FROM THE MUTINY TO PITCAIRN ISLAND—MAUDE 557 
felt no nearer finding their future home than they had been when 
they started. As for the Isles of Solomon, they had proved as elusive 
as ever and Christian would have probably agreed cordially with 
Byron 25 years earlier, who gave up the search for them at Atafu 
in the Tokelaus (6° farther east) with the remark that “the only 
person who has pretended to have seen them is Quiros, and I doubt 
whether he left behind him any account of them by which they might 
be found by future navigators” (Kerr, 1811-24, vol. 12, p. 94). 
At all events, further search to the west was abandoned in the 
Southern Lau Group and the Bounty headed for the first time toward 
Pitcairn. It would be interesting to know at what stage of the voy- 
age Christian began to consider this island as a possibility; but one 
can imagine him seated in Bligh’s cabin anxiously thumbing through 
the many volumes of voyages known to have been on the shelves 
(Shillibeer, 1817, pp. 97-98). 
Among these was an edition of Hawkesworth’s Voyages, published 
in 1773, which contained this brief description by Carteret of his dis- 
covery, made in 1767: 
We continued our course westward till the evening of Thursday, the 2nd of 
July, when we discovered land to the northward of us. Upon approaching it 
the next day, it appeared like a great rock rising out of the sea: it was not 
more than five miles in circumference, and seemed to be uninhabited; it was, 
however, covered with trees, and we saw a small stream of fresh water run- 
ning down one side of it. I would have landed upon it, but the surf, which at 
this season broke upon it with great violence, rendered it impossible. I got 
soundings on the west side of it, at somewhat less than a mile from the shore, 
in twenty-five fathoms, with a bottom of coral and sand; and it is probable that 
in fine summer weather landing here may not only be practicable but easy. We 
saw a great number of sea-birds hovering about it, at somewhat less than a 
mile from the shore, and the sea here seemed to have fish. It lies in lat. 20°2’ 
south: long. 1383°21’ west. It is so high that we saw it at the distance of more 
than fifteen leagues, and it having been discovered by a young gentleman, son 
to Major Pitcairn of the marines, we called it PITCAIRN’S ISLAND (Hawkes- 
worth, 1773, vol. 1, p. 561. For a statement by Adams that Christian saw the 
account see Beechey, 1831, vol. 1, p. 80). 
The latitude given in this account is an obvious slip, for in his chart 
of Pitcairn Carteret states it to be in 25°02’ S. and 133°30’ W.: its 
actual position is 25°04’ S. and 1380°16’ W., or nearly 200 miles to the 
east of Carteret’s reckoning. Cook had passed close by, without sight- 
ing it, on his first voyage; and had again missed it on his second by 
being compelled, through an outbreak of scurvy, to make for Tahiti 
when only a few miles to the westward (Beaglehole, 1934, pp. 283, 322). 
To Christian the description of the high, tree-covered island, with 
its running water, apparently uninhabited and clearly difficult of ac- 
cess, must have appeared the solution to his troubles. But two more 
months were to pass before they sighted it; a weary period of tacking 
in the teeth of the southeast trades during which, Jenny says, “all on 
