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.
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.
Byron
.
.
.
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. line i, see
_Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 102, and 99, note 1. ]
[387] {609}[Toobo Neuha is the name of a Tongan chieftain. See Mariner's
_Account, etc. _, 1817, 141, _sq. _]
[388] When very young, about eight years of age, after an attack of the
scarlet fever at Aberdeen, I was removed by medical advice into the
Highlands. Here I passed occasionally some summers, and from this period
I date my love of mountainous countries. I can never forget the effect,
a few years afterwards, in England, of the only thing I had long seen,
even in miniature, of a mountain, in the Malvern Hills. After I returned
to Cheltenham, I used to watch them every afternoon, at sunset, with a
sensation which I cannot describe. This was boyish enough: but I was
then only thirteen years of age, and it was in the holidays. [Byron
spent his summer holidays, 1796-98, at the farm-house of Ballatrich, on
Deeside. (See _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 192, note 2. For his visit to
Cheltenham, in the summer of 1801, see _Life_, pp. 8, 19. )
[389] {610}[For the eagle's beak, see _Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanza
xviii. line 6, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 226, note 1. ]
[390] {611}[Compare _Macbeth_, act ii. sc. 4, line 13. ]
[391] [Compare--"The never-merry clock," _Werner_, act iii. sc. 3, line
3. ]
[fn] _Which knolls the knell of moments out of man_. --[MS. D. erased. ]
[392] {612} The now well-known story of the loves of the nightingale and
rose need not be more than alluded to, being sufficiently familiar to
the Western as to the Eastern reader. [Compare _Werner_, act iv. sc. 1,
lines 380-382; and _The Giaour_, lines 21, 33. ]
[fo] _Which kindled by another's_--. --[MS. D. ]
[393] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanzas lxxii. , lxxv. Once
again the language and the sentiment recall Wordsworth's _Tintern
Abbey_. (See _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 261, note 2. )]
[394] {613} If the reader will apply to his ear the sea-shell on his
chimney-piece, he will be aware of what is alluded to. If the text
should appear obscure, he will find in _Gebir_ the same idea better
expressed in two lines. The poem I never read, but have heard the lines
quoted, by a more recondite reader--who seems to be of a different
opinion from the editor of the _Quarterly Review_, who qualified it in
his answer to the Critical Reviewer of his _Juvenal_, as trash of the
worst and most insane description. It is to Mr. Landor, the author of
_Gebir_, so qualified, and of some Latin poems, which vie with Martial
or Catullus in obscenity, that the immaculate Mr. Southey addresses his
declamation against impurity!
[These are the lines in _Gebir_ to which Byron alludes--
"But I have sinuous shells of pearly hue.
* * * * *
Shake one and it awakens; then apply
Its polisht lips to your attentive ear,
And it remembers its august abodes,
And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there. "
Compare, too, _The Excursion_, bk. iv. --
"I have seen
A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract
Of inland ground, applying to his ear
The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell,
To which, in silence hushed, his very soul
Listened intently," etc.
Landor, in his _Satire upon Satirists_, 1836, p. 29, commenting on
Wordsworth's alleged remark that he "would not give five shillings for
all the poetry that Southey had written" (see _Letters_, 1900, iv.
Appendix IX. pp. 483, 484), calls attention to this unacknowledged
borrowing, "It would have been honester," he says, "and more decorous if
the writer of the following verses had mentioned from what bar he drew
his wire. " According to H. C. Robinson (_Diary_, 1869, iii. 114),
Wordsworth acknowledged no obligation to Landor's _Gebir_ for the image
of the sea-shell. "From his childhood the shell was familiar to him,
etc. The 'Satire' seemed to give Wordsworth little annoyance. "]
[395] {615}[In his Preface to Cantos I. , II. of _Childe Harold_
(_Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 5), Byron relies on the authority of
"Ariosto Thomson and Beattie" for the inclusion of droll or satirical
"variations" in a serious poem. Nevertheless, Dallas prevailed on him to
omit certain "ludicrous stanzas. " It is to be regretted that no one
suggested the excision of sections xix. -xxi. from the second canto of
The Island. ]
[396] Hobbes, the father of Locke's and other philosophy, was an
inveterate smoker,--even to pipes beyond computation.
