, that the whole affair was planned and executed between the hours of four and eight o'clock, on the morning of the 28th April, when Christian had the watch upon deck; that Christian, unable longer to bear the abusive and insulting language, had meditated his own escape from the ship the day before, choosing to trust himself to fate, rather than submit to the constant upbraiding to which he had been subject; but the unfortunate business of the cocoa-nuts drove him to the commission of the rash and felonious act, which ended, as such criminal acts usually do, in his own destruction, and that of a great number of others, many of whom were wholly innocent.