Letter to Mother (1791) Home Peter Heywood Letter to Sister (1791)
Revised 2011-06-06
[It had been reported that Peter Heywood and George Stewart were the first to surrender themselves to the Pandora, as soon as she anchored, by swimming out to her from the beach. In this letter to his mother, he 'sets the record straight.']
"These few lines, my dear and honoured mother, are only to inform you that Lord Hood's fleet is arrived at Spithead, and the amiable Mrs. Bertie sent to inform me that my trial will now, as she imagines, soon take place—the fleet being to wait till it is over. Nothing that can give me comfort is she inattentive to. In short, her whole behaviour to me is unequalled.
"The question, my dear mother, in one of your letters, concerning my swimming off to the Pandora, is one falsity among the too many of which I have often thought of undeceiving you, and as frequently forgot. The story was this: On the morning she arrived, I (accompanied by two of my friends, natives) was going up to the mountains, when, having got about a hundred yards from my own house, another of my friends (for I was, I may say, a great favorite amongst those Tahitians, and perfectly conversant with their language) came running after me, and informed me that there was a ship coming. I immediately went up on a rising ground and saw with the utmost joy a ship coming into the bay off Hapiano (a district two or three miles to windward of Maatavaye, where I lived). It was just after daylight, and thinking Coleman might not be awake, and therefore be ignorant of such pleasing news (living a mile and a half from me), and wishing to give any one such satisfaction as that, I sent one of my servants to inform him of it, upon which he immediately went off in a single canoe. There was a fresh breeze, and the ship working into the bay, he no sooner got alongside than the rippling capsized the canoe; and he being obliged to let go the tow-rope to get her righted, went astern, and was picked up in the canoe next tack, and taken on board the Pandora, he being the first person. I, along with Stewart, was then standing upon the beach, with a double canoe, manned with twelve paddles, ready for launching; therefore, just as she made her last tack into her berth (for we did not think it requisite to go off sooner), we put off, and got alongside just as they streamed the buoy; and being dressed in the country manner, tanned as brown as the natives, and tattooed like them in the most curious manner, I do not in the least wonder at their taking us for natives. I was tattooed, not to gratify my own desire, but theirs; for it was my constant endeavor to acquiesce in any little custom which I thought would be agreeable to them (though painful in the process), provided I gained by it their friendship and esteem, which you may suppose is no inconsiderable object in an island where the natives are so numerous. The more a man or woman there is tattooed, the more they are respected; and a person who has none of these marks is looked upon as bearing a most repulsive badge of disgrace, and considered as a mere outcast from society. You may suppose, then, that my disposition would not suffer me to be long out of fashion. I always made it a maxim, "when I was in Rome, to act as Rome did," provided it did not interfere with my morals or religion; and by this means I was a great favorite on shore, and treated with respect by every person on the island, in whose mouths my name ever was an object of their love and esteem. Perhaps you may think I flatter myself,[*] but I really do not. Adieu! my dearest mother. Believe me your truly dutiful and most obedient son,
"P. Heywood."
[*When Captain Bligh returned on the Providence the natives were polite as ever, notwithstanding they knew by this time that he had lied to them about Captain Cook, but one and all wanted news of their friend, Peter Heywood.]
Letter to Mother (1791) Home Peter Heywood Letter to Sister (1791)