["Soon after dinner he [Hobbes] retired to his study, and had his
candle, with ten or twelve pipes of tobacco laid by him; then, shutting
his door, he fell to smoking, and thinking, and writing for several
hours. "--_Memoirs of the Family of Cavendish_, by White Kennet, D. D. ,
1708, pp. 14, 15. ]
[fp] _Yet they who love thee best prefer by far_. --[MS. D. erased. ]
[397] ["I shall now smoke two cigars, and get me to bed. . . . The Havannah
are the best;--but neither are so pleasant as a hooka or
chiboque. "--_Journal_, December 6, 1813, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 368. ]
[398] {616} This rough but jovial ceremony, used in crossing the line,
has been so often and so well described, that it need not be more than
alluded to.
[399] {617} "That will do for the marines, but the sailors won't believe
it," is an old saying: and one of the few fragments of former jealousies
which still survive (in jest only) between these gallant services.
[400] {619} Archidamus, King of Sparta, and son of Agesilaus, when he
saw a machine invented for the casting of stones and darts, exclaimed
that it was the "grave of valour. " The same story has been told of some
knights on the first application of gunpowder; but the original anecdote
is in Plutarch. [The Greek is "? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? , ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? [A)po/lolen,
a)ndro\s a)reta/]," Plutarch's _Scripta Moralia_, 1839, i. 230. ]
[fq] {621} _To people in a small embarrassment_. --[MS. D. erased. ]
[401] {622} [Fletcher Christian, born 1763, was the fourth son of
Charles Christian, an attorney, of Moreland Close, in the parish of
Brigham, Cumberland. His family, which was of Manx extraction, was
connected with the Christians of Ewanrigg, and the Curwens of Workington
Hall. His brother Edward became Chief Justice of Ely, and was well known
as the editor of _Blackstones Commentaries_. For purposes of
verification (see _An Answer to certain Assertions, etc. _, 1794, p. 9),
Bligh described him as "aged 24 years, five feet nine inches high,
blackish or very dark brown complexioned, dark brown hair, strong made,
star tatowed on the left breast," etc. According to "Morrison's
Journal," high words had passed between Bligh and Christian on more than
one occasion, and, on the day before the mutiny, a question having
arisen with regard to the disappearance of some cocoa-nuts, Christian
was cross-examined by the captain as to his share of the plunder. "I
really do not know, sir," he replied; "but I hope you do not think me so
mean as to be guilty of stealing yours. " "Yes," said Bligh,
"you ---- hound, I do think so, or you could have given a better account
of them. " It was after this offensive accusation that Christian
determined, in the first instance, to quit the ship, and on the morning
of April 28, 1788, finding the mate of the watch asleep, on the spur of
the moment resolved to lay violent hands on the captain, and assume the
command of the _Bounty_. The language attributed to Bligh reads like a
translation into the vernacular, but if Christian kept his designs to
himself, it is strange that they were immediately understood and acted
upon by a body of impromptu conspirators. Testimony, whether written or
spoken, with regard to the succession of events "in moments like to
these," is worth very little; but it is pretty evident that Christian
was a gentleman, and that Bligh's violent and unmannerly ratings were
the immediate cause of the mutiny.
Contradictory accounts are given of Christian's death. It is generally
believed that in the fourth year of the settlement on Pitcairn Island
the Tahitians formed a plot to massacre the Englishmen, and that
Christian was shot when at work in his plantation (_The Mutineers,
etc. _, by Lady Belcher, 1870, p. 163; _The Mutiny, etc. _, by Rosalind A.
Young, 1894, p. 28). On the other hand, Amasa Delano, in his _Narrative
of Voyages, etc. _ (Boston, 1817, cap. v. p. 140), asserts that Captain
Mayhew Folger, who was the first to visit the island in 1808, "was very
explicit in his inquiry at the time, as well as in his account of it to
me, that they lived under Christian's government several years after
they landed; that during the whole time they enjoyed tolerable harmony;
that Christian became sick, and died a natural death. " It stands to
reason that the ex-pirate, Alexander Smith, who had developed into John
Adams, the pious founder of a patriarchal colony, would be anxious to
draw a veil over the early years of the settlement, and would satisfy
the curiosity of visitors who were officers of the Royal Navy, as best
he could, and as the spirit moved him. ]
[fr] {625} _The ruined remnant of the land's defeat_. --[MS. D.
