No More Learning

He was made Governor of New
South Wales in 1805, but was forcibly deposed in an insurrection headed
by Major Johnston, January, 1808. He was kept in prison till 1810, but
on his return to England his administration of his office was approved,
and Johnston was cashiered. He was advanced to the rank of Vice-Admiral
of the Blue in 1814, and died, December 7, 1817.

In his _Narrative_ Bligh describes the mutiny as "a close-planned act of
villainy," and attributes the conspiracy not to his own harshness, or to
disloyalty provoked by "real or imaginary grievances," but to the
contrast of life on board ship, "in ever climbing up the climbing wave,"
with the unearned luxuries of Tahiti, "the allurements of dissipation
. . . the female connections," which the sailors had left behind. Besides
his own apology, there are the sworn statements of the two midshipmen,
Hayward and Hallet, and others, which Bligh published in answer to a
pamphlet which Edward Christian, afterwards Chief Justice of Ely, wrote
in defence of his brother Fletcher. The evidence against Bligh is
contained in the MS. journal of the boatswain's mate, James Morrison,
which was saved, as by a miracle, from the wreck of the _Pandora_, and
is quoted by Sir John Barrow, Lady Belcher, and other authorities. There
is, too, the testimony of John Adams (Alexander Smith), as recorded by
Captain Beachey, and, as additional proof of indifference and tyrannical
behaviour, there are Bligh's own letters to Peter Hayward's mother and
uncle (March 26, April 2, 1790), and W. C. Wentworth's account of his
administration as Governor of New South Wales (see _A Statistical
Description_, etc. , 1819, p. 166). It cannot be gainsaid that Bligh was
a man of integrity and worth, and that he was upheld and esteemed by the
Admiralty. Morrison's Journal, though in parts corroborated by Bligh's
MS. Journal, is not altogether convincing, and the testimony of John
Adams in his old age counts for little. But according to his own
supporters he "damned" his men though not the officers, and his own
_Narrative_, as well as Morrison's Journal, proves that he was
suspicious, and that he underrated and misunderstood the character and
worth of his subordinates. He was responsible for the prolonged sojourn
at Tahiti, and he should have remembered that time and distance are
powerful solvents, and that between Portsmouth Hard and the untracked
waters of the Pacific, "all Arcadia" had intervened. He was a man of
imperfect sympathies, wanting in tact and fineness, but in the hour of
need he behaved like a hero, and saved himself and others by submission
to duty and strenuous self-control. Moreover, he "helped England" not
once or twice, "in the brave days of old. " (See _A_ _Narrative, etc. _,
1790; _The Naval History of Great Britain_, by E. P. Brenton, 1823, i.
96, _sq. _; _Royal Naval Biography_, by John Marshall, 1823-35, ii. pp.
747, _sq. _; _Mutineers of the Bounty_, by Lady Belcher, 1870, p. 8;
_Dictionary of National Biography_, art. "Bligh. ")]

[353] {589}["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; . . . the voyage was two
thirds completed, and the remaining part in a very promising way. "--_A
Narrative of the Mutiny, etc. _, by Lieut. W. Bligh, 1790, p. 9. ]

[354] ["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 . . . that a
set of sailors, most of them void of connections, should be led away,
especially when they imagined it in their power to fix themselves, in
the midst of plenty, . . . on the finest island in the world, where they
need not labour, and where the allurements of dissipation are beyond
anything that can be conceived,"--_Ibid. _, p. 10. ]

[ez] _And all enjoy the exuberance of the wild_. --[MS. D. erased. ]

[fa] {590} _Their formidable fleet the quick canoe_. --[MS. D. erased. ]

[355] {591}["Just before sunrising Mr. Christian, with the
master-at-arms, gunner's mate, and Thomas Burkitt, seaman, came into my
cabin while I was asleep, and, seizing me, tied my hands with a cord
behind my back, and threatened me with instant death if I spoke or made
the least noise. I, however, called out so loud as to alarm every one;
but they had already secured the officers who were not of their party,
by placing sentinels at their doors. There were three men at my cabin
door, besides the four within; Christian had only a cutlass in his hand,
the others had muskets and bayonets. I was hauled out of bed, and forced
on deck in my shirt, suffering great pain from the tightness with which
they had tied my hands. . . . The boatswain was now ordered to hoist the
launch out. The boat being hoisted out, Mr. Hayward and Mr. Hallet,
midshipmen, were ordered into it; upon which I demanded the cause of
such an order, and endeavoured to persuade some one to a sense of duty;
but it was to no effect: 'Hold your tongue, sir, or you are dead this
instant,' was constantly repeated to me. "--_A Narrative of the Mutiny,
etc. _, by Lieut. W. Bligh, 1790, pp. 1, 2. ]

