He then appeals to the members of the Court, as to the alternative they would themselves have taken:—­’A boat alongside, already crowded; those who were in her crying out she would sink; and Captain Bligh desiring no more might go in—­with a slender stock of provisions,—­what hope could there be to reach any friendly shore, or withstand the hostile attacks of the boisterous elements?  The perils those underwent who reached the island of Timor, and whom nothing but the apparent interference of Divine Providence could have saved, fully justify my fears, and prove beyond a doubt that they rested on a solid foundation; for by staying in the ship, an opportunity might offer of escaping, but by going in the boat nothing but death appeared, either from the lingering torments of hunger and thirst, or from the murderous weapons of cruel savages, or being swallowed up by the deep.

‘I have endeavoured,’ he says, ’to recall to Mr. Hayward’s remembrance a proposal he at one time made, by words, of attacking the mutineers, and of my encouraging him to the attempt, promising to back him.  He says he has but a faint recollection of the business—­so faint indeed that he cannot recall to his memory the particulars, but owns there was something passed to that effect.  Faint, however, as his remembrance is (which for me is the more unfortunate), ought it not to do away all doubt with respect to the motives by which I was then influenced?’ And, in conclusion, he says, ’I beg leave most humbly to remind the members of this honourable Court, that I did freely, and of my own accord, deliver myself up to Lieutenant Robert Corner, of H.M.S. Pandora, on the first certain notice of her arrival.’

William Muspratt’s Defence

Declares his innocence of any participation in the mutiny; admits he assisted in hoisting out the boat, and in putting several articles into her; after which he sat down on the booms, when Millward came and mentioned to him Mr. Fryer’s intention to rescue the ship, when he said he would stand by Mr. Fryer as far as he could; and with that intention, and for that purpose only, he took up a musket which one of the people had laid down, and which he quitted the moment he saw Bligh’s people get into the boat.  Solemnly denies the charge of Mr. Purcell against him, of handing liquor to the ship’s company.  Mr. Hayward’s evidence, he trusts, must stand so impeached before the Court, as not to receive the least attention, when the lives of so many men are to be affected by it—­for, he observes, he swears that Morrison was a mutineer, because he assisted in hoisting out the boats; and that M’Intosh was not a mutineer, notwithstanding he was precisely employed on the same business—­that he criminated Morrison from the appearance of his countenance—­that he had only a faint remembrance of that material and striking circumstance of Morrison offering to join him to retake the ship—­that, in answer to his (Muspratt’s) question respecting Captain