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. line i, see
_Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 102, and 99, note 1. ]
[387] {609}[Toobo Neuha is the name of a Tongan chieftain. See Mariner's
_Account, etc. _, 1817, 141, _sq. _]
[388] When very young, about eight years of age, after an attack of the
scarlet fever at Aberdeen, I was removed by medical advice into the
Highlands. Here I passed occasionally some summers, and from this period
I date my love of mountainous countries. I can never forget the effect,
a few years afterwards, in England, of the only thing I had long seen,
even in miniature, of a mountain, in the Malvern Hills. After I returned
to Cheltenham, I used to watch them every afternoon, at sunset, with a
sensation which I cannot describe. This was boyish enough: but I was
then only thirteen years of age, and it was in the holidays. [Byron
spent his summer holidays, 1796-98, at the farm-house of Ballatrich, on
Deeside. (See _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 192, note 2. For his visit to
Cheltenham, in the summer of 1801, see _Life_, pp. 8, 19. )
[389] {610}[For the eagle's beak, see _Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanza
xviii. line 6, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 226, note 1. ]
[390] {611}[Compare _Macbeth_, act ii. sc. 4, line 13. ]
[391] [Compare--"The never-merry clock," _Werner_, act iii. sc. 3, line
3. ]
[fn] _Which knolls the knell of moments out of man_. --[MS. D. erased. ]
[392] {612} The now well-known story of the loves of the nightingale and
rose need not be more than alluded to, being sufficiently familiar to
the Western as to the Eastern reader. [Compare _Werner_, act iv. sc. 1,
lines 380-382; and _The Giaour_, lines 21, 33. ]
[fo] _Which kindled by another's_--. --[MS. D. ]
[393] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanzas lxxii. , lxxv. Once
again the language and the sentiment recall Wordsworth's _Tintern
Abbey_. (See _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 261, note 2. )]
[394] {613} If the reader will apply to his ear the sea-shell on his
chimney-piece, he will be aware of what is alluded to. If the text
should appear obscure, he will find in _Gebir_ the same idea better
expressed in two lines. The poem I never read, but have heard the lines
quoted, by a more recondite reader--who seems to be of a different
opinion from the editor of the _Quarterly Review_, who qualified it in
his answer to the Critical Reviewer of his _Juvenal_, as trash of the
worst and most insane description. It is to Mr. Landor, the author of
_Gebir_, so qualified, and of some Latin poems, which vie with Martial
or Catullus in obscenity, that the immaculate Mr. Southey addresses his
declamation against impurity!
[These are the lines in _Gebir_ to which Byron alludes--
"But I have sinuous shells of pearly hue.
* * * * *
Shake one and it awakens; then apply
Its polisht lips to your attentive ear,
And it remembers its august abodes,
And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there. "
Compare, too, _The Excursion_, bk. iv. --
"I have seen
A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract
Of inland ground, applying to his ear
The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell,
To which, in silence hushed, his very soul
Listened intently," etc.
Landor, in his _Satire upon Satirists_, 1836, p. 29, commenting on
Wordsworth's alleged remark that he "would not give five shillings for
all the poetry that Southey had written" (see _Letters_, 1900, iv.
Appendix IX. pp. 483, 484), calls attention to this unacknowledged
borrowing, "It would have been honester," he says, "and more decorous if
the writer of the following verses had mentioned from what bar he drew
his wire. " According to H. C. Robinson (_Diary_, 1869, iii. 114),
Wordsworth acknowledged no obligation to Landor's _Gebir_ for the image
of the sea-shell. "From his childhood the shell was familiar to him,
etc. The 'Satire' seemed to give Wordsworth little annoyance. "]
[395] {615}[In his Preface to Cantos I. , II. of _Childe Harold_
(_Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 5), Byron relies on the authority of
"Ariosto Thomson and Beattie" for the inclusion of droll or satirical
"variations" in a serious poem. Nevertheless, Dallas prevailed on him to
omit certain "ludicrous stanzas. " It is to be regretted that no one
suggested the excision of sections xix. -xxi. from the second canto of
The Island. ]
[396] Hobbes, the father of Locke's and other philosophy, was an
inveterate smoker,--even to pipes beyond computation.