[356] ["The boatswain, and seamen who were to go in the boat, were
allowed to collect twine, canvass, lines, sails, cordage, an
eight-and-twenty-gallon cask of water, and the carpenter to take his
tool-chest. Mr. Samuel got one hundred and fifty pounds of bread with a
small quantity of rum and wine . . . also a quadrant and
compass. "--_Ibid. _, p. 3. ]

[357] {592}["The mutineers now hurried those they meant to get rid of
into the boat, . . . Christian directed a dram to be served to each of his
own crew. "--_A Narrative, etc. _, 1790, p. 3. ]

[fb]

_And lull it in his followers--"Ho! the dram"_
_Rebellions sacrament, and paschal lamb_.
(_A broken metaphor of flesh for wine_
_But Catholics know the exchange is none of mine_. --[MS. D. erased. ]

_And raise it in his followers--Ho! the bowl_
_That sure Nepenthe for the wavering_ [_soul_]. --[MS. D. erased. ]

[358] [It was Johnson, not Burke, who upheld the claims of brandy. --"He
was persuaded," says Boswell, "to drink one glass of it [claret]. He
shook his head, and said, 'Poor stuff! --No, Sir, claret is the liquor
for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero (smiling) must
drink brandy. '"--Boswell's _Life of Johnson_, 1848, p. 627. ]

[359] ["While the ship . . . was in sight she steered to the W. N. W. , but I
considered this only a feint; for when we were sent away, 'Huzza for
Otaheite! ' was frequently heard among the mutineers. "--_A Narrative,
etc. _, 1790, pp. 4-8. This statement is questioned by Sir John Barrow
(_The Eventful History, etc. _, 1831, p. 91), on the grounds that the
mutiny was the result of a sudden determination on the part of
Christian, and that liberty, and not the delights of Tahiti, was the
object which the mutineers had in view. ]

[360] {593}[A variant of Pope's lines--

"For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight,
His can't be wrong, whose life is in the right. "

_Essay on Man_, iii. 305, 306. ]

[361] ["Isaac Martin, one of the guard over me, I saw, had an
inclination to assist me; and as he fed me with shaddock (my lips being
quite parched with my endeavours to bring about a change), we explained
our wishes to each other by our looks; but this being observed, Martin
was instantly removed from me. "--_A Narrative, etc. _, 1790, p. 4. ]

[362] {594}["Christian . . . then . . . said, 'Come, Captain Bligh, your
officers and men are now in the boat; and you must go with them; if you
attempt to make the least resistance you will instantly be put to
death;' and without any farther ceremony, holding me by the cord that
tied my hands, with a tribe of armed ruffians about me, I was forced
over the side, where they untied my hands. Being in the boat, we were
veered astern by a rope. A few pieces of pork were thrown to me and some
clothes. . . . After having undergone a great deal of ridicule, and being
kept for some time to make sport for these unfeeling wretches, we were
at length cast adrift in the open ocean. . . . When they were forcing me
out of the ship, I asked him [Christian] if this treatment was a proper
return for the many instances he had received of my friendship? He
appeared disturbed at the question, and answered, with much emotion,
'That,--Captain Bligh,--that is the thing;--I am in hell--I am in
hell. '"--_A Narrative, etc. _, 1790, pp. 4-8.

Bligh's testimony on this point does not correspond with Morrison's
journal, or with the evidence of the master, John Fryer, given at the
court-martial, September 12, 1792. According to Morrison, when the
boatswain tried to pacify Christian, he replied, "It is too late, I have
been in hell for this fortnight past, and am determined to bear it no
longer. " The master's version is that he appealed to Christian, and that
Christian exclaimed, "Hold your tongue, sir, I have been in hell for
weeks past; Captain Bligh has brought all this on himself. " Bligh seems
to have flattered himself that in the act of mutiny Christian was seized
with remorse, but it is clear that the wish was father to the thought.
Moreover, on being questioned, Fryer, who was a supporter of the
captain, explained that Christian referred to quarrels, to abuse in
general, and more particularly to a recent accusation of stealing
cocoa-nuts. (See _The Eventful History_, etc. , 1831, pp. 84, 208, 209. )]

