CHAPTER VI.
THE COURT-MARTIAL If any person in or belonging to the fleet shall make, or endeavour to make, any mutinous assembly, upon any pretence whatsoever, every person offending herein, and being convicted thereof, by the sentence of the Court-martial, shall suffer DEATH.
_Naval Articles of War, Art._ 19.
The Court assembled to try the prisoners on board his Majesty's ship _Duke_, on the 12th September, 1792, and continued by adjournment from day to day (Sunday excepted) until the 18th of the same month.[24] PRESENT Vice-Admiral Lord Hood, _President_.
Capt.

Sir Andrew Snape Hamond, Bart., " John Colpoys, " Sir George Montagu, " Sir Roger Curtis, " John Bazeley, " Sir Andrew Snape Douglas, " John Thomas Duckworth, " John Nicholson Inglefield, " John Knight, " Albemarle Bertie, " Richard Goodwin Keats.
The charges set forth that Fletcher Christian, who was mate of the _Bounty_, assisted by others of the inferior officers and men, armed with muskets and bayonets, had violently and forcibly taken that ship from her commander, Lieutenant Bligh; and that he, together with the master, boatswain, gunner, and carpenter, and other persons (being nineteen in number), were forced into the launch and cast adrift;--that Captain Edwards, in the _Pandora_, was directed to proceed to Otaheite, and other islands in the South Seas, and to use his best endeavours to recover the said vessel, and to bring in confinement to England the said Fletcher Christian and his associates, or as many of them as he might be able to apprehend, in order that they might be brought to condign punishment, &c.

That Peter Heywood, James Morrison, Charles Norman, Joseph Coleman, Thomas Ellison, Thomas M'Intosh, Thomas Burkitt, John Millward, William Muspratt, and Michael Byrne, had been brought to England, &c., and were now put on their trial.
_Mr.Fryer_, the master of the _Bounty_, being first sworn, deposed-- That he had the first watch; that between ten and eleven o'clock Mr.
Bligh came on deck, according to custom, and after a short conversation, and having given his orders for the night, left the deck; that at twelve he was relieved by the gunner, and retired, leaving all quiet; that at dawn of day he was greatly alarmed by an unusual noise; and that, on attempting to jump up, John Sumner and Matthew Quintal laid their hands upon his breast and desired him to lie still, saying he was their prisoner; that on expostulating with them, he was told, 'Hold your tongue, or you are a dead man, but if you remain quiet there is none on board will hurt a hair of your head'; he further deposes, that on raising himself on the locker, he saw on the ladder, going upon deck, Mr.Bligh in his shirt, with his hands tied behind him, and Christian holding him by the cord; that the master-at-arms, Churchill, then came to his cabin and took a brace of pistols and a hanger, saying, 'I will take care of these, Mr.Fryer'; that he asked, on seeing Mr.Bligh bound, what they were going to do with the captain; that Sumner replied, 'D---- n his eyes, put him into the boat, and let the see if he can live upon three-fourths of a pound of yams a day'; that he remonstrated with such conduct, but in vain.

They said he must go in the small cutter.
'The small cutter!' Mr.Fryer exclaimed; 'why her bottom is almost out, and very much eaten by the worms!' to which Sumner and Quintal both said, 'D---- n his eyes, the boat is too good for him'; that after much entreaty he prevailed on them to ask Christian if he might be allowed to go on deck, which, after some hesitation, was granted.

When I came on deck, says Mr.Fryer, Mr.Bligh was standing by the mizen-mast, with his hands tied behind him, and Christian holding the cord with one hand, and a bayonet in the other.