'The history of Peggy Stewart marks a tenderness of heart that never
will be heard without emotion: she was the daughter of a chief, and
taken for his wife by Mr. Stewart, one of the unhappy mutineers. 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, seized the criminals, and secured
them in irons on board the ship. Frantic with grief, the unhappy Peggy
(for so he had named her) flew with her infant in a canoe to the arms of
her husband. The interview was so affecting and afflicting, that the
officers on board were overwhelmed with anguish, and Stewart himself,
unable to bear the heartrending scene, begged she might not be admitted
again on board. She was separated from him by violence, and conveyed on
shore in a state of despair and grief too big for utterance. Withheld
from him, and forbidden to come any more on board, she sunk into the
deepest dejection; it preyed on her vitals; she lost all relish for food
and life, rejoiced no more, pined under a rapid decay of two months, and
fell a victim to her feelings, dying literally of a broken heart. Her
child is yet alive, and the tender object of our care, having been
brought up by a sister, who nursed it as her own, and has discharged all
the duties of an affectionate mother to the orphan infant.'[16]
It does not appear that young Heywood formed any matrimonial engagement
during his abode in Otaheite. He was not, however, insensible to the
amiable and good qualities of these people. In some laudatory verses
which he wrote while on the island, their numerous good qualities are
spoken of in terms of the highest commendation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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