[363] {595}[Byron must mean "antarctic. " "Arctic" is used figuratively
for "cold," but not as a synonym for "polar. "]

[fc] _Now swelled now sighed along_----. --[MS. D. erased. ]

[364] ["At dawn of day some of my people seemed half dead; our
appearances were horrible; and I could look no way, but I caught the eye
of some one in distress. "--_A Narrative, etc. _, p. 37. Later on, p. 80,
when the launch reached Timor, he speaks of the crew as "so many
spectres, whose ghastly countenances, if the cause had been unknown,
would have excited terror rather than pity. "]

[365] [Bligh dwells on the misery caused to the luckless crew by
drenching rains and by hunger, but says that no one suffered from
thirst. ]

[fd] {596} _Nor yet unpitied. Vengeance had her own_. --[MS. D. erased. ]

[fe] ----_the undisputed root_. --[MS. D. erased. ]

[366] The now celebrated bread fruit, to transplant which Captain
Bligh's expedition was undertaken.

[The bread-fruit (_Autocarpus incisa_) was discovered by Dampier, in
1688. "Cook says that its taste is insipid, with a slight sweetness,
somewhat resembling that of the crumb of wheaten bread mixed with a
Jerusalem artichoke. "--_The Eventful History, etc. _, 1831, p. 43. ]

[367] [See _Letters from Mr. Fletcher Christian_ (_pseud_. ),
1796, pp. 48, 49. ]

[ff] _Thus Argo plunged into the Euxine's foam_. --[MS. D, erased. ]

[368] {598} The first three sections are taken from an actual song of
the Tonga Islanders, of which a prose translation is given in "Mariner's
Account of the Tonga Islands. " Toobonai is _not_ however one of them;
but was one of those where Christian and the mutineers took refuge. I
have altered and added, but have retained as much as possible of the
original.
["Whilst we were talking of _Vavaoo tooa Lico_, the women said to us,
'Let us repair to the back of the island to contemplate the setting sun:
there let us listen to the warbling of the birds, and the cooing of the
wood-pigeon. We will gather flowers from the burying-place at _Matawto_,
and partake of refreshments prepared for us at _Lico O'n? _: we will
then bathe in the sea, and rinse ourselves in the _Vaoo A'ca_; we will
anoint our skins in the sun with sweet-scented oil, and will plait in
wreaths the flowers gathered at _Matawto_. ' And now as we stand
motionless on the eminence over _Anoo Manoo_, the whistling of the wind
among the branches of the lofty _toa_ shall fill us with a pleasing
melancholy; or our minds shall be seized with astonishment as we behold
the roaring surf below, endeavouring but in vain to tear away the firm
rocks. Oh! how much happier shall we be thus employed, than when engaged
in the troublesome and insipid cares of life!

"Now as night comes on, we must return to the _Mooa_. But hark! --hear
you not the sound of the mats? --they are practising a _bo-oola_ ['a kind
of dance performed by torch-light'], to be performed to-night on the
_malai_, at _Tanea_. Let us also go there. How will that scene of
rejoicing call to our minds the many festivals held there, before
_Vavdoo_ was torn to pieces by war! Alas! how destructive is war!
Behold! how it has rendered the land productive of weeds, and opened
untimely graves for departed heroes! Our chiefs can now no longer enjoy
the sweet pleasure of wandering alone by moonlight in search of their
mistresses. But let us banish sorrow from our hearts: since we are at
war, we must think and act like the natives of _Fiji_, who first taught
us this destructive art. Let us therefore enjoy the present time, for
to-morrow perhaps, or the next day, we may die. We will dress ourselves
with _chi coola_, and put bands of white _tappa_ round our waists. We
will plait thick wreaths of _jiale_ for our heads, and prepare strings
of _hooni_ for our necks, that their whiteness may show off the colour
of our skins. Mark how the uncultivated spectators are profuse of their
applause! But now the dance is over: let us remain here to-night and
feast and be cheerful, and to-morrow we will depart for the Mooa. How
troublesome are the young men, begging for our wreaths of flowers! while
they say in their flattery, 'See how charming these young girls look
coming from _Licoo_! --how beautiful are their skins, diffusing around a
fragrance like the flowering precipice of _Mataloco_:--Let us also visit
_Licoo_. We will depart to-morrow. '"--_An Account of the Natives of the
Tonga Islands, etc. _, 1817, i. 307, 308. See, too, for another version,
ed. 1827, vol. ii. Appendix, p. xl. ]

