The Kings Own

The King's Own, by Captain
Frederick Marryat

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Title: The King's Own
Author: Captain Frederick Marryat
Release Date: May 21, 2007 [EBook #21550]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

The King's Own
by Captain Marryat.
CHAPTER ONE.

However boldly their warm blood was spilt, Their life was shame, their
epitaph was guilt; And this they knew and felt, at least the one, The
leader of the hand he had undone-- Who, born for better things, had
madly set His life upon a cast, which linger'd yet. BYRON.
There is perhaps no event in the annals of our history which excited
more alarm at the time of its occurrence, or has since been the subject
of more general interest, than the Mutiny at the Nore, in the year 1797.
Forty thousand men, to whom the nation looked for defence from its
surrounding enemies, and in steadfast reliance upon whose bravery it
lay down every night in tranquillity,--men who had dared everything
for their king and country, and in whose breasts patriotism, although
suppressed for the time, could never be extinguished,--irritated by
ungrateful neglect on the one hand, and by seditious advisers on the
other, turned the guns which they had so often manned in defence of
the English flag against their own countrymen and their own home, and,
with all the acrimony of feeling ever attending family quarrels, seemed
determined to sacrifice the nation and themselves, rather than listen to
the dictates of reason and of conscience.
Doubtless there is a point at which endurance of oppression ceases to
be a virtue, and rebellion can no longer be considered as a crime; but it
is a dangerous and intricate problem, the solution of which had better
not be attempted. It must, however, be acknowledged, that the seamen,
on the occasion of the first mutiny, had just grounds of complaint, and
that they did not proceed to acts of violence until repeated and humble
remonstrance had been made in vain.
Whether we act in a body or individually, such is the infirmity and
selfishness of human nature, that we often surrender to importunity that
which we refuse to the dictates of gratitude,--yielding for our own
comfort, to the demands of turbulence, while quiet unpretending merit
is overlooked and oppressed, until, roused by neglect, it demands, as a
right, what policy alone should have granted as a favour.
Such was the behaviour, on the part of government, which produced the
mutiny at the Nore.

What mechanism is more complex than the mind of man? And as, in all
machinery, there are wheels and springs of action not apparent without
close examination of the interior, so pride, ambition, avarice, love, play
alternately or conjointly upon the human mind, which, under their
influence, is whirled round like the weathercock in the hurricane, only
pointing for a short time in one direction, but for that time steadfastly.
How difficult, then, to analyse the motives and inducements which
actuated the several ringleaders in this dreadful crisis!
Let us, therefore, confine ourselves to what we do really know to have
been the origin of discontent in one of these men, whose unfortunate
career is intimately connected with this history.
Edward Peters was a man of talent and education. He had entered on
board the --- in a fit of desperation, to obtain the bounty for a present
support, and his pay as a future provision for his wife, and an only child,
the fruit of a hasty and unfortunate marriage. He was soon
distinguished as a person of superior attainments; and instead of being
employed, as a landsman usually is, in the afterguard, or waist, of the
ship, he was placed under the orders of the purser and captain's clerk as
an amanuensis. In this capacity he remained two or three years,
approved of and treated with unusual respect by the officers, for his
gentlemanlike appearance and behaviour: but unfortunately a theft had
been committed,--a watch, of trifling value, had been purloined from
the purser's cabin; and, as he was the only person, with the exception of
the servant, who had free ingress and egress, suspicion fell upon him--
the more so as, after every search that could be made had proved
ineffectual, it was supposed that the purloined property had been sent
on shore to be disposed of by his wife, who, with