["Soon after dinner he [Hobbes] retired to his study, and had his
candle, with ten or twelve pipes of tobacco laid by him; then, shutting
his door, he fell to smoking, and thinking, and writing for several
hours. "--_Memoirs of the Family of Cavendish_, by White Kennet, D. D. ,
1708, pp. 14, 15. ]
[fp] _Yet they who love thee best prefer by far_. --[MS. D. erased. ]
[397] ["I shall now smoke two cigars, and get me to bed. . . . The Havannah
are the best;--but neither are so pleasant as a hooka or
chiboque. "--_Journal_, December 6, 1813, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 368. ]
[398] {616} This rough but jovial ceremony, used in crossing the line,
has been so often and so well described, that it need not be more than
alluded to.
[399] {617} "That will do for the marines, but the sailors won't believe
it," is an old saying: and one of the few fragments of former jealousies
which still survive (in jest only) between these gallant services.
[400] {619} Archidamus, King of Sparta, and son of Agesilaus, when he
saw a machine invented for the casting of stones and darts, exclaimed
that it was the "grave of valour. " The same story has been told of some
knights on the first application of gunpowder; but the original anecdote
is in Plutarch. [The Greek is "? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? , ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? [A)po/lolen,
a)ndro\s a)reta/]," Plutarch's _Scripta Moralia_, 1839, i. 230. ]
[fq] {621} _To people in a small embarrassment_. --[MS. D. erased. ]
[401] {622} [Fletcher Christian, born 1763, was the fourth son of
Charles Christian, an attorney, of Moreland Close, in the parish of
Brigham, Cumberland. His family, which was of Manx extraction, was
connected with the Christians of Ewanrigg, and the Curwens of Workington
Hall. His brother Edward became Chief Justice of Ely, and was well known
as the editor of _Blackstones Commentaries_. For purposes of
verification (see _An Answer to certain Assertions, etc. _, 1794, p. 9),
Bligh described him as "aged 24 years, five feet nine inches high,
blackish or very dark brown complexioned, dark brown hair, strong made,
star tatowed on the left breast," etc. According to "Morrison's
Journal," high words had passed between Bligh and Christian on more than
one occasion, and, on the day before the mutiny, a question having
arisen with regard to the disappearance of some cocoa-nuts, Christian
was cross-examined by the captain as to his share of the plunder. "I
really do not know, sir," he replied; "but I hope you do not think me so
mean as to be guilty of stealing yours. " "Yes," said Bligh,
"you ---- hound, I do think so, or you could have given a better account
of them. " It was after this offensive accusation that Christian
determined, in the first instance, to quit the ship, and on the morning
of April 28, 1788, finding the mate of the watch asleep, on the spur of
the moment resolved to lay violent hands on the captain, and assume the
command of the _Bounty_. The language attributed to Bligh reads like a
translation into the vernacular, but if Christian kept his designs to
himself, it is strange that they were immediately understood and acted
upon by a body of impromptu conspirators. Testimony, whether written or
spoken, with regard to the succession of events "in moments like to
these," is worth very little; but it is pretty evident that Christian
was a gentleman, and that Bligh's violent and unmannerly ratings were
the immediate cause of the mutiny.
Contradictory accounts are given of Christian's death. It is generally
believed that in the fourth year of the settlement on Pitcairn Island
the Tahitians formed a plot to massacre the Englishmen, and that
Christian was shot when at work in his plantation (_The Mutineers,
etc. _, by Lady Belcher, 1870, p. 163; _The Mutiny, etc. _, by Rosalind A.
Young, 1894, p. 28). On the other hand, Amasa Delano, in his _Narrative
of Voyages, etc. _ (Boston, 1817, cap. v. p. 140), asserts that Captain
Mayhew Folger, who was the first to visit the island in 1808, "was very
explicit in his inquiry at the time, as well as in his account of it to
me, that they lived under Christian's government several years after
they landed; that during the whole time they enjoyed tolerable harmony;
that Christian became sick, and died a natural death. " It stands to
reason that the ex-pirate, Alexander Smith, who had developed into John
Adams, the pious founder of a patriarchal colony, would be anxious to
draw a veil over the early years of the settlement, and would satisfy
the curiosity of visitors who were officers of the Royal Navy, as best
he could, and as the spirit moved him. ]
[fr] {625} _The ruined remnant of the land's defeat_. --[MS. D.
