TUBUAT. 379 
ants; land without owners; and that which was 
formerly cultivated, has now become desolate.” 
In 1826 Mr. Davies organized a Christian so¬ 
ciety, or church, among this people, when sixteen 
persons were, after due examination, united in 
Christian fellowship with the teachers of Eimeo 
who were residing among them.* Of these, twelve 
have died; to the survivors forty-six were added, 
during the time Messrs. Pritchard and Simpson 
remained with them, in 1829. 
Tubuai. 
This island is seventeen miles nearer the equator 
than Raivavai, and about two degrees farther to 
the westward. It is situated in lat. 23. 25. S. and 
long. 149. 23. W. and is not more than twelve 
miles in circumference. 
Tubuai was discovered by Cook in 1777; and, 
after the mutineers in the Bounty had taken pos¬ 
session of the vessel, and committed, to the mercy 
of the waves, Captain Bligh, with eighteen of his 
officers and men, this was the first island they 
visited. Hence they sailed to Tahiti, brought 
away the most serviceable of the live-stock left 
there by former navigators, and in 1789 attempted 
a settlement here. Misunderstandings between 
the mutineers and the natives, and the unbridled 
passions of the former, led to acts of violence, 
which the latter resented. A murderous 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 
* Missionary Report, 1827, p. 29. 
