sandy island (or key) about four miles from the wreck; and I remained near the ship for some time with the other two boats, and picked up all the people that could be seen, and then followed the two first boats to the key; and having landed the men and cleared the boats, they were immediately despatched again to look about the wreck and the adjoining reef for any that might be missing, but they returned without having found a single person.  On mustering the people that were saved, it appeared that eighty-nine of the ship’s company, and ten of the mutineers that had been prisoners on board, answered to their names; but thirty-one of the ship’s company, and four mutineers, were lost with the ship.’

It is remarkable enough that so little notice is taken of the mutineers in this narrative of the captain; and as the following statement is supposed to come from the late Lieutenant Corner, who was second lieutenant of the Pandora, it is entitled to be considered as authentic, and if so, Captain Edwards must have deserved the character, ascribed to him, of being altogether destitute of the common feelings of humanity.

’Three of the Bounty’s people, Coleman, Norman, and M’Intosh, were now let out of irons, and sent to work at the pumps.  The others offered their assistance, and begged to be allowed a chance of saving their lives; instead of which, two additional sentinels were placed over them, with orders to shoot any who should attempt to get rid of their fetters.  Seeing no prospect of escape, they betook themselves to prayer, and prepared to meet their fate, every one expecting that the ship would soon go to pieces, her rudder and part of the stern-post being already beat away.’

When the ship was actually sinking, and every effort making for the preservation of the crew, it is asserted that ’no notice was taken of the prisoners, as is falsely stated by the author of the Pandora’s Voyage, although Captain Edwards was entreated by Mr. Heywood to have mercy upon them, when he passed over their prison, to make his own escape, the ship then lying on her broadside, with the larboard bow completely under water.  Fortunately the master-at-arms, either by accident or design, when slipping from the roof of “Pandora’s Box” into the sea, let the keys of the irons fall through the scuttle or entrance, which he had just before opened, and thus enabled them to commence their own liberation, in which they were generously assisted, at the imminent risk of his own life, by William Moulter, a boatswain’s mate, who clung to the coamings, and pulled the long bars through the shackles, saying he would set them free, or go to the bottom with them.

’Scarcely was this effected when the ship went down, leaving nothing visible but the top-mast cross-trees.  The master-at-arms and all the sentinels sunk to rise no more.  The cries of them and the other drowning men were awful in the extreme; and more than half an hour had elapsed before the survivors could be taken up by the boats.  Among the former were Mr. Stewart, John Sumner, Richard Skinner, and Henry Hillbrant, the whole of whom perished with their hands still in manacles.