Stewart was a young man of creditable parents in the Orkneys, at which place on the return of the Resolution from the South Seas in 1780 we received so many civilities that on that account only I should gladly have taken him with me but, independent of this recommendation, he was a seaman and had always borne a good character.
Notwithstanding the roughness with which I was treated the remembrance of past kindnesses produced some signs of remorse in Christian. When they were forcing me out of the ship I asked him if this treatment was a proper return for the many instances he had received of my friendship? he appeared disturbed at my question and answered with much emotion: "That, captain Bligh, that is the thing; I am in hell, I am in hell."
As soon as I had time to reflect I felt an inward satisfaction which prevented any depression of my spirits: conscious of my integrity and anxious solicitude for the good of the service in which I had been engaged I found my mind wonderfully supported, and I began to conceive hopes, notwithstanding so heavy a calamity, that I should one day be able to account to my King and country for the misfortune. A few hours before my situation had been peculiarly flattering. I had a ship in the most perfect order and well stored with every necessary both for service and health: by early attention to those particulars I had as much as lay in my power, provided against any accident, in case I could not get through Endeavour Straits, as well as against what might befall me in them; add to this the plants had been successfully preserved in the most flourishing state: so that upon the whole the voyage was two-thirds completed, and the remaining part to all appearance in a very promising way; every person on board being in perfect health, to establish which was ever amongst the principal objects of my attention.
It will very naturally be asked what could be the reason for such a revolt? in answer to which I can only conjecture that the mutineers had flattered themselves with the hopes of a more happy life among the Otaheiteans than they could possibly enjoy in England; and this, joined to some female connections, most probably occasioned the whole transaction.
The women at Otaheite are handsome, mild and cheerful in their manners and conversation, possessed of great sensibility, and have sufficient delicacy to make them admired and beloved. The chiefs were so much attached to our people that they rather encouraged their stay among them than otherwise, and even made them promises of large possessions. Under these and many other attendant circumstances equally desirable it is now perhaps not so much to be wondered at, though scarcely possible to have been foreseen, that a set of sailors, most of them void of connections, should be led away; especially when, in addition to such powerful inducements, they imagined it in their power to fix themselves in the midst of plenty on one of the finest islands in the world, where they need not labour, and where the allurements of dissipation are beyond anything that can be conceived. The utmost however that any commander could have supposed to have happened is that some of the people would have been tempted to desert. But, if it should be asserted that a commander is to guard against an act of mutiny and piracy in his own ship more than by the common rules of service, it is as much as to say that he must sleep locked up and when awake be girded with pistols.
Desertions have happened more or less from most of the ships that have been at the Society Islands; but it has always been in the commanders power to make the chiefs return their people: the knowledge therefore that it was unsafe to desert perhaps first led mine to consider with what ease so small a ship might be surprised, and that so favourable an opportunity would never offer to them again.
The secrecy of this mutiny is beyond all conception. Thirteen of the party who were with me had always lived forward among the seamen; yet neither they nor the messmates of Christian, Stewart, Haywood, and Young, had ever observed any circumstance that made them in the least suspect what was going on. To such a close-planned act of villainy, my mind being entirely free from any suspicion, it is not wonderful that I fell a sacrifice. Perhaps if there had been marines on board a sentinel at my cabin-door might have prevented it; for I slept with the door always open that the officer of the watch might have access to me on all occasions, the possibility of such a conspiracy being ever the farthest from my thoughts. Had their mutiny been occasioned by any grievances, either real or imaginary, I must have discovered symptoms of their discontent, which would have put me on my guard: but the case was far otherwise. Christian in particular I was on the most friendly terms with: that very day he was engaged to have dined with me, and the preceding night he excused himself from supping with me on pretence of being unwell; for which I felt concerned, having no suspicions of his integrity and honour.
A copy of the Draught from which the Bounty's Launch was built.