240 DEATH OF CHRISTIAN. 
themselves with a temporary subsistence on roots 
and fish, relying for the future improvement of 
their supplies on the trees destined for the 
West Indies, and other plants brought from 
Tahaiti; which had all been landed uninjured, 
and immediately planted. Time indeed was re- 
quired before the bread-fruit and cocoa-trees 
would bear, but some sweet potatoes, yams, 
taro-roots, and others, yielded in the following 
year an ample harvest. 
Unanimity and concord appeared firmly esta- 
blished among the colonists, who, by common 
consent, elected Christian as their head. Pretty 
little huts, and diligently cultivated fields of 
taro, yam, and potatoes, soon adorned the wil- 
derness. After the lapse of three years, Chris- 
tian became the father of a son, whom he 
named Friday Fletcher October Christian ; but 
the infant’s birth made its father a widower. 
Strongly inclined to a second marriage, and all 
the women being already provided with hus- 
bands, he seduced a wife from one of the Ta- 
haitians, who, incensed at this outrage, watched 
an opportunity when Christian was at work on 
his plantation, attacked, and murdered him. 
