CHAPTER II.

Discovery of the Retreat of the Mutineers.-Visits of Captain Folger and others. Arrival of John Buffett.-John Evans.-G. H. Nobbs.-Death of John Adams.

TWENTY years had elapsed before the mystery which had hung over the fate of the Bounty and the mutineers became gradually revealed. The first gleam of light on this subject appeared in the log-book of Mayhew Folger, the master of an American ship, named the Topaz, and dated September, 1808.*

The Topaz was short of water, and approaching a rocky island laid down in her chart as lat. 25° 4' south, long. 130° 25′ west, the attention of the master was attracted by seeing smoke rising from it, besides other signs of habitation. The shore, on which a tremendous surf was breaking, appeared inaccessible, but a canoe was presently to be seen approaching from it, and soon, to the great astonishment of all on board, they were hailed by the occupants in good English, with offers of assistance if any of her people desired to land. The captain declined doing so, but one of the sailors, an Englishman, volunteered to go in the canoe, provided the ship stood in sufficiently near to the land, that he might swim back to her in case of being attacked.

This adventure was followed by another strange discovery. The first person by whom he was accosted on land

* Forwarded to the Admiralty by Sir Sydney Smith, on the authority of Lieutenant Fitzmaurice, then at Valparaiso.

ing was a man who called himself Alexander Smith, telling him that he was one of the crew of the Bounty, and the only survivor of the party of nine Englishmen who had left Tahiti in her; that some of the children of the mutineers were now grown men and women, and that, including himself, the population of Pitcairn Island amounted to thirty-five persons, of whom he had been for many years the sole guardian and instructor. With this unexpected piece of intelligence the sailor returned to his ship, and Captain Folger landed immediately. Smith gave him a short account of the feuds among his companions and the Tahitian men and women they had brought with them, ending in the violent deaths of so many; that only Edward Young (the midshipman) had died a natural death. Smith, in return, eagerly inquired as to the course of events during the twenty years of his seclusion from the world. Captain Folger gave him a rapid sketch of the breaking out of the French Revolution, of the progress of the war, and of the glorious series of naval victories achieved by England which had ensued-the Nile, Trafalgar, etc., on hearing which Smith was unable to restrain his enthusiasm, and, throwing up his cap, gave a loud hurrah, exclaiming, “Old England forever!"

Captain Folger reports this extraordinary discovery in a letter, concluding with many encomiums on Smith for his excellent moral and religious training of the little community; and it was accompanied by the chronometer* and

*This chronometer had been twice carried out by Captain Cook on his voyages of discovery. It was supplied to Lieutenant Bligh when fitting out the Bounty, and the mutineers carried it with them to Pitcairn Island. Captain Folger stated that it was taken from him by the Governor of Juan Fernandez in 1808, then sold in Chili to A. Caldeleugh, Esq., of Valparaiso, and purchased by Captain (afterwards Admiral) Sir T. Herbert for fifty guineas. That officer took it to China with him in the Calliope, and in 1843 brought it to England. He transmitted it to the Admiralty,

azimuth compass of the Bounty, presented to him by Smith. The arrival of this unexpected intelligence in England reawakened public curiosity, and the newspapers and periodicals teemed with the story, forming, as it does, an interesting episode in English naval history. Again, however, public interest in it subsided. No further steps. were taken to communicate with the newly-discovered colony, as our ships of war were fully occupied in cruising, in convoying fleets of merchantmen, and in blockading the enemy's ports.

At length, and again by mere accident, Pitcairn was. visited by two frigates-the Briton, commanded by Captain Sir F. Staines, and the Tagus, by Captain Pipon, who were in search of an American ship, the Essex, which had been seizing some English whalers. They were on their way to Valparaiso, from the Marquesas Islands, when they suddenly came in sight of an island which was not laid down in their charts; for Pitcairn was nearly two hundred miles distant, according to their reckoning. It was evening when the island was first seen, and they deferred a nearer inspection until daylight, as it seemed to them in all probability a new discovery.

Those on the island had observed the approaching strangers, and when at day-break the order was given to stand in for the land, the sailors perceived a number of inhabitants who had assembled on the rocks to watch their proceedings. Very soon two men were seen rapidly descending to the shore, with canoes on their shoulders. One of these canoes was boldly launched among the

who presented it to the United Service Museum, in Great Scotland Yard, London. It was known to have belonged to the Bounty by the name of Kendall, the maker, being on it; and in further proof of the authenticity of Folger's statement, the name of Alexander Smith was found on the list at the Admiralty of the ship's company of the Bounty..

breakers, and then dexterously paddled through the surf alongside of the Briton. "Won't you heave us a rope

now ?" was the request from the canoe, and a rope being thrown out immediately, a fine young man sprang actively on the deck. His athletic figure was quaintly attired in a vest without sleeves, and trowsers to the knee; and he wore a hat jauntily decked with black-cocks' feathers. He answered the question, "Who are you?" with an ingenuous frankness: "I am Thursday October Christian, son of Fletcher Christian, the mutineer, by a Tahitian mother, and the first born on this island."

The handsome youth who accompanied him was Edward Young, son of the midshipman of that name in the Bounty, and was eighteen years of age. Thursday October Christian was, of course, so named from the day and month of his birth. He had attained the age of twentyfour, and was married to Susannah,* widow of Edward Young, and one of the few survivors of the Tahitian women who had sailed in the Bounty to Pitcairn. Here, then, at length, was Pitcairn Island, the asylum of the mutineers! They as well as Folger had approached it unexpectedly; for Captain Carteret, who, as we have said, discovered the island in 1767,† had placed it on the chart three degrees out of its true longitude.

The robust appearance and height of the two young men, especially those of Thursday October Christian, were

* She died in 1850, and was then the sole survivor of the original party. † He named it "Pitcairn" after the young midshipman who descried it from the mast-head of his ship at a distance of fifteen miles. This youth, the son of Major Pitcairn, of the Marines (killed at the battle of Bunker's Hill), was himself lost in the Aurora frigate.

In this he must now have closely resembled his father, Fletcher Christian, who, according to Peter Heywood's description, had a bright, pleasing countenance, and tall, commanding figure, well adapted to those feats of strength and agility which he so frequently exhibited on the passage out to Tahiti.

very striking. His jet-black hair flowed down his shoulders, and although his complexion was dark, and much tanned from exposure, in neither Young nor himself was there the red tinge of skin so common among the Pacific Islanders. The deportment of the young men, their whole bearing, and their natural easy manners, which were as much removed from undue familiarity as from all conventional shyness and restraint, interested every one on board. Sir Thomas Staines himself conducted them over the ship, where every object was new and wonderful in their estimation. The sight of a cow seemed not only to astonish but to alarm them-they seemed to think it a large goatwhile a little black terrier excited their warm admiration. "I know that is a dog," exclaimed Edward Young, naïvely. "I have read of such things." Although strangers to mechanical contrivances, and to most of the useful arts of civilized life, they displayed an intelligent appreciation of every thing they saw, and were eager for information on all subjects connected with the ship. At the close of this singular and interesting visit, Sir T. Staines ordered refreshments to be prepared in his own cabin; but before sitting down, they devoutly folded their hands and repeated the usual short grace, a blessing upon the food of which they were about to partake, and at the conclusion of the repast repeated another, which they said had been taught them by their revered pastor, John Adams.* Strange, indeed, it must have been to witness the simple earnest piety of these young Christians, living so far from all civilized lands, and in the vicinity of islands whose people were sunk in heathen barbarism and ignorance, and some of them even addicted to cannibalism.

* After the visit of Captain Folger, Alexander Smith had changed his name to John Adams, to avoid recognition.