FROM THE MUTINY TO PITCAIRN ISLAND—MAUDE 551 
Peru and even their latitude from 7° to 19° S. It was natural that Carteret 
should sail five degrees west of the position attributed to them in his own 
day and, not meeting them, utter his unbelief (Beaglehole, 1934, p. 384). 
The discovery of Rarotonga.—Unfortunately for us, Jenny was 
not particularly interested in the route taken by the Bounty and only 
mentions a visit to an island when it is associated with some incident 
that happened to excite her attention at the time. She describes how 
they sailed before the wind to the westward until— 
After many days a small island was discovered called by the natives Purutea. 
A canoe came off bringing a pig and cocoanuts with them. One of the natives 
ventured on board and was much delighted by the pearl-shell buttons on Captain 
Christian’s Jacket. The Captain in a very friendly manner gave the man the 
Jacket. He stood on the ship’s gunwale showing the present to his countrymen 
when one of the mutineers shot him dead. He fell into the Sea. Christian was 
highly indignant at this. He could do nothing more, having lost all authority, 
than reprimand the murderer severely: the other natives in the canoe im- 
mediately picked up their murdered companion, placed the body in the canoe 
and paddled towards the shore with loud lamentations. 
After several days more, saw one of the Tongataboo or Friendly Islands. . 
(Teehuteatuaonoa, 1826). 
Meager though this account is, it still enables us to establish, first, 
that Christian sailed west from the Society Group until he reached 
the Tongan Archipelago (we shall see later that the island visited 
there was most probably Tongatapu itself), and second, that he sighted 
at least one island between the two groups. A glance at the map, fur- 
thermore, will show that his route should have taken him right 
through the southern Cook Islands, the obvious inference being that 
Jenny’s Purutea must have been one of them. 
We do not have to be content with Jenny’s unsupported testimony 
for this inference, however, as there is confirmatory evidence from one 
of the Cook Group in the traditions of the islanders themselves (Gil- 
son, MS., 1952, pp. 14-16). 
This evidence comes from Rarotonga where the missionary John 
Williams, on his first visit there in 1823, was surprised to find that 
news of Captain Cook’s visits to Tahiti had already been brought by 
a party of men who had drifted from that island in a canoe, as well as 
by a mysterious woman (Williams, 1838, p. 106).18 Impressed by 
what they had heard, the Rarotongans petitioned the Gods to grant 
them a similar visit: 
O, great Tangaroa, send your large ship to our land; let us see the Cookees. 
Great Tangiia, send us a dead sea, send us a propitious gale, to bring the far- 
famed Cookees to our island, to give us nails, and iron, and axes; let us see 
these outriggerless canoes. 
148 Her means of conveyance is not stated, but she may have been one of the two Tahitian 
women who came to Rarotonga with Goodenough (Gill, 1911, p. 193). 
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