MEMOIR OF CAPTAIN PETER HEYWOOD.

Om readers will recollect, that in one of the most interesting nar- ratives that has for some years left the press, entitled the History of the Mutiny of the Boanty, attributed to Mr. BARROW, and pub- lished in the Family Library, the fate and fortunes of young IInywooe occupied a most conspicuous station. His youth, his

innocence, his dreadful sentence and just pardon, his fine charac- ter, and the beautiful and energetic efforts of his sister, the ami- able and enthusiastic girl, NESSY HEYWOOD, whom this sad trial seems to have killed, altogether rendered the midshipman the hero of this romance of real life. The letters of these parties, the evidence relating to HEYWOOD before the Court-martial, together with his defence, and the history of his sojourn in Otaheite, and his horrible voyage home and shipwreck, along with the other pri- soners in the Pandora, formed the leading and most characteristic incidents of the whole historv,—unless, indeed, we except the wild and romantic supplement of Pitcairn's Island.

The whole of that portion which related to Hrevweon; in the History of the Mutiny of the Bounty, is here repeated : it is

indeed copied—andif the author has had permission se- to do, he could not have taken a wiser course. It would probably have been difficult to refuse such permission, for some of the most in- teresting of his documents were derived by Mr. BARROW from the family; and this Life appears to have been undertaken under the sanction of Captain Heywoon's widow and other friends.

In addition to this grand source of interest, Mr. TAG ART 117.as had access to Captain Havavoon's Diary ; a paper containing, a

summary of his services. When Haywoon received his pardon,

he swore to devote his life to the service of his King,--meaning thereby, of course, the personal representative of his Country. This

resolution was fully kept ; and this noble fellow's services were of no ordinary kind: wherever energy, science, patience, persever- ance, judgment, and undaunted courage could avail, in a course of thirty years' service and command in every part of. the world, there did he labour and toil, to the admiration of every person who served over or under him. To his indefatigable perseverance and skill in conducting surveys, we owe much of our present se- curity in navigating the Indian seas : the list of charts and ob- servations made by him in these quarters, as the result of one commander's personal exertion, is enormous. The sphere of his service was, however, far wider than that of mere science; and we much wish that his biography had been in the hands of Captain BASIL HALL, instead of those of a Unitarian clergyman, however well disposed to do justice to his subject,—though perhaps, under these circumstances, we might have been deprived of' Captain HEYWOOD'S opinions in favour of American naval officers. How- ever, here are the documents ; and if Captain HALL, or any equally able and respectable nautical writer, would undertake the sub- ject, probably many more might be furnished to them. This we will say, that if any such able writer as either Mr. BARROW or Captain

HALL wished to erect a noble monument to the glory of the British Navy, neither brick nor stone could afford finer subjects than the lives of two simple Captains in that Navy : the pair of portraits we allude to, are the biographies (properly developed) of Captain PHILIP BE AVER and Captain PETER HEYWOOD. We cannot compliment Mr. TAGART on the success, with which he cast his materials : we think that even lie—a landsman and a clergyman—might have drawn them up with more effect. Against this must be set off, that perhaps we are indebted -to him for the appearance of much that might not have seen the light without his assistance.

The only extracts we shall make, are from Captain Havwoon's own correspondence ; some of which Mr. TAGART has rescued, perhaps, from oblivion.

It is well known how long Captain HEYwoon, when the mid- shipman of the mutinied Bounty, remained a sojourner -in the island of Otaheite : he completely learned their language, and ac- quired a great interest in their Wellbeing. Fortune never again led him to those shores; but, what was far more unlikely to have happened, threw two Otaheitans on his protection. off Gibraltar.

, This is his most interesting narrative of the fact, as recorded in a letter to one of his corespondents-

" Montagu, Gibraltar, February 1, 1816. " An event of rather a singular nature occurred to me two or three days ago; and I confess I have still so much of the savage about me as to have been in no small degree interested by it. I heard accidentally, last Sunday, that there were two poor unfortunate Tabeiteans on board the Calypso, who had been kidnapped, and brought away from their island by an English ship about thirteen or fourteen montlis ago. Thence they went to Lima, atid in a Spanish ship were conveyed to Cadiz where soon after their arrival last June, they made their escape, and got on board the Calypso, where they have remained ever since, unable to make themselves understood, and hopeless of ever revisiting their native country, to which they ardently long to go back, and God knows, and so do I, that is not to be wondered at. As I thought they would be much snore at their ease and comfortable with me' I ordered them to be discharged into the Montagu, and they were brought on board. Never, as long as I live, shall I forget the emotions of these poor creatures' when, on entering the door of my cabin, I welcomed them in their own way, by exclaiming—' Ma now, wa, EhO, matt ! YOwra t' EatO5a, te harre 5, mye!—'ilrelcome, my friends ! God save you in coming here !' " They could scarce believe their ears when I accosted them in a language so dear to them, and which, except by each other, they had not heard pronounced since they were torn from their country. They seemed at the moment electri- fied. A rush of past recollections at once filled their minds, and then, in a tone and with an expression peculiar to these people and strikingly mournful, they sighed out together and in unison= Attayer 115v ay ! Attaye higiy t5 tawa Venooa, my ty ay ! ltä roil e hó ay !—Alas ! alas ! our good country, we shall never see it more !'

