536 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1959 
been discovered by Captain Cook in 1777 but no landing made, and 
to Christian, reading the account in the narrative of Cook’s voyages 
in Bligh’s cabin (Shillibeer, 1817, pp. 97-98), it seemed the best island 
to select for a retreat: he was never under any illusion as to his prob- 
able fate if he remained on Tahiti itself. The voyage took a month, 
the time being employed in clearing the great cabin of its breadfruit 
plants (except for a few kept for planting on Tubuai) and in making 
a uniform for all hands out of old studding sails, as Christian believed 
that wearing it impressed the natives. He himself moved into Bligh’s 
cabin. 
A visit of inspection.—The reception at Tubuai was anything but 
encouraging. The natives, seeing so few on board surrounded by so 
many desirable possessions and being ignorant of the power of fire- 
arms, commenced threatening and thieving while the ship’s cutter 
was still examining the passage through the reef. The following 
day, the Bounty being anchored inside the lagoon, 18 girls were sent on 
board as decoys, “all young and handsome having fine long hair which 
reached their Waists in waving ringlets” (Morrison, 1935, p. 49),’ 
accompanied by 5 men who soon commenced stealing whatever they 
could lay their hands on. Fifty canoes filled with warriors, complete 
with cords for securing the mutineers when captured, came up on the 
other side and, much against his will, Christian was compelled to fire 
on them to avert a general attack. He learned later that the natives 
lost 11 men and a woman in this encounter, the site of which was 
christened Bloody Bay. 
Despite this initial discouragement, Christian continued for two 
more days in an attempt to conciliate the islanders by leaving 
presents in their now deserted homes—but they were not to be drawn. 
His visits ashore, however, confirmed him in his opinion of the suit- 
ability of Tubuai for settlement: its size (5 miles by 3) was scarcely 
sufficient to attract visitors, especially when the large and more 
fertile island of Tahiti was only 300 miles away; it had a poor 
anchorage and only one passage into the lagoon navigable by ships, 
and its population was thought to be small enough ® to be propitiated 
into friendship or overawed into submission. 
™ Morrison is the main authority for the whole Tubuai episode: a few subsidiary checks, 
however, are obtainable from the accounts of eyewitnesses given in Edwards and Hamilton, 
1915, pp. 84-38 ; Henry, 1928, pp. 26-28 ; Heywood’s letter reproduced in Barrow, 1914 ed., 
pp. 194-196; Teehuteatuaonoa, 1826; Lee, 1920, pp. 95-97; and two versions by John 
Adams in Beechey, 1831, vol. 1, pp. 76-80, and Moerenhout, 1837, vol. 2, pp. 288-292. 
5It was estimated to have been 900 in 1821, but Morrison’s claim that it was 3,000 in 
1789 is consistent with the other figures given in the course of his narrative. Venereal 
disease, which is said to have caused many deaths, was almost certainly introduced by the 
mutineers, 11 of whom (including Christian, Adams, Quintal, and Brown) had been treated 
during the course of the voyage; 9 of these after the vessel’s arrival at Tahiti (Smith, 
1936, pp. 216-217). In 1821-23 an epidemic reduced the population to 300 (Caillot, 
1909, p. 71; Aitkin, 1930, p. 4; Montgomery, 1831, vol. 2, pp. 75-76). It has now re- 
covered to over 1,000, partly through immigration from other islands. 
