PITCH PITT. 



571 



The next year the admiralty sent captain Edwards, 

 in the Pandora, to Otaheite, in search of the twenty- 

 five mutineers, who were supposed to have returned 

 thither. At his arrival in the island (1791), four of 

 them came on board, and ten others, who were living 

 there, were taken the next day ; they were carried 

 home, with the exception of some who were lost by 

 the wreck of the Pandora, and most of them were 

 executed. According to their accounts, the muti- 

 neers, under Christian Fletcher, sailed for Toobooai, 

 one of the Society islands, with the intention of set- 

 tling there, and afterwards returned to Otaheite, 

 where they took on board a supply of fruit trees and 

 twenty-four Otaheitans, with whom they went back 

 to Toobooai. Here they built a fort ; but disputes 

 among themselves and with the natives compelled 

 them to abandon their project of forming a settlement, 

 and Christian, finding his authority gone, proposed 

 to return to Otaheite. Those who wished to remain 

 were landed, and Christian, with the eight remaining 

 mutineers and fifteen Otaheitans, of whom eleven 

 were women, left the island. Nothing was known 

 of their fate until 1808, when captain Folger, of 

 Boston, having touched at Pitcairn's island, was sur- 

 prised to find it inhabited. After landing, he 

 received an account of the colony from an old English 

 sailor, who called himself John Adams, but who is 

 supposed to have been Alexander Smith, the only 

 surviving individual of the crew of the Bounty. 

 Christian had destroyed the ship soon after their 

 arrival. A few years afterwards, the English were 

 all killed by the Otaheitans, except three, who con- 

 cealed themselves ; the Otaheitans quarrelled among 

 themselves, and were all killed or died of their 

 wounds. Two of the Englishmen died soon after, 

 and Adams, or Smith, with several women and child- 

 ren, remained the only inhabitants of the island. 

 Captain Folger gave a circumstantial account of his 

 discovery in 1813. In 1814, the island was visited 

 by the British frigates Briton and Tagus, and has 

 been repeatedly visited since. By the visitors in 

 1814, the inhabitants were thus described: "This 

 interesting new colony now consisted of about forty- 

 six persons, mostly grown up young people, besides 

 a number of infants. The young men, all born in 

 the island, were very athletic, and of the finest forms, 

 their countenances open and pleasing, indicating much 

 benevolence and goodness of heart ; and the young 

 women were objects of particular admiration ; tall, 

 robust, and beautifully formed, their faces beaming 

 with smiles and unruffled good humour, but wearing 

 a degree of modesty and bashfulness that would do 

 honour to the most virtuous nation on earth ; and all 

 of them, both male and female, had the most mark- 

 ed English features. Their native modesty, assisted 

 by a proper sense of religion and morality, instilled 

 into their youthful minds by John Adams, the leader 

 of the colony, has hitherto preserved these interesting 

 people perfectly chaste. The greatest harmony pre- 

 vails among them. But what was most gratifying to 

 the visitors, was the simple and unaffected manner in 

 which they returned thanks to the Almighty for the 

 many blessings they enjoyed. Their habitations are 

 extremely neat ; and the village of Pitcairn forms a 

 pretty square." John Adams died in 1830. Re- 

 cent accounts state tiiat the island was abandoned 

 not long after, on account of the scarcity of water, 

 and that the whole colony of about sixty individuals 

 had arrived at Otaheite. 



PITCH. See Pine. 



PITCH ; the acuteness or gravity of any particular 

 sound, or of the tuning of any instrument. A ny sound 

 less acute than some other sound, is said to be of a 

 lower pitch than that other sound, and vice versa. 

 The opera yitch is tuned above most others, and is 



.herefore said to be higher than the common concert 

 pitch. See Acoustics. 



PITCHER PLANT. See Nepenthes. 



PITCH-PIPE ; an instrument used by vocal prac- 

 titioners to ascertain the pitch of the key in which 

 they are about to sing. It is blown at one end like 

 a common flute, and being shortened or lengthened 

 by a graduated scale, is capable of producing, with 

 mechanical exactness, all the semitonic degrees with- 

 in its compass. 



PITCH ORE. See Uranium. 



PITCHSTONE, PEARLSTONE, PUMICE, and 

 OBSIDIAN. All these substances, formerly regard- 

 ed as distinct, are now included under one species in 

 mineralogy, the character of which is the following : 

 cleavage none ; fracture conchoidal, sometimes 

 highly perfect, sometimes less distinct ; in the gran- 

 ular masses, the fracture is more or less uneven and 

 splintery ; . lustre vitreous and resinous ; colours 

 black, brown, red, yellow, green, gray and white ; 

 hardness between that of feldspar and quartz ; specific 

 gravity 2.3. The variety called obsidian possesses 

 the most perfect conchoidal fracture and the highest 

 degree of lustre. Agreeably to the degree of trans- 

 parency, it is divided into transparent and translucent 

 obsidian ; the former of which is sometimes called 

 marekanite. If the high perfection of the conchoidal 

 fracture disappears, the mineral takes the name of 

 pitchstone. Pitchstone often contains those faces 

 which are called the faces of distinct concretion ; if 

 these are numerous, variously curved, and contain 

 but little matter between them, pearlstone is formed. 

 The obsidian is often vesicular, the cavities being 

 small, and keeping a constant direction ; if there are 

 a great many of them of larger sizes, the whole mass 

 becomes apparently very light, the original colour 

 disappears, and gives place to a pearly or silky lustre ; 

 and thus arises the variety called pumice. The 

 analysis of these varieties presents the following 

 results : 



Before the blow-pipe, they all melt with more or less 

 facility into a vesicular glass, or they yield an enamel, 

 according to the fusibility of their ingredients. 1'he 

 geological relations of these species are very remark- 

 able. Pitchstone forms mountain masses, and is 

 generally in close connexion with porphyry. Many 

 of the other varieties occur under similar circum- 

 stances. Pitchstone veins sometimes occur in sand- 

 stone. Pumice and obsidian are among the products 

 of volcanoes. The southern countries of Europe, 

 South America, Mexico and the Sandwich islands are 

 rich in the varieties of pitchstone. Pearlstone, in 

 particular, occurs in Hungary, and at Cabo de Gates, 

 in Spain. Obsidian is very frequent in Iceland and 

 Mexico; pumice in the Lipari islands, Teneriffe and 

 Peru. Obsidian is employed for mirrors, vases, 

 snuff-boxes, &c. In Mexico and the island of Ascen- 

 sion, very sharp fragments are used as tools and wea- 

 pons. Pumice yields a well known material for 

 grinding and polishing, and is also employed for a 

 filtering stone. 



PITH. See Medulla. 



PITT, CHRISTOPHER, an English poet, born in 

 1699, at Biandford, received his education at Win- 

 chester, whence he was elected, upon the foundation, 

 to New college, Oxford. In 1722, a relation pre- 

 sented him to the family living of Pimperne, where 

 he passed his life in the performance of his clerical 

 duties, and the pursuit of elegant literature. He in 



