FROM THE MUTINY TO PITCAIRN ISLAND—MAUDE 549 
herself, the natives on board the Lounty were in fact kidnaped against 
their will: blackbirding was now added to mutiny. 
As it was absolutely essential to success that this time there should 
be no shortage of women, plans were evidently laid carefully to insure 
that there would not be. On arrival Christian announced to all that 
he would be staying at least over night. The women—many of 
them no doubt former companions of the Europeans—were thereupon 
invited on board, “with the feigned purpose of taking leave” (Beechey, 
1831, vol. 1, p. 80). No doubt they came readily enough, as their 
sisters and mothers had been accustomed to do since the first ship 
touched their shores. 
They were then told that the Bounty would be moving to Pare, 
Prince Tuw’s district, in the morning, and taken down to supper and 
bed. When Christian returned on board the anchor cable was quietly 
cut and the ship got underway ; and by the time the natives discovered 
that they had been tricked she was a mile outside the reefs. Even so, 
one of the women jumped overboard and set out for the shore: Jenny 
says that most of the remainder would have liked to have followed 
suit, but lacked the courage. 
Later in the morning the Lounty passed close to the atoll of Teti- 
aroa, 26 miles to the north of Tahiti, “but not so near as to admit any 
of the women venturing to swim on shore there, which several of them 
were inclined to do, as they were much afflicted at being torn away 
from their friends and relatives.” 
Permanent female partners were now selected—one each for the 
mutineers and three in all for the natives—and the ship headed for 
Moorea, only 9 miles from Tahiti, where a canoe came out from the 
shore on which the six surplus women who, as Jenny puts it, were 
“rather ancient,” were permitted to depart (Teehuteatuaonoa, 1826). 
Let us now follow the track of the Bounty in search of a home, 
with her final complement of 28 (including the infant) on board: the 
future population of Pitcairn Island. 
The Isles of Mendana and Quiros.—To even the most casual student 
of Pitcairn’s history it must have seemed curious that whereas the 
Bounty left Tahiti on September 23, 1789, she did not arrive at Pit- 
cairn until January 15, 1790, thus taking 4 months to complete a 
passage of 1,200 miles which should have occupied about a fortnight. 
Most authorities have been content to ignore the awkward dis- 
crepancy in dates, while the more conscientious have implied either 
that the Bounty cruised around looking for the island, apparently 
for some 314 months, or else that she actually arrived there during 
October or early November, despite all evidence to the contrary. 
In point of fact, she did neither. The evidence as to her movements 
during this period is admittedly not as detailed as we could wish, but 