[369] {599}[Bolotoo is a visionary island to the north westward, the
home of the Gods. The souls of chieftains, priests, and, possibly, the
gentry, ascend to Bolotoo after death; but the souls of the lower
classes "come to dust" with their bodies. --_An Account, etc. _, 1817, ii.
104, 105. ]

[370] [The toa, or drooping casuarina (_C. equisetifolia_). "Formerly
the toa was regarded as sacred, and planted in groves round the 'Morais'
of Tahiti. "--_Polynesia_, by G. F. Angas, 1866, p. 44. ]

[371] {600}[The capital town of an island. ]

[372] ["The preparation of _gnatoo_, or _tappa_-cloth, from the inner
bark of the paper mulberry tree, occupies much of the time of the Tongan
women. The bark, after being soaked in water, is beaten out by means of
wooden mallets, which are grooved longitudinally. . . . Early in the
morning," says Mariner, "when the air is calm and still, the beating of
the _gnatoo_ at all the plantations about has a very pleasing effect;
some sounds being near at hand, and others almost lost by the distance,
some a little more acute, others more grave, and all with remarkable
regularity, produce a musical variety that is . . . heightened by the
singing of the birds, and the cheerful influence of the
scene. "--_Polynesia_, 1846, pp. 249, 250. ]

[373] [Marly, or Malai, is an open grass plat set apart for public
ceremonies. ]

[fg]

_Ere Fiji's children blew the shell of war_
_And armed Canoes brought Fury from afar_. --[MS. D. erased. ]

[fh] _Too long forgotten in the pleasure ground_. --[MS. D. erased. ]

[374] [Cava, "kava," or "ava," is an intoxicating drink, prepared from
the roots and stems of a kind of pepper (_Piper methysticum_). Mariner
(_An Account, etc. _, 1817, ii. 183-206) gives a highly interesting and
suggestive account of the process of brewing the kava, and of the solemn
"kava-drinking," which was attended with ceremonial rites. Briefly, a
large wooden bowl, about three feet in diameter, and one foot in depth
in the centre (see, for a typical specimen, King Thakombau's kava-bowl,
in the British Museum), is placed in front of the king or chief, who
sits in the midst, surrounded by his guests and courtiers. A portion of
kava root is handed to each person present, who chews it to a pulp, and
then deposits his quid in the kava bowl. Water being gradually added,
the roots are well squeezed and twisted by various "curvilinear turns"
of the hands and arms through the "fow," _i. e. _ shavings of fibrous
bark. When the "kava is in the cup," quaighs made of the "unexpanded
leaf of the banana" are handed round to the guests, and the symposium
begins. Mariner (_ibid. _, p. 205, note) records a striking feature of
the preliminary rites, a consecration or symbolic "grace before"
drinking. "When a god has no priest, as Tali-y-Toobo [the Supreme Deity
of the Tongans], no person . . . presides at the head of his cava circle,
the place being left . . . vacant, but which it is supposed the god
invisibly occupies. . . . And they go through the usual form of words, as
if the first cup was actually filled and presented to the god: thus,
before any cup is filled, the man by the side of the bowl says . . . 'The
cava is in the cup:' the mataboole answers . . . 'Give it to our god:' but
this is mere form, for there is no cup filled for the god. " (See, too,
_The Making of Religion_, by A. Lang, 1900, p. 279. )]

[375] {601}[The gnatoo, which is a piece of tappa cloth, is worn in
different ways. "Twenty yards of fine cloth are required by a Tahitian
woman to make one dress, which is worn from the waist
downwards. "--_Polynesia_, 1866, p. 45. ]

[376] [_Licoo_ is the name given to the back of or unfrequented part of
any island. ]

[fi]

_How beauteous are their skins, how softly all_
_The forms of Beauty wrap them like a pall_. --[MS. D. erased. ]

[fj] {602} _Glares with his mountain eye_--. --[MS. D. erased. ]

[377] [The _Morning Chronicle_, November 6, 1822, prints the following
proclamation of Jose Maria Carreno, Commandant-General of Panama:
"Inhabitants of the Isthmus! The Genius of History, which has everywhere
crowned our arms, announces peace to Colombia. . . . From the banks of
Orinoco to the towering summits of Chimborazo not a single enemy exists,
and those who proudly marched towards the abode of the ancient children
of the Sun have either perished or remain prisoners expecting our
clemency. "]

