114 STATE OF SOCIETY AT P1TCATRN. 
the stranger, as if he knew himself to have been 
recognised, had fled from Captain Hey wood, who, 
after pursuing him for some distance in vain, 
felt persuaded that he had seen Christian. But 
the man, whoever he was, might have run off for 
other reasons ; and some manuscript documents 
of the island are stated by Admiral Beechey to 
be clear as to the death of Christian and the 
others. In 1794, when only four men, Young, 
M'Coy, Adams, and Quintal, were left alive, the 
women of the place were seen holding in their 
hands the five skulls of the murdered white men. 
The Otaheitan women were compelled, after some 
difficulty, to give up the heads to be buried. 
In that year the state of the island had become 
so intolerable to the women, that they resolved 
to brave the perils of the sea, rather than 
remain. They had accordingly prepared to set 
off secretly in a boat, which, fortunately for 
them, was swamped. Indeed, the men who had 
built it probably intended it should upset as 
soon as it was launched ; though they had, as 
a pretence, instructed the females how to steer, 
and had appointed one of them " the Captain." 
On the issue of this project, the Island Register 
has the following comment : " Had they launched 
out upon the ocean, whither could they have gone, 
or what would a few ignorant women have done 
by themselves, drifting upon the waves, but 
ultimately have fallen a sacrifice to their folly ?" 
Thus ended the visionary voyage of the females, 
who, foiled in their attempt to get away, again 
settled down in their sad and unwelcome home, 
Whither they had proposed to go, it is impossible 
