LETTER OF SIR T. STAINES. 115 
which from Otaheite proceeded to the above- 
mentioned island, where the ship was burnt. 
" Christian appeared to have been the 
leader, and the sole cause of the mutiny in 
that ship. A venerable old man, named 
John Adams, is the only surviving English- 
man of those who last quitted Otaheite in 
her, and whose exemplary conduct, and 
fatherly care of the whole little colony, could 
not but command admiration. The pious 
manner in which all those born on the island 
have been reared, the correct sense of re- 
ligion which has been instilled into their 
young minds by this old man, has given him 
the preeminence over the whole of them, to 
whom they look up as the father of the* 
whole, and one family. 
" A son of Christian was the first born on 
the island, now about twenty-five years of 
age (named Thursday October Christian) ; 
the elder Christian fell a sacrifice to the 
jealousy of an Otaheitan man, within three 
or four years after their arrival on the island. 
They were accompanied thither by six Ota- 
heitan men and twelve women ; the former 
were all swept away by desperate contentions 
