PITCAIRN’S ISLAND. 
538 
made fail towards Otaheite. As foon as this was known 
to the admiralty, Capt. Edwards was ordered to proceed 
in the Pandora to that ifland, and endeavour to difcover 
and bring to England the Bounty, with fuch of the crew 
which he might be able to fecure. On his arrival, in 
March 1791, at Matavai-bay, in Otaheite, four of the 
mutineers came voluntarily on-board the Pandora to 
furrender themfelves ; and, from information given by 
them, ten others (the whole number alive upon the ifland) 
were, in thecourfe of a few days, taken; and, with the 
exception of four, (who perilhed in the wreck of the Pan¬ 
dora, near Endeavour Strait,) were conveyed to Eng¬ 
land for trial before a court-martial, which adjudged fix 
of them to fuller death, and acquitted the other four. 
From the accounts given bythefemen, as well as from 
fomedocumentsafterwardsdifcoveredjitappeared, that, as 
foon as Bligh had been driven from the (hip, the twenty- 
five mutineers (leered for the ifland of Otaheite: on their 
arrival there, difagreements took place between them 
refpeCling their future proceedings, which determined 
Chriftian to take the firft opportunity of leaving the ifland 
again ; and accordingly he and feven others, a few days 
afterwards, obtained eight of the women, and with eight 
men and their wives, a quantity of hogs and poultry, 
proceeded on-board the (hip, cut her cables, and put to 
fea ; leaving the remainder of the mutineers on (hore, on 
the ifland of Otaheite, where they were difcovered, as 
juft related. The mutineers foon afterwards made Pit¬ 
cairn's IJland and Chriftian, finding that it was uninha¬ 
bited, and a fine ifland, determined to make a fettlement 
on it. He landed his companions and all the (lores, 
erefted huts on the (hore, and, after taking out every 
thing that could be ferviceable to them, deltroyed the 
(hip. 
From that period no information refpeCling Chriftian 
or his companions reached England for twenty years ; 
when, about the beginning of the year 1809, fir Sidney 
Smith, then commander in chief on the Brafil ftation, 
tranfmitted to the admiralty a paper, which he had re¬ 
ceived from Lieut. Fitzmaurice, purporting to be an ex- 
traCl from the log-book of Capt. Folger, of the American 
(hip Topaz, dated ValpSraifo, 10th October, 1808. 
“ In February, 1808, I touched at Pitcairn’s Ifland. 
My principal objeCl was to procure feal-lkins for the 
China market; and, from the account given of the ifland 
in Capt. Carteret’s voyage, I fuppofed it was uninhabit¬ 
ed ; but, on approaching the (hore in my boat, I was 
met by three young men, in a double canoe, with a pre- 
fent, confiding of fome fruit and a hog. They fpoke to me 
in the Englifti language, and informed me that they were 
born on the ifland, and that their father was an Englilhman 
who had failed with Capt. Bligh. After difcourfing with 
them a ftiort time, I landed with them, and found an 
Englilhman of the name of Alexander Smith, who in¬ 
formed me, that he was one of the Bounty’s crew; and 
that about fix years after they landed at this place, their 
Otaheitan fervants attacked and killed all the Englifti, 
excepting the informant, and he was feverely wounded. 
The fame night the Otaheitan widows arofe and mur¬ 
dered all their countrymen, leaving Smith, with the wi¬ 
dows and children, where he had refided ever fince with¬ 
out being refilled.” 
Nearly about the fame time, a further account of thefe 
people was received from vice-admiral Dixon, in a letter 
addreffed to him by fir Thomas Staines, of his majefty’s 
(hip Briton, dated Valparaifo, Oft. 18, 1814. 
“ I have the honour to inform you, that, on my paffage 
from the Marquelas Iflands to this port, on the morning 
of the 17th September, I fell in with an ifland where none 
is laid down in the charts, according to the feveral chro¬ 
nometers of the Briton and Tagus. I therefore hove to 
until day-light, and then clofed to afcertain whether it 
was inhabited, which I foon difcovered it to be ; and, 
to my great aftonifliment, found that every individual on 
the ifland (forty in number) fpoke very good Englifli. 
