FROM THE MUTINY TO PITCAIRN ISLAND—MAUDE 555 
Cook did leave cattle in the Tongan Group, as Jenny says; on the 
island of Tongatapu itself, and nowhere else in the Western Pacific. 
And in leaving them he pointed out that “there were no such animals 
within many months sail of their island . . . that therefore they must 
be careful not to kill any of them, till they had multiplied to a 
numerous race” (Cook, 1785, vol. 1, p. 303. This was in 1777). 
There is every reason, therefore, to believe Jenny’s account of the 
Bounty’s visit to Tongatapu, where she says that they stayed 2 days. 
She is a reliable witness; and on all occasions on which it has been 
possible to check statements made in her two narratives they have 
proved to be both accurate and consistent. Furthermore, it is unlikely 
that she would have had any motive for inventing this particular 
story, with all its circumstantial detail; or, indeed, that she would 
have possessed the knowledge to do so. 
The only evidence against regarding Tongatapu as the island called 
at comes from a passage in the recently discovered Pipon MS., in 
which Adams informs Captain Pipon that Fletcher Christian— 
. after having left Otaheite the last time (for he visited Anamooka, one 
of the Friendly Islands, after his desertion from his duty, and disobedience 
to his Captain, not finding the reception he expected there, or rather that his 
plans could not be earried into execution without fear of detection) returned 
to Otaheite with a feigned story, which the Islanders readily gave ear to, 
of having met Captain Cook, who had sent him, “Fletcher,” for a supply of 
provisions . . . (Pipon, MS., 1814) .” 
While this involved and ambiguous sentence might conceivably be 
considered as confirmation of the Bounty’s visit to the Tongan Group 
after the mutiny, I do not believe that we can legitimately regard 
it as such, for the wording suggests that Pipon (either through a 
misunderstanding or being misinformed by Adams) has telescoped the 
vessel’s call at Nomuka (then known as Anamooka) just prior to the 
mutiny and the visit to Tubuai which succeeded it. Much of the 
other information obtained by Pipon from Adams is similarly garbled. 
It would seem, therefore, that Christian went in search of his 
islands by a route south of the track taken by previous discoverers 
on their way from Eastern to Western Polynesia; the exceptions, 
Cook in 1777 and Cox in 1789, who were both sailing in the opposite 
direction, had gone even farther to the south. 
This is not surprising, for it is logical to suppose that Christian 
would have taken a new route, since he knew that none of the Spanish 
islands, or any others suited to his purpose, lay in the areas already 
traversed, and to have gone farther north still would have taken him 
28'The Pipon MS. has never been published in its entirety, though short extracts from 
it have been quoted by Barrow and others. The editor of the version published in the 
United Service Journal (1834, pp. 191-197) has unfortunately omitted many of the more 
{important passages relating to Christian, including the one quoted. On this point see 
Mackaness, 1931, pp. 216-219. 
