MU&DER OF CHRISTIAN AND OTHERS. 
right, the blacks made common cause together ; 
and having planned the murder of their impe- 
rious masters, they went, from time to time, 
into the woods to practise shooting at a mark, 
and thus became tolerably good marksmen. 
Their murderous 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 occur- 
ring between the several parties, Christian, 
Mills, Williams, Martin, and Brown, were mur- 
dered in the year 1793 by the Otaheitan men 
whom they had brought to the island with them. 
Christian was the first who fell a victim to their 
revenge. Mills was the next. Adams was 
shot; the ball entering at his shoulder, and 
coming out at his neck. He fell ; but suddenly 
sprang up and ran. They caught him; and 
a blow was aimed at his head with the butt-end 
of a musket. This he warded off with his hand, 
having his finger broken by the blow. On his 
again escaping, he ran down the rocks towards 
the sea ; but his pursuers called out to him, that 
if he would return, he should not be hurt. He 
returned accordingly, and they troubled him no 
more. All the Otaheitan men were killed in 
the same year, one of them having been de- 
stroyed 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 husband 
to fire upon the remaining black, which was 
