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upon an island not marked upon their charts, and never suspecting it to 

 be Pitcairn, great was the astonishment occasioned when a canoe came 

 alongside one of the ships, and a youth in the canoe called out, in good 

 English, "Won't you heave us a rope now?" This youth, when he got 

 on board, announced himself as Thursday October Christian, eldest son 

 of Fletcher Christian, and the first child bom upon Pitcaim's Island. He 

 was then twenty-four years old, six feet high, with dark hair and eyes and 

 an open interesting countenance. "Added to a great share of good 

 humour, we were glad to trace," says Captain Pipon, " all the features of 

 an honest English face." He told them he was married to a woman 

 much older than himself, one of those who accompanied his father from 

 Otaheite. His companion was a fine handsome youth of eighteen, son 

 of George Young, the midshipman. The young men mformed the two 

 captains of the principal events since the settlement of the island, but for 

 fiirther particulars referred them to an old man on shore, who turned out 

 to be Smith, or Adams. The captain then landed, and received from 

 Adams a narrative of his experience since the time of the mutiny. \Vhen 

 they prepared to sail, Adams expressed a wish to accompany them to 

 England ; but Captain Pipon states that on this being made known to 

 the little society, an indescribable scene of distress ensued. All the 

 women burst into tears, and the young men stood motionless with grief, 

 whilst Adams' daughter, a fine young woman, threw her arms round his 

 neck, and entreated him not to leave all his children to perish. After 

 this demonstration he was easily persuaded to abandon his project. 



Nothing more was heard of the colony until 1825, when it was 

 visited by Captain Beechey, of the "Blossom." The patriarch Adams 

 was still alive, and the number of the inhabitants had increased to forty- 

 six. From the statements made to him and to the two captains before 

 mentioned, I will give such a brief outline as time permits of the 

 events which connect the state of Pitcairn's Island in 1825 with 

 the final departure of the "Bounty" from Otaheite thirty-six years before. 

 It seems that on board the "Bounty" was a copy of Captain Carteret's 

 "Voyage to the South Seas," which contains a description of Pitcairn's 

 Island (discovered by him), and remarks upon the extreme isolation of 



