126 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



sank down to the dull lusts of savagery's desires. TJnclieered he heard 

 his dark-skinned offspring romp and play and sport among the breakers 

 of the shore, their mother's wanton spirit over all. A family worthier 

 of his gentle name he might have reared in England, had he not in the 

 exultation of revenge bartered his birthright to civilization. And lonely 

 Pitcairn lost upon the sea was but a prison for his starving soul where 

 he must languish through a waste of years, his sole alternative oblivion 

 or the hangman's rope. 



Feuds bitter, unreasonable and prolonged arose on Pitcairn, and 

 Christian soon was shot, and before ten years had passed midshipmen 

 Edward Young and Alexander Smith were the sole surviving mutineers 

 upon the island. Then a strange change came over Young, who ap- 

 pears to have been a weak, rather than a vicious character. He de- 

 termined to devote his remaining days to elevating the standards of the 

 entire community. The Bible and Prayer Book that had belonged to 

 Christian were recovered from the cave where they had lain for years 

 neglected, and thus the last of the ill-fated crew turned missionaries 

 and school teachers to the women and children of the colony. In 1800, 

 Young died, his end being unique in that his death was due to natural 

 causes. Thus Smith became sole guardian of this strange community, 

 winning as years passed their love and veneration ; for, indeed, he stayed 

 the hand of rage and imparted to the rising generation true principles 

 of civilization. 



Nearly twenty years had come and gone and the world had forgotten 

 the Bounty in the stirring events of the first decade of the nineteenth 

 century, when one day the American ship Topaz under Captain Folger 

 of Nantucket discovered an uncharted island, and a boat manned by 

 brown-skinned English-speaking youths came out to welcome him. 

 Thus was the retreat of the mutineers revealed; Alexander Smith, or 

 "John Adams," as he now called himself being the sole survivor of 

 the BounUj's pirate crew; and he lived the revered leader of the islanders 

 until his death in 1829 at the age of sLxty-five. 



The coming of the Bounty's mutineers to Tahiti in 1788 was an 

 event of primary significance in the history of the island. Hitherto 

 Tahiti had been a community of feudalisms, the power of the Ariirahi 

 being constantly checked by the contending claims of rivals; but here 

 as elsewhere over the South Seas, the coming of the white man tended 

 at first to increase the power of the chief they came most in contact with 

 though finally it led to the utter ruin of all native leaders including the 

 "king" himself. 



The head chief of the District of Pare in 1789 was Pomare, the 

 nephew of Purea, now grown to manhood. Cook had known him as 

 " Outou,"^ but upon hearing his little son cough at night he had changed 



sOtoo's real name was Tunuicaite-atua, signifying descent from the gods. 



