the 18 men of his crew, who had been forced with him into the Bounty’s launch, 23 feet long by 6 feet 9 inches wide—­a distance of 6318 miles[H]—­safely to Timoa.  No words can say too much of the care he took of them and the devotion shown in the effort to save them.  On his return to England, he was at once made post-captain as a sign of favour, and he was given two ships, the Providence and another, to be fitted out at his discretion, in which to accomplish the objects for which the Bounty was sent.  This he did with perfect success. (In his absence the trial of the mutineers of the Bounty took place.) As to his governorship of New South Wales, let anyone read the fourth chapter of Dr. Lang’s history of the colony—­Lang was no partisan or connection of Bligh—­which shows beyond dispute that Bligh acted, as he always did, with the most scrupulous regard to his duty and instructions, and received from time to time the written approval of the King, through Lord Castlereagh, then Secretary of State.

    [Footnote H:  Mrs. Nutting has here made a mistake in the distance
    traversed.  Timoa is, of course, meant for Timor. (See page 246.)]

“It has been the pleasure of this generation to malign and misrepresent this good man and brave, not once, but continually.  It originated in false statements made in the defence of two of the mutineers, Christian and Heywood, representing Bligh’s severity and cruelty as being the cause of the mutiny.  Yet it can be proved from the minutes of the court-martial that Heywood on his trial defended himself by swearing that he was kept on board the Bounty by force, and that it was ’impossible he could ever willingly have done anything to injure Captain Bligh, who had always been a father to him.’  As to Christian, it can be shown that this was the third voyage he had sailed with Captain Bligh.  Would a man go three times with a commander such as Bligh has been described by his enemies?

“I have no object in writing this account but love for the memory of a man who was my mother’s father, and so beloved of her and his other daughters (for he had no son), that the same love and feeling were instilled into the minds of her children.  It was quite recently asserted in a newspaper that ’Bligh was dismissed his ship for ill-conduct after the mutiny of the Bounty,’ and these attacks and false statements are frequent.  I know that I am asking what you may deem unusual and inconvenient, and yet I have faith in your love of justice, and desire to clear the memory of one who served his king and country as Bligh did.”

Some years ago, an accomplished young lady, well known and much respected in Norfolk Island, and one of the (two or three generations removed) descendants by one side of her family from the mutineers, visited England.  An anecdote of this visit was told by the lady herself to one of these authors.  This