[378] [Compare "a wise man's sentiment," as quoted by Andrew Fletcher of
Saltoun: "He believed if a man were permitted to make all the Ballads,
he need not care who should make the Laws. "--_An Account of a
Conversation, etc. _, 1704, p. 10. ]

[fk] {603} _Than all the records History's annals rear_. --[MS. D.
erased. ]

[379] [Jean Francois Champollion (1790-1832), at a meeting of the
_Academie des inscriptions_, at Paris, September 17, 1822, announced the
discovery of the alphabet of hieroglyphics. ]

[380] [So, too, Shelley, in his Preface to the _Revolt of Islam_, speaks
of "that more essential attribute of Poetry, the power of awakening in
others sensations like those which animate my own bosom. "]

[fl] {604}

_And she herself the daughter of the Seas_
_As full of gems and energy as these_. --[MS. D. erased. ]

[381] {605}[George Stewart was born at Ronaldshay (circ. 1764), but was
living at Stromness in 1780 (where his father's house, "The White
House," is still shown), when, on the homeward voyage of the Resolution,
Cook and Bligh were hospitably entertained by his parents. He was of
honourable descent. His mother's ancestors were sprung from a
half-brother of Mary Stuart's, and his father's family dated back to
1400. When he was at Timor, Bligh gave a "description of the pirates"
for purposes of identification by the authorities at Calcutta and
elsewhere. "George Stewart, midshipman, aged 23 years, is five feet
seven inches high, good complexion, dark hair, slender made . . . small
face, and black eyes; tatowed on the left breast with a star," etc.
Lieutenant Bligh took Stewart with him, partly in return for the
"civilities" at Stromness, but also because "he was a seaman, and had
always borne a good character. " Alexander Smith told Captain Beachey
(_Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific_, 1831, Part I. p. 53) that it
was Stewart who advised Christian "to take possession of the ship," but
Peter Hayward, who survived to old age, strenuously maintained that this
was a calumny, that Stewart was forcibly detained in his cabin, and that
he would not, in any case, have taken part in the mutiny. He had,
perhaps, already wooed and won a daughter of the isles, and when the
_Bounty_ revisited Tahiti, September 20, 1789, he was put ashore, and
took up his quarters in her father's house. There he remained till
March, 1791, when he "voluntarily surrendered himself" to the captain of
the _Pandora_, and was immediately put in irons. The story of his
parting from his bride is told in _A Missionary Voyage to the Southern
Pacific Ocean in the Ship Duff_ (by W. Wilson), 1799, p. 360: "The
history of Peggy Stewart marks a tenderness of heart that never will be
heard without emotion. . . . They had lived with the old chief in the most
tender state of endearment; a beautiful little girl had been the fruit
of their union, and was at the breast when the Pandora arrived. . . .
Frantic with grief, the unhappy Peggy . . . flew with her infant in a
canoe to the arms of her husband. She was separated from him by
violence, and conveyed on shore in a state of despair and grief too big
for utterance . . . she sank into the deepest dejection, pined under a
rapid decay . . . and fell a victim to her feelings, dying literally of a
broken heart. " Stewart was drowned or killed by an accident during the
wreck of the _Pandora_, August 29, 1791. _Sunt lacrymae rerum! _ It is a
mournful tale. ]

[382] {606} The "ship of the desert" is the Oriental figure for the
camel or dromedary; and they deserve the metaphor well,--the former for
his endurance, the latter for his swiftness. [Compare _The Deformed
Transformed_, Part I. sc. i, line 117. ]

[383] [Compare _The Age of Bronze_, lines 271-279. ]

[384]

"Lucullus, when frugality could charm.
Had roasted turnips in the Sabine farm. "

POPE [_Moral Essays_, i. 218, 219. ]

[385] The consul Nero, who made the unequalled march which deceived
Hannibal, and defeated Asdrubal; thereby accomplishing an achievement
almost unrivalled in military annals. The first intelligence of his
return, to Hannibal, was the sight of Asdrubal's head thrown into his
camp. When Hannibal saw this, he exclaimed with a sigh, that "Rome would
now be the mistress of the world. " And yet to this victory of Nero's it
might be owing that his imperial namesake reigned at all. But the infamy
of one has eclipsed the glory of the other. When the name of "Nero" is
heard, who thinks of the consul? --But such are human things! [For
Hannibal's cry of despair, "Agnoscere se fortunam Carthaginis! " see
Livy, lib. xxvii. cap. li. _s. f. _]

[fm] _Tyrant or hero--patriot or a chief_. --[MS. erased. ]

[386] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto II. stanza v.