down with her in fetters. We were upwards of a fortnight in the boats before we reached Coupang, during which time we suffered much from hunger and thirst, and encountered innumerable perils and dangers. We sailed from thence on the 5th of October, and arrived at Batavia about a month afterwards. It is well known by what means we have arrived since in England.
“I have now concluded my most melancholy narrative, the truth of which I do most solemnly attest; and after hearing the relation of the distressed situation I was placed in, and all the motives which induced me to remain in the ship, if a candid and impartial hearer should be able to distinguish the least criminality, I can then advance nothing further in my own defence, but must, with the most profound respect and humility, throw myself upon the mercy of the honourable Gentlemen of which this tribunal of earthly justice is composed; trusting, that in pity and commiseration to my youth, the short period I have been in the service, and the many hardships and dangers I have undergone, during a grievous confinement of nearly eighteen months, they will impute the whole to my ignorance and inexperience, and will be inclined to shew an instance of merciful clemency to their most submissive, and truly unfortunate Prisoner.”
In the naval service it is a well understood axiom, “that those who are not for us, are against us;” and according to the tenor of martial law, however severe it may appear to civilians, the man who stands neuter, in cases of mutiny, is equally culpable with him who lifts his arm against his superior. In short, a military tribunal must either fully acquit, or sentence the prisoner to death; there is no medium between perfect innocence and absolute guilt. The strong points of Mr. Heywood’s defence were his extreme youth and consequent inexperience, and his voluntary surrender to the Pandora’s Captain immediately on that ship’s arrival at Otaheite; but these proved insufficient, as will be seen by the following extract from a letter written by him to the Rev. Dr. Patrick Scott, a friend of his afflicted family, dated on board the Hector, Sept. 20, 1792:
