ll him, and began to make concessions. I was now only assisted by
Mr. Nelson; and the master (Fryer) very deliberately called out to the
boatswain, to put me under an arrest, and was stirring up a greater
disturbance, when I declared, if he interfered, when I was in the
execution of my duty to preserve order and regularity, and that in
consequence any tumult arose, I would certainly put him to death the
first person. This had a proper effect on this man, and he now assured
me that, on the contrary, I might rely on him to support my orders and
directions for the future. This is the outline of a tumult that lasted
about a quarter of hour'; and he adds, 'I was told that the master and
carpenter, at the last place, were endeavouring to produce altercations,
and were the principal cause of their murmuring there.' This carpenter
he brought to a court-martial on their arrival in England, on various
charges, of which he was found guilty in part, and reprimanded. Purcell
is said to be at this time in a mad-house.

On another occasion, when a stew of oysters was distributed among the
people, Lieutenant Bligh observes (in the MS. Journal), 'In the
distribution of it, the voraciousness of some and the moderation of
others were very discernible. The _master_ began to be dissatisfied the
first, because it was not made into a larger quantity by the addition of
water, and showed a turbulent disposition, until I laid my commands on
him to be silent.' Again, on his refusing bread to the men, because they
were collecting oysters, he says, 'this occasioned some murmuring with
the master and carpenter, the former of whom endeavoured to prove the
propriety of such an expenditure, and was troublesomely ignorant,
tending to create disorder among those, if any were weak enough to
listen to him.'

If what Bligh states with regard to the conduct of the master and the
carpenter be true, it was such, on several occasions, as to provoke a
man much less irritable than himself. He thus speaks of the latter, when
in the ship and in the midst of the mutiny. 'The boatswain and carpenter
were fully at liberty; the former was employed, on pain of death, to
hoist the boats out, but the latter I saw acting the part of an idler,
with an impudent and ill-looking countenance, which led me to believe he
was one of the mutineers, until he was among the rest ordered to leave
the ship, for it appeared to me to be a doubt with Christian, at first,
whether he should