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stronger than these rumours. One day at Plymouth Peter Heywood, 

 now become Captain Heywood, was walking along the street, when a 

 man, closely muffled, and with his hat slouched over his eyes, walked 

 quickly past him. The figure and gait of the man so startled Heywood 

 by their resemblance to Christian's that he followed him, and exclaimed, 

 in a low voice, "Fletcher Christian!" The man stopped as if shot, and 

 after turning half round he darted at full speed down a side lane. 

 Heywood, greatly excited, followed as fast as he could, but the 

 mysterious stranger was the better runner, and eluded his pursuer. Out 

 of regard to the Christian family, Heywood said nothing at the time of 

 his adventure, and it was possibly for the same reason that he used after- 

 wards to speak of the man's likeness to his missing friend as only a 

 "singular coincidence." A circumstance incidentally mentioned by 

 Captain Beechey certainly lends countenance to the supposition of 

 Christian's escape. He states that although Adams was frank and 

 explicit on all other topics, he always tried to evade the subject of 

 Christian's death, and professed entire ignorance of his burial-place. 

 The statement seems of some significance, as it is a fair inference that 

 if Christian had resolved to take advantage of an opportunity to escape, 

 such as by reaching a passing ship in one of the boats of the 

 "Bounty," he would be likely to employ Adams, the most trustworthy man 

 left of his companions, both to assist in his escape and to help to draw 

 a veil over his future by reporting his death to any English ships that 

 might turn up. After Christian's escape, or death — whichever it was — 

 the four remaining Englishmen at Pitcairn's Island lived in constant 

 dread of being treated like the others, and having no longer Christian's 

 humane authority to keep them in check, they resolved to destroy all 

 the Otaheitan men, which they did, having actually persuaded the 

 unfortunate women to aid them in doing so. Another interval of peace 

 followed, to be disturbed at last by an element of mischief which has 

 been the curse of all modern countries, large or small, namely, intoxi- 

 cating drink. One of the men, M'Coy, had formerly been a distiller, and 

 in an evil hour he discovered the art of extracting spirit from the root of 

 a tree. M'Coy and another man (Quintal) thereupon abandoned 



