MUEDER OF CHRISTIAN AND OTHERS. 101 
They had not long set foot upon the island 
when it became a stage for the display of 
every evil passion. They were " hateful, 
and hating one another." During the frightful 
period of domestic warfare between the Euro- 
peans and the blacks, in which the former 
often adopted the tremendously simple rule 
of might against right, the blacks made com- 
mon cause together, and planned the murder 
of their imperious masters. This plot reached 
the ears of the wives of the mutineers : and the 
females are said to have disclosed it to their 
husbands, just before the time appointed 
for the massacre, by adding to one of their 
songs these words, " Why does black man 
sharpen axe? To kill white man." In the 
course of the deadly struggles occurring be- 
tween the several parties, Christian, Mills, 
Williams, Martin, and Brown, were murdered 
in the year 1 793 by the Otaheitan men whom 
they had brought to the island with them. 
All the Otaheitan men were killed in the 
same year, one of them having been destroyed 
by Young's wife with an axe. As soon as 
she had killed the last survivor but one of 
the Otaheitans, she gave a signal to her 
