52 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
derous battle ensued, in which nothing but superior skill 
and fire-arms, together with the advantages of a rising 
ground, saved the mutineers from destruction. Two were 
wounded, and numbers of the natives slain. This led 
them to abandon the island ; and after revisiting Tahiti, 
and leaving a part of their number there, they made their 
final settlement in Pitcairn’s island. Their attempt to 
settle in this island is celebrated in a poem by the late 
Lord Byron called, ^^The Island, or Christian and his 
Companions,” in which are recorded some affecting 
circumstances connected with the subsequent lives and 
ultimate apprehension of many of these unhappy men, 
and several interesting facts relative to the Society and 
Friendly Islands. 
Tubuai was also the first of the South Sea Islands that 
gladdened the sight of the Missionaries who sailed in the 
Duff. They saw the land on the morning of the 22d of 
February, 1797^ near thirty miles distant; and as the 
wind was unfavourable, the darkness of night hid the 
island from their view before they were near enough 
distinctly to behold its scenery, or the people by whom 
it was inhabited. I can enter in some degree into 
their emotions on this unusually interesting day. All 
that hope had anticipated in its brightest moments, 
was no longer to be matter of uncertainty, but was 
to be realized or rejected. Such feelings I have experi¬ 
enced, and can readily believe theirs were of the same 
order as those of which I was conscious, when gazing on 
the first of the isles of the Pacific that we approached. 
Theirs were probably more intense than mine, as a de¬ 
gree of adventurous enterprise was then thrown around 
Missionary efforts, which has vanished with their novelty. 
Our information, also, is now much more circumstantial 
