o was tried and convicted as one of the mutineers, but received
the king's pardon, the conduct of Bligh appears in a very unfavourable
point of view. This Morrison was a person, from talent and education,
far above the situation he held in the _Bounty_; he had previously
served in the navy as midshipman, and, after his pardon, was appointed
gunner of the _Blenheim_, in which he perished with Sir Thomas
Troubridge. In comparing this journal with other documents, the dates
and transactions appear to be correctly stated, though the latter may
occasionally be somewhat too highly coloured. How he contrived to
preserve this journal, in the wreck of the _Pandora_, does not appear;
but there can be no doubt of its authenticity, having been kept among
the late Captain Heywood's papers; various passages in it have been
corrected either by this officer or some other person, but without
altering their sense.

It would appear from this important document that the seeds of discord,
in the unfortunate ship _Bounty_, were sown at a very early period of
the voyage. It happened, as was the case in all small vessels, that the
duties of commander and purser were united in the person of Lieutenant
Bligh; and it would seem that this proved the cause of very serious
discontent among the officers and crew; of the mischief arising out of
this union, the following statement of Mr. Morrison may serve as a
specimen. At Teneriffe, Lieutenant Bligh ordered the cheese to be
hoisted up and exposed to the air; which was no sooner done, than he
pretended to miss a certain quantity, and declared that it had been
stolen. The cooper, Henry Hillbrant, informed him that the cask in
question had been opened by the orders of Mr. Samuel, his clerk, who
acted also as steward, and the cheese sent on shore to his own house,
previous to the _Bounty_ leaving the river on her way to Portsmouth.
Lieutenant Bligh, without making any further inquiry, immediately
ordered the allowance of that article to be stopped, both from
_officers_ and _men_, until the deficiency should be made good, and told
the cooper he would give him a d--d good flogging if he said another
word on the subject. It can hardly be supposed that a man of Bligh's
shrewdness, if disposed to play the rogue, would have placed himself so
completely in the hands of the cooper, in a transaction which, if
revealed, must have cost him his commission.

Again, on approaching the equator, some decayed pumpkins,