" I took each by the hand, and told them, that if I lived they should be sent home to their country; and assured them, that in the mean time they should remain with me, and that I would be their countryman their friend, and pro- tector. Poor fellows! they were quite overwhelmed—their tears flowed apace —and they wept the thankfulness they could not express. They looked wistfully at me and at each other. God knows what was passing in their minds, but in a short time they grew calm and felt comforted; and they now feel contented and happy.. It was a scene which I would not have lost for much more than I ought to say. But there is no describing the state of one's mind in witnessing the sensibilities of another fellow-being, with a conviction, at the same time, that they are true and unaffected. And, good God! with what ease that is discovered ! What an amazing difference there is between these children of nature and the pupils of art and refinement! It was a scene worthy of being described by a better . pen—a sincere expression of Nature's genuine best feelings, such as we some- times read of in many of our pretty novels ; hut rarely' very rarely see, in this civilized hemisphere of ours, and which, indeed, I do believe /very seldom have seen wholly unsophisticated by some selfish passion, which interest mixes with them, but polish teaches to conceal, except among the poor untaught savages of the island which gave these men birth—where plenty and content are the portion of all, unalloyed by care, envy, or ambition—where labour is needless, and want unknown. At least, such it was twenty-five years ago. And after all that is said and done among us great and wise people of the earth, pray what do we all toil for, late take rest, and eat the bread of carefulness, but to reach, at last, the very state to which they are born—ease of circum- stances, and the option of being idle or busy as we please? But if I go on this way, you will say I am a savage, and so I believe I am, and ever shall be in some points; but let that pass. " As these poor fellows appear to be very wretched in a state of existence so new to them, so foreign to their original manners and habits, and as their ignorance utterly disqualifies them for enjoying what they cannot comprehend the value of, and renders them useless members of a state of civilization and refinement such as ours, I have written a public letter to Mr. Crokcr, and a private one to Admiral Hope, to beg they may be sent out to their own country, idiould the newspaper reports be true, that our Government intends to send a vessel to Pitcairn 's Island with articles of comfort and convenience for the new- discovered progeny of the Bounty's people. This discovery naturally interested me much when I first heard of it in 1809, at the Admiralty ; but still more has the information given us since by Sir Thomas Staines and Captain Pip,on * interested me. A very lively and general curiosity seems to have been excited to know more about a race of beings so new and uncommon in the composition of their character, and not the less so from its purity. And even my curiosity (gratified as it has been already by seeing man in every stage of society, from the miserable savage of New Holland to the most cultivated and refined Euro- pean) has been awakened by the accounts of these officers; so that, were I on the spot, and any thing were going out that way, it is not at all clear to me but that I should be tempted to endeavour to go and look at this new species, as well as to judge whether the natives of Tahate have, upon the whole, been bene- fited, or the reverse, by their intercourse with Europe for the last twenty-five years. I know what they were then, and I believe there are few persons, if any, now living, who possess the same means of judging of the change that may have taken place, because all those who saw them about that time were but casual visitors; and if I may be allowed to judge from what has been written, these visitors knew just as much about the people as they did of their language; and a man must have a strangely-constructed head who can believe that any thing which it is most interesting to know concerning a strange people, can possibly be known (correctly at least) without the latter. Yet we meet with many descriptions of their manners customs, religion, and ceremonies, of their government and policy (if they have any), that must have been comprehended. How ?---Why, by the eye alone. Now, is this possible ?—No ; and I can only say, that more than two years and a hak's residence among them, and a very competent know- ledge of their language, never enabled me to discover the truth of nearly all the descriptions of those matters before the public—most of which I at this ino- snent believe never to have had existence except in the beads of the writers! But, fortunately for those who feed curiosity with a goose-quill, therein no lack of credulity in Great Britain, whatever there may be of faith. To us, however, it is very immaterial what stories we are told about them; and to know more or less of these savaga, will neither add to nor lessen our stock of happiness. Happiness indeed does not seem to be our chief object of search, so much as wealth, distinctions, and power, where alone we most of us suppose it to reside, notwithstanding half a thousand old fellows, from Solomon down to Dr. Cogan, have been telling us we are all wrong. But these islanders have neither power or gold to make it ; but plenty, cheerfulness, and content they have: and with Nature only for their guide, they are so deplorably ignorant as to fancy, that these, with a few social enjoyments, constitute the summum bonum' of life. Upon the whole, there is more general happiness among them than among any people I have met with on earth • so that I am very sure the less we teach

t hem of our arts and sciences, the better for themselves. Let them, however, have our religion ; for though they have a firm belief in the Supreme Being, of the soul's separate existence, and of a future state after death, still more happy than the present, yet it may be for their benefit hereafter to have a knowledge of Christianity, though I am not at all sure it will make them happier during

