250 FATE OF THE MUTINEERS. 
English by her countrymen, and boasted of 
the vengeance she had taken. | 
Adams, who was now very aged and feeble, 
had proposed to the Missionaries to send ‘a— 
Tahaitian as his successor; and fearing that 
the population of his island might exceed the 
means of subsistence which their quantity of 
arable land afforded, he was desirous of settling 
some of his families in Tahaiti. 
With his first wish the Missionaries will 
certainly comply as a means of extending their 
dominion over Pitcairn Island also. May 
Adams’s paternal government never be exchan- 
ged for despotism, nor his practical lessons of 
piety be forgotten in empty forms of prayer. 
In the year 1791, the English frigate Pan- 
dora was sent, under the command of Captain 
Edwards, to the South Sea in pursuit of the 
mutineers against Bligh. Those who had re- 
mained in Tahaiti were found and carried 
back to England, where they were condemned 
to death according to the laws; the royal mercy 
was extended to a few only, the rest suffered the 
full penalty of their crime. 
