ADVOCATE GRAHAM INTERVIEWS
PETER HEYWOOD
"Exactly where, when and how did you and Fletcher Christian catch
the pox and what did you do immediately you observed the symptoms?"
Heywood was aghast
"No secrets,"
Graham was the icy professional interrogator again.
"But Mr Graham..."
Graham leaned over and
grabbed Heywood by his shirt-front. His fist tightened and his voice rasped
cold and deadly,."I am well aware of most of your activities on Tahiti,
so do not for one moment imagine you deny them. Just answer my question."
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Heywood recoiled his own hand circled Graham's
wrist as if in an instant thinking to strike out or wrench away. but some
base instinct warned him otherwise. He stared back along Graham's arm into
black eyes that seemed stillborn of any compassion. Heyood slumped and
the tense moment died as its purpose was achieved. Graham released his
hold. "What happened.? Your life may well depend on the information
so hide nothing—and I warn you I want no prevarication."
Heywood swallowed, his
pulse still drumming, "Where will I start?"
"At the beginning."
"First we were sent
us ashore with the botanist David Nelson to set up a camp; some others
of the crew helped us. We used nails and timber to make some shelters for
the plants and then we built a small settlement on Point Venus. |
Mr Bligh told me my
job was to make a dictionary of the language and to help Christian collect
the bread fruit plants..."
"I know all that,
get on with it."
Heywood looked even more
alarmed, his palms sweated as he clenched and unclenched his hands, "Sir,
please, no one can understand ... its impossible to explain ... the incredible
beauty and availability of the women. Every day I would see what I thought
the most beautiful girl in the world, and I knew I could have her, just
by bending my finger."
Heywood let the words
tumble out, his embarrassment dying as surely as his innocence melted in
passion's furnace on Tahiti. "I would send one back to my quarters
to wait for me ... but before I returned I would discover another ... and
there was no shame, no jealousy, no guilt. There were women waiting for
me everywhere, all making themselves immediately available. My body was
being bathed, massaged, kneaded, fed for one purpose only, and that was
not to collect bread fruit or discover new words for my dictionary."
His confession had gained its own momentum. Graham, aware of this, got
up and deliberately turned his back. Heywood looked alarmed. It made him
want to be bolder. "Sometimes at night I would wake up with two women
in my bed ... their skin smelling of scented coconut oil. It was the same
for Fletcher. We enjoyed the widest variety of women; some tiny, some huge,
some thin and tall, some short and fat, some thirteen or fourteen some
thirty or forty. The older ones taught us many things I never imagined
I could – or should do; there was no obligation, no price to pay. There
were so many different things to experience that time itself became incidental."
Graham wondered at the
magnetism of the place that caused such similar reactions in two such widely
different characters as Banks and Heywood. Both had little difficulty transporting
themselves back there in time—as if it were the present that were the unreality.
Meanwhile Heywood was still blurting....
"I felt I must experience
everything and so did Fletcher.. It was an obsession—it is so difficult
to explain—we both wanted something novel, something new every day. My
life span seemed compressed, a wasted hour became a crime against experience;
against life itself," he suddenly remembered Graham's presence and
became alarmed—but by himself; at his own words.His shoulders hunched.
Graham turned back and
addressed the top of Heywood's bent head. "So, the pox?"
"That happened in
December," sighed Heywood. His imagination coming firmly back to his
chains and to Graham. "About the 28th after the ship was moved to
Oparre ... you see there was this one girl ... she found us one day just
after we arrived. She was not particularly beautiful but was extremely—you
know—and we were bored, she wanted us both."
"Extremely what?"
"Ah ... wanton, yes
wanton!"
"Wanton?"
"Yes sir. You must
understand the Tahitian girls sir—they make no judgments when it comes
to intercourse."
"Did you?"
His head dropped, "No
...but"
"Well?"
"The girl .. she
was a 'fire ship' and we both had pus two and a half days later."
He raised his head slightly, embarrased and pleading for a reaction from
Graham. He got none of course and added flornly. "Well that Mr Graham
was how we caught the pox...." his voice tailed off again.
"How did Lieutenant
Bligh react when you reported for treatment?"
"He wasn't there
Mr Graham but three weeks later we heard that when he examined the book
he asked the surgeon if we were treated on the same day. He was very angry
he had not been informed and he hardly spoke to us from then on ... and
when I delivered my reports he just took them without a word."
"When was his first
disagreement with Christian?"
"He discovered some
plants missing in January and blamed Christian. That was when he told the
natives, in front of Christian that Christian was not really second in
command and not really a high-born chief."
"That is all."
Graham stood.
Heywood also rose, puzzled.
"But why sir ...?"
"Guard," shouted
Graham and left the room. Nothing more was said, not even good-by.
Although Heywood thought
otherwise Graham did not judge him—he was beyond such indulgences.
For Graham another piece
of the puzzle fell into place.
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