• The information given by these gentlemen is to be found, with many very inter, eating particulars, in the account of Pitcairn's Island, subjoined to the "History of the Meeting of the Bounty." The reader, who is not already acquainted with this account, scannot Fail to be Wily gratified by its perusal. life, or add to the composure with whirls I have seen several of them, both old and young, depart out of it. Iii.most matters, indeed, they act up to its tenets already, without knowingany thing about it. But those customs among them, which are in direct opposition to as-holy precepts, as well as to their awn hiaa iness here,—most of which, however strange it may seem to the ear of an European, originate in pride of fianaily,--particularly infanticide, it would doubtless correct, and in time explode. But of this matter I have said more than enough, perhaps, and more than I intended."

The only additional extract we shall make, is Captain Hey. WOOD'S opinion of American Officers ; the temper and judg,ment of which we strongly recommend to the attention of our Navy,

"Montage, February 1, 1816: " Mv nren B.—I avail myself of the Partridge, now at single anchor, all ready for a start the moment the wind serves, to thank you for your long sail kind letter of the 13th November, brought over by the Tagus. I am glad I bap- pened to anticipate your wish to know something of the Yankees. However, you may agree with me, my friend * * *, to whom I wrote an account of them in similar terms, has rated me, not a little, for giving what he calls c un- qualified praise to those Yankee doodles!' That I gave credit to the Yankees we had here, as far as they appeared to me to deserve it, is true; but that I conceded to them unqualified praise, I deny: and if what I did give happened to be at the expense of my own countrymen (as he seemed to think), the fault is theirs, not mine. I am one of those who do not consider true worth to be the growth of one particular soil alone, but it may be the production of any; and wherever I see, I feel myself bound to acknowledge it, even in an enemy. When the evidence of the senses convinces the understanding in opposition to unfavourable report, the liberal-minded man will not allow his judgment to be obscured by national partiality- ; nor will he be so unjust as to withhold from the deserving nee his meed of praise, whether he be countryman, a friend, or a foe. If we really discover among these Americans any of that ability and those qualities which we admire, and upon which we pride ourselves so much, are we, merely because they were born in America, to suffer narrow-minded prejudice to bliud our reason? No, surely not ! Be assured this is unwise, it is unmanly; nay, it is mean, it is despicable. But farther still than this. If we find some American officers—whom, by the by, I do not class with their fellow-countrymen on shore, of whom I know but little—to have given particular attention to some professional studies to which many, nay most of us, have perhaps paid no atten- tion at all, are we to deny them merit as far as that goes, on the ground of de- ficiency in ourselves? I must honestly confess, that I cannot do this; and, with much humility too, that, as an individual, on comparing myself with one or two with whom I conversed here, I found, I am sorry to say, that I was rather light in the balance, that is, wanting in a knowledge of some particular matters closely connected with our profession, which we all ought to know, but I do not; and of which I have some reason to believe, that too many of my bro- ther officers are equally ignorant. Yet these men were modest and unassuming, and most of them had candour enough to acknowledge their general inferiority to British naval officers; assuring me, that they were only desirous of emulat- ing them. Far from giving them credit for general excellence, I see they are at present very inferior to us upon the whole; and to me it is evident, that those among them who can think dispassionately, think so too: so that they have in their composition the best possible ingredient to make themselves better; for nothing is so inimical to improvement, as that pride which pre- sumes on supposed superiority and merit, or that haughtiness which indicates unqualified contempt of others. It has always appeared to me, that our high naval reputation has arisen from successes over the French and Spaniards, whom we ourselves, as well as the nation at large, have always looked on as despicable opponents in naval warfare. But it behoves us not to class the Ame- rican with foes like these."

Captain HEYWOOD died only very lately (in February MI), at

his house in the Regent's Park, in his fifty-eighth year—after having refused a Commodore's pendant and active service in time of peace; and in the enjoyment of much domestic happiness. His latter days were, however, greatly afflicted by disease ; he ultimately died of enlargement in the heart,—as do many of those persons who have been long placed in trying situations, and who other- wise possess a sound constitution.