MISCELLANIES. 
fore a. court-martial, which ad- 
judged six of them to suffer death, 
and acquitted the other four. 
From the accounts given by 
these men, as well as from some 
documents that were preserved, it 
appeared that as soon as Lieute- 
nant Bligh had been driven from 
the ship, the 25 mutineers pro- 
ceeded with her to Toobouai, 
where they proposed to settle; 
but the place being found to hold 
out little encouragement, they re- 
turned to Otaheite, and having 
there laid in a large supply of 
stock, they once more took their 
departure for Toobouai, carrying 
with them eight men, nine wo- 
men, and seven boys, natives of 
Otaheite. They commenced, on 
their second arrival, the building 
of a fort, but by divisions among 
themselves and quarrels with the 
natives, the design was abandon- 
ed. Christian, the leader, also 
very soon discovered that his au- 
thority over his accomplices was 
at.an end; he therefore proposed 
that they should return to Ota- 
heite; that as many as chose it 
should be put on shore at that 
island, and that the rest should 
proceed in the ship to any other 
place they might think proper. 
Accordingly they once more put 
to sea, and reached Matavai on 
the 20th September, 1789. 
Here 16 of the 25 desired to be 
Janded, 14 of whom, as already 
mentioned, were taken on board 
the Pandora; of the other two,.as 
reported by Coleman (the first 
who surrendered himself to cap- 
tain Edwards), one had beenmade 
a chief, killed his companion, and 
was shortly afterwards murdered 
himself by the natives. 
Christian, with the remaining 
eight of the mutineers, having 
518 
taken on board several of the na- 
tives of Otaheite, the greater part 
women, put to sea on the night 
between the21stand 22nd Septem- 
ber, 1789; in the morning the 
ship was discovered from Point 
Venus, steering in a north-wes- 
terly direction; and here termi- 
nate the accounts given by the 
mutineers who were either taken 
or surrendered themselves at Ma- 
taivai-bay. They stated, however, 
that Christian, on the night of his 
departure, was heard to declare, 
that he should seek for some un- 
inhabited island, and _ having 
established his party, break up 
the ship; but all endeavours of 
Captain Edwards to gain intelli- 
gence either of theship or her crew 
at any of the numerous islands 
visited by the Pandora, failed. 
From this period, no informa- 
tion respecting Christian or his 
companions reached England for 
20 years; when, about the be- 
ginning of the year 1809, Sir Sid- 
ney Smith, then Commander-in- 
Chief on the Brazil station, trans- 
mitted to the admiralty a paper, 
which he had received from Lieu- 
tenant Fitzmaurice, purporting to _ 
_be ‘an “ Extract from the Jlog- 
book of Captain Folger, of the 
American ship Topaz,’ and dated 
‘¢ Valparaiso, 10th Oct. 1808.” 
About the commencement of 
the present year, Rear Admiral 
Hotham, when cruising off New 
London, received a letter address- 
ed to the Lords of the Admiralty 
of which the following is a copy, 
together with the azimuth com- 
pass, to which it refers :— 
«* Nantucket, March 1, 1813. 
« My Lords—The remarkable — 
circumstance which took place on 
my last voyage to the Pacific 
2L2 
