always borne a good character." Alexander Smith told Captain Beachey
(_Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific_, 1831, Part I. p. 53) that it
was Stewart who advised Christian "to take possession of the ship," but
Peter Hayward, who survived to old age, strenuously maintained that this
was a calumny, that Stewart was forcibly detained in his cabin, and that
he would not, in any case, have taken part in the mutiny. He had,
perhaps, already wooed and won a daughter of the isles, and when the
_Bounty_ revisited Tahiti, September 20, 1789, he was put ashore, and
took up his quarters in her father's house. There he remained till
March, 1791, when he "voluntarily surrendered himself" to the captain of
the _Pandora_, and was immediately put in irons. The story of his
parting from his bride is told in _A Missionary Voyage to the Southern
Pacific Ocean in the Ship Duff_ (by W. Wilson), 1799, p. 360: "The
history of Peggy Stewart marks a tenderness of heart that never will be
heard without emotion.... They had lived with the old chief in the most
tender state of endearment; a beautiful little girl had been the fruit
of their union, and was at the breast when the Pandora arrived....
Frantic with grief, the unhappy Peggy ... flew with her infant in a
canoe to the arms of her husband. She was separated from him by
violence, and conveyed on shore in a state of despair and grief too big
for utterance ... she sank into the deepest dejection, pined under a
rapid decay ... and fell a victim to her feelings, dying literally of a
broken heart." Stewart was drowned or killed by an accident during the
wreck of the _Pandora_, August 29, 1791. _Sunt lacrymae rerum!_ It is a
mournful tale.]
[382] {606} The "ship of the desert" is the Oriental figure for the
camel or dromedary; and they deserve the metaphor well,--the former for
his endurance, the latter for his swiftness. [Compare _The Deformed
Transformed_, Part I. sc. i, line 117.]
[383] [Compare _The Age of Bronze_, lines 271-279.]
[384]
"Lucullus, when frugality could charm.
Had roasted turnips in the Sabine farm."
POPE [_Moral Essays_, i. 218, 219.]
[385] The consul Nero, who made the unequalled march which deceived
Hannibal, and defeated Asdrubal; thereby accomplishing an achievement
almost unrivalled in military annals. The first intelligence of his
return, to Hannibal, was the sight of Asdrubal's head thrown into his
camp. When H
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