Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/509

 XIL DEC. 26, iocs.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

501

LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 190S.

CONTENTS. No. 313.

NOTES: Mutiny of the Bounty, 501 Bibliography of Christmas Christ-tide Ecclesiastical State at Christmas Sleeping King Arthur, 502 Robin a Bobbin West- bury White Horse -Stages on Barrels Mural Tablets, 503 Dryden and Light Epitaph-India " Little Mary" Lord Heathfield Nine Parts of Speech Nameless Grave- stone" Moose," 504 Tickling Trout" Top Spit," 505.

QUERIES :-Christmastide Folk-lore-John Wainwright Heraldic China, 505 Factors of Progress Lely's Portrait of Madame Kirke "A gallant captain " " As merry as Griggs " Cottiswold " Uss of our Historical Manu- scripts ' " Anser, apis,"<fcc. " Consul of God" "Con- stantine Pebble "Marat in York Percival Haslam Brightlingsea, 506 Sir H. Nevil Chasuble at Warrington Church, 507.

REPLIES : St. Mary Axe, 507-National Flag-Mistakes in Printed Registers -Muir Richard II. Jacobin : Jaco- biteLouis XIV., 508 -English and their Pleasures- Pilate Neapolitan Marvels Eleusinian Mysteries Mar- riage House Churchwardens' Accounts Jeremiah Waine- wright " Silver taster "Peter the Great 'Edwin Drood,' 510-"Eulachon" Asses' Milk Children's Carols "Owl-light," 511 Sleep and Death Flats Portraits Wanted " Oil on Troubled Waters " Reskimer "Kaggie," 512 Long Lease Welsh Dictionary Dr. John Bond, 513 Monumental Inscriptions St. Dials First Ylesh-eater ' Vicar of Wakefield ' Heber's 'Palestine' " Scoggan " ' My Old Oak Table 'Lincolnshire Sayings Soho Square Statue, 514 -Glass Manufacture Imaginary Saints, 515 Johnson's Prayer Waterloo and Eton, 516 St. Anne's Church, Blackfriars Tideswell Genius Charles Reade Immurement Alive, 517 Fictitious Latin Plurals Kimpton Epitaph at Gravesend Thom- son "Mug" "First catch your hare," 518 Queen Elizabeth's Pocket Pistol, 519.

NOTES ON BOOKS: 'La Maison de Victor Hugo' ' Slang and its Analogues ' ' Three Frenchmen in Bengal' Keats's Poems.

Notices to Correspondents.

CAPT. BLIGH AND THE MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY.

THE following unpublished extracts from letters written by Thomas Denman Led ward, who succeeded Mr. Huggan as surgeon on board H.M.S. Bounty shortly before her crew mutinied, leave the vexed question of the character of Capt. Bligh much where it was, but will, I think, prove of interest.

"Portsmouth. Dec r 4 1787. By some unaccount- able fortune the Surgeon's Mate did not go on board the Bounty, & she put back a day or two ago on the Winds coming to the Westward, & Capt Blyth now "wishes me to go with him if possible. She is not rallowed any Surgeon's Mate, so that 1 am to enter as A.B. ; but the Captain is almost certain that I shall get a first Mate's pay, & shall stand a great chance of immediate promotion ; & if the Surgeon dies (& he has the character of a drunkard) I shall have a Surgeon's acting order."

" On board the Bounty at St. Helen's. 10 Dec r 1787. The La Nymphe was paid off about a Week ago, & I immediately agreed with Capt 11 Blythe of the Bounty to go with him to Otaheite to trans- plant Bread fruit trees to Jamaica ; we go by Cape Horn and return by the Cape of Good Hope. The Navy board has not allowed her a Surgeon's Mate ;

but the Capt" was unwilling to trust the lives of 4o Men so far from home, with only one Medical person on board. I therefore do tL duty of

SaTlor ' th Ugh nly 6ntered as a

In another letter of the same date : " T jh e Bounty is a small Ship of about 220 tuns.... lae Captain, though a passionate Man, is I believe a good hearted Man, and has behaved very hand-

"Cape of Good Hope. June 6th 1788 & as I

have made a friend of the Captain I can rely upon his doing what lies in his power for me."

After describing " a continual series of the most violent and distressing weather that ever was experienced," he goes on :

"Mr. Huggan, our Surgeon, fell down and dis- located his Shoulder, which I reduced with great

satisfaction & I hope credit The Ship laboured

so much that there was danger of rendering her unfit for the further prosecution of the Voyage. The Captain was therefore obliged to bear away, & I have no doubt will gain much credit by his resolution & perseverance & by the extreme care he took of the Ship's company."

" June 9th 1788. I have hitherto kept a Journal of the Voyage ; but as I find we must deliver up every thing of the kind on our return to England, or expect no further promotion in the Navy, I believe I shall not carry it on any further. The reason of this is that a very accurate account of it will be published by the Captain under the Auspices of the Admiralty, & to enhance the value of the publication, all care will be taken that no other account can come out before it."

The last letter is so pathetic that I give it in full :

MY DEAR UNCLE,! am extremely thankful to God that I am able to inform you that we arrived safe at Batavia, and that we shall sail in a Dutch Indiaman in the course of a fortnight or three Weeks for Europe ; so that I am not certain but I shall have the pleasure of seeing you before the receipt of this letter.

You will be surprised when you hear I am de- prived of my own Ship with every individual thing I took out with me, besides effects to a con- siderable amount which I purchased at the Surgeon, Mr. Huggan's, Death, viz., the Medicine Chests, Set of Instruments, Medical Books, the furniture of his Cabbin &c., all of which were Articles neces- sary upon my commencing Acting Surgeon.

The Ship was taken from us on the 28 of April 89 by our people off one of the Friendly Islands, & we sailed to Timor in one of the Ship's open Boats, a passage of more than 1200 Leagues, in somewhat more than six Weeks. During this time we were constantly wet ; had only the weight of a small Muskett Bullett of Biscuit, & a gill of Water twice a Day ; after a Month however we allowed our- selves the same quantity three times a Day, because we found the former allowance would never do.

When I arrived at Timor I was so weak, I could not walk, so that had we been at sea two or three Days longer I should certainly have perished ; & it was full six Weeks before I gained any tolerable firmness.

The sad affair happened early in the Morning