They prove to be the defcendants of the deluded crew of 
the Bounty, which, from Otaheite, proceeded to the 
above-mentioned ifland, where the (hip was burnt. 
Chriftian appeared to have been the leader and the foie 
caufe of the mutiny in that (hip. A venerable old man, 
named John Adams, is the only furviving Englilhman of 
thofe who laft quitted Otaheite in her, and whofe exem¬ 
plary conduCl and fatherly care of the whole little colony 
could not but command admiration. [There was no 
fuch name in the Bounty’s crew; he mull have affumed 
it in lieu of his real name, Smith.] The pious manner in 
which all thofe born on the ifland have been reared, the 
correCl fenfe of religion which has been inftilled into their 
young minds by this old man, has given him the pre-emi¬ 
nence over the whole of them, to whom they look up as 
the father of the whole and one family. 
“ A fon of Chriftian’s was the firft born on the ifland, 
now about 25 years of age, (named Thurfday October 
Chriftian.) The elder Chriftian fell a facrifice to the 
jealoufy of an Otaheitan man, within three or four years 
after their arrival on the ifland. 
“ The ifland mull undoubtedly be that called Pitcairn’s, 
although erroneoufly laid down in the charts. It is 
abundant in yams, plantains, hogs, goats, and fowls, but 
affords no (helter for a (hip or veffel of any defcription^; 
neither could a (hip water there without great difficulty. 
During the whole of the time they have been on the 
ifland, only one (hip has ever communicated with them, 
which took place about fix years fince by an American 
(hip called the Topaz, of Bofton, May he w Folger, mailer. ” 
Adams, or Smith, was between 50 and 60 years of age. 
He was at firft alarmed, left we came to apprehend him; 
but, on being affured that this vifit was of a peaceable 
nature, it is impoffible to defcribe the joy thefe poor peo¬ 
ple manifefted on feeing thofe whom they were pleafed to 
confider as their countrymen. 
This interefting new colony, it feemed, now confided 
of about forty-fix perfons, mollly grown up young people, 
befides a number of infants. The young men, all born 
on the ifland, are very athletic, and of the fined forms; 
their countenances open and pleafing; but the young 
women were obje&s of particular admiration ; tall, robuft, 
and beautifully formed, their faces beaming with fmiles 
and unruffled good humour, but wearing a degree of 
modefty that would do honour to the molt virtuous na¬ 
tion on earth: their teeth, like ivory, were regular and beau¬ 
tiful, without a Angle exception ; and all of them, both 
male and female, had the moll marked Englifti features. 
The clothing of the young females confided of a piece of 
linen reaching from the waift to the knees, arid, generally, 
a fort of mantle thrown loofely over the (houlders, and 
hanging as low as the ancles ; but this covering appeared 
to be intended chiefly as a protection againft the fun and 
the weather, as it was frequently laid afide; and then the 
upper part of the body was entirely expofed, and it is not 
poffible to conceive more beautiful forms than they ex¬ 
hibited. 
Their native modefty, affifted by a proper fenfe of reli¬ 
gion and morality inftilled into their youthful.minds by 
John Adams, has hitherto preferved thefe interefting 
people perfectly chalte, and free from all kinds of de¬ 
bauchery. Adams affured the vifitors that, fince Chrif¬ 
tian’s death, there had not been a Angle inftance of any 
young woman proving unchalle, nor any attempt at fe- 
duCtion on the part of the men. They all labour while 
young in the cultivation of the ground ; and, when pof- 
feffed of a fufficient quantity of cleared land and of (lock 
to maintain a family, they are allowed to. marry, but 
always with the confent of Adams, who unites them by 
a fort of marriage-ceremony of his own. 
Their habitations are extremely neat. The little vil¬ 
lage of Pitcairn forms a pretty fquare, the houfes at the 
upper end of which are occupied by the patriarch John 
Adams and his family, confining of his old blind wife, 
three daughters from fifteen to eighteen years of age, 
and 
