But the soil of the West Indian islands would not
successfully grow the fruit, and the people of the West Indies do not like
it.
Meantime the _Pandora_ frigate, Captain Edwards, was sent out to search
for the mutineers. At Tahiti she found no _Bounty_, but two midshipmen,
Heywood and Stewart, and twelve petty officers and seamen of the ship.
These people gave themselves up as soon as the _Pandora_ entered Matavai
Bay, and they informed Captain Edwards that the _Bounty_ had sailed away
with the remainder of the people, no one knew whither. Two other seamen
had been left behind, but one of these had murdered his comrade and a
native man and child, and was himself killed by the natives for these
crimes.
Stewart and Heywood, master's mate and midshipman, who were very
young--the latter was fifteen at the time of the mutiny--declared to the
captain of the _Pandora_ that they had been detained on the _Bounty_
against their wishes; but Captain Edwards believed nothing, listened to no
defence. He built a round-house on the quarter deck, and heavily ironing
his prisoners locked them up in this.
Stewart while on shore had contracted a native marriage, and after he had
left in the _Pandora_ his young wife died broken-hearted, leaving an
infant daughter, who was afterwards educated by the missionaries, and
lived until quite recent times.
In "Pandora's Box," as Captain Edwards' round-house came to be called, the
fourteen prisoners suffered cruel torture, and nothing can justify the
manner in which they were treated.
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