Coleman, M’Intosh, Norman, and Byrne, who, ’tis confessed, were desirous of leaving the ship), she must either have gone down with us, or, to prevent it, we must have lightened her of the provisions and other necessary articles, and thereby have perished for want—­dreadful alternative!

’A choice of deaths to those who are certain of dying may be a matter of indifference; but where, on one hand, death appears inevitable, and the means of salvation present themselves on the other, however imprudent it might be to resort to those means in any other less trying situation, I think (and hope even at my present time of life) that I shall not be suspected of a want of courage for saying, few men would hesitate to embrace the latter.

’Such, then, was exactly my situation on board the Bounty; to be starved to death, or drowned, appeared to be inevitable if I went in the boat; and surely it is not to be wondered at, if, at the age of sixteen years, with no one to advise with, and so ignorant of the discipline of the service (having never been at sea before) as not to know or even suppose it was possible that what I should determine upon might afterwards be alleged against me as a crime—­I say, under such circumstances, in so trying a situation, can it be wondered at, if I suffered the preservation of my life to be the first, and to supersede every other, consideration.

’Besides, through the medium of the master, the captain had directed the rest of the officers to remain on board, in hopes of retaking the ship.  Such is the master’s assertion, and such the report on board, and as it accorded with my own wishes for the preservation of my life, I felt myself doubly justified in staying on board, not only as it appeared to be safer than going in the boat, but from a consideration also of being in the way to be useful in assisting to accomplish so desirable a wish of the captain.

’Let it not—­for God’s sake—­let it not be argued that my fears were groundless, and that the arrival of the boat at Timor is a proof that my conduct was wrong.  This would be judging from the event, and I think I have plainly shown that, but for the death of Norton at Tofoa, and the prudent order of the captain not to overload the boat, neither himself nor any of the people who were saved with him, would at this moment have been alive to have preferred any charge against me, or given evidence at this trial.

’If deliberate guilt be necessarily affixed to all who continued on board the ship, and that in consequence they must be numbered with Christian’s party—­in such a strict view of matters it must irrevocably impeach the armourer and two carpenter’s mates, as well as Martin and Byrne, who certainly wished to quit the ship.  And if Christian’s first intention of sending away the captain, with a few persons only, in the small cutter, had not been given up, or if even the large cutter had