worth, and that it must prejudice every person who reads it most powerfully in his favour. Such a letter, in less distressful circumstances than those in which he writes, would, I am persuaded, reflect honour on the pen of a person much older than my poor brother. But when we consider his extreme youth, (only sixteen at the time of the mutiny, and now but nineteen,) his fortitude, patience, and manly resignation, under the pressure of sufferings and misfortunes almost unheard of, and scarcely to be supported at any age, without the assistance of that which seems to be my dear brother's greatest comfort-a quiet conscience, and a thorough conviction of his own innocence-when I add, at the same time, with real pleasure and satisfaction, that his relation corresponds in many particulars with the accounts we have hitherto heard of the fatal mutiny; and when I also add, with inconceivable pride and delight, that my beloved Peter never was known to breathe a syllable inconsistent with truth and honour;-when these circumstances, my dear uncle, are all united, what man on earth can doubt of the innocence which could dictate such a letter? In short, let it speak for him: the perusal of his artless and pathetic story will, I am persuaded, be a stronger recommendation in his favour than any thing I

can use.

'I need not tire your patience, my ever-loved uncle, by dwelling longer on this subject (the dearest and most interesting on earth to my heart); let

E

me conjure you only, my kind friend, to read it, and consider the innocence and defenceless situation of its unfortunate author, which calls for, and I am sure deserves, all the pity and assistance his friends. can afford him, and which, I am sure also, the goodness and benevolence of your heart will prompt you to exert in his behalf. It is perfectly unnecessary for me to add, after the anxiety I feel, and cannot but express, that no benefit conferred upon myself will be acknowledged with half the gratitude I must ever feel for the smallest instance of kindness shewn to my beloved Peter. Farewell, my dearest uncle. With the firmest reliance on your kind and generous promises, I am, ever with the truest gratitude and sincerity,

'Your most affectionate niece,

NESSY HEYWOOD.'

The letter of Peter Heywood was forwarded from Batavia. His treatment, and that of his fellow prisoners, was almost as bad there as in the Pandora. They were closely confined in irons in the castle, and fed on very bad provisions; and the hardships they endured on their passage to England, in Dutch ships, were very severe ;-sleeping on nothing but hard boards, on wet canvas, without any bed, for seventeen months; always subsisting on short allowance of execrable provisions, and without any clothes for some time, except such as were supplied by the charity of two young men. It is extraor

dinary that he preserved his health under the dreadful sufferings he endured, during eight months' close confinement in a hot climate. Mr. Heywood was removed into the Gorgon, of forty-four guns, lying in Table Bay, March 19th, 1792, and from that period till his arrival in England he appears to have been allowed the inestimable indulgence of walking upon deck for six or eight hours every day, whilst at other times he was confined with only one leg in irons. On the 21st of June, two days after his return to Spithead, he was transferred to the Hector, seventy-four. From the Gorgon, at Spithead, he directed a letter to Richard Betham, Esq., containing a detailed statement respecting the mutiny of the Bounty, and of his conduct, similar to that in the letter already given. By the same post which brought the above were received also two other letters-one to Mrs. Heywood, and the other to his sister Nessy, both of which have been lost. In them he related all the particulars of his voyage from Batavia, to which we have in part alluded above. He had, during his confinement, learned to make straw hats, and that with both his hands in fetters. He finished several, which he sold for half-a-crown a-piece, and with the product of these he procured a suit of coarse clothes, in which, with a cheerful and light heart, notwithstanding all his sufferings, he arrived at Portsmouth. There, in the Hector, commanded by Captain (the late Admiral Sir George) Montague, the prisoners were treated with the greatest hu

manity, and every indulgence allowed that could, with propriety, be extended to men in their unhappy situation, until the period when they were to be arraigned before the competent authority, and put on their trial for mutiny and piracy.

CHAPTER II.

THE trial did not take place until the month of September. In this period of anxious and awful suspense, a most active and interesting correspondence was carried on between this unfortunate youth and his numerous friends, which exhibits the character of himself and the whole family in the most amiable colours. Mrs. Bertie, (then resident at Portsmouth,) a daughter of Mr. Heywood, of Maristow, became from the moment of Peter's arrival his warm and attentive friend, and in a letter to his mother, dated 28th of June, 1792, says, 'I take the liberty, though a stranger, of addressing you, to tell you that a friend of mine, whom I sent to see him this day, gives the most favourable account of his looks and health, which he assured him he enjoyed perfectly. He was in want of a few things which, at my father's request, he has been and will be supplied with. He expressed a great hope that neither you nor any of his friends would come to see him in his present situation, trusting on his trial to make his innocence appear. My motive for writing is, that, as his let