ship Topaz," and dated Valparaiso, 10th of October, 1808. This extract contains a short account of the conduct and fate of the mutineers who left Otaheite under the command of Christian. It states, that they had proceeded to a small desolate Island in the Pacific Ocean, called Pitcairn's Island, where they settled, and seemed to have some prospect of ease and security. Their hopes of happiness were, however, but short-lived; for all of them but one, named Alexander Smith, were murdered by the Otaheitans. The extract contains many other most interesting facts: but these are so much more fully described in a letter, written by the same Captain Folger to the Lords of the Admiralty, that it appears better to give the following complete copy of this letter to the reader. It was received, about the commencement of the year 1815, by Rear-Admiral Hotham, when cruizing off New London, together with the Azimuth compass to which it refers :

'Nantucket, 1st March, 1813...

'MY LORDS,

'THE remarkable circumstance which took place on my last voyage to the Pacific Ocean,

will, I trust, plead my apology for addressing your Lordships at this time. In February, 1808, I touched at Pitcairn's Island, in latitude 25° 20′ S. and longitude 130o W. from Greenwich. My principal object was to procure seal skins for the China market; and from the account given of the island, in Captain Carteret's voyage, I supposed it was uninhabited; but, on approaching the shore in my boat, I was met by three young men in a double canoe, with a present consisting of some fruit and a hog. They spoke to me in the English language, and informed me that they were born on the island, and their father was an Englishman, who had sailed with Captain Bligh.

After discoursing with them a short time, I landed with them, and found an Englishman of the name of Alexander Smith, who informed me that he was one of the Bounty's crew, and that after putting Captain Bligh into the boat, with half the ship's company, they returned to Otaheite, where part of their crew chose to tarry; but Mr. Christian, with eight others, including himself, preferred going to a more remote place; and after making a short stay at Otaheite, where they took wives, and six men servants, they proceeded to Pitcairn's Island, where they destroyed the ship, after taking every thing out of her which they

thought would be useful to them. About six years after they landed at this place, their servants attacked and killed all the English, excepting the informant, and he was severely wounded.

The same night the Otaheitan widows arose and murdered all their countrymen, leaving Smith with the widows and children, where he has resided ever since without being molested.

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'I remained but a short time on the island, and on leaving it, Smith presented me a time-piece, and an azimuth compass, which he told me belonged to the Bounty. The time-piece was taken from me by the go. vernor of the island of Juan Fernandez, after I had had it in my possession about six months. The compass I put in repair on board my ship, and made use of it in my homeward passage, since which a new card has been put to it by an instrument maker in Boston. I now forward it to your Lordships, thinking there will be a kind of satisfaction in receiving it, merely from the extraordinary circumstances attending it.

(Signed)

MAYHEW FOLGER.'

Nearly about the same time a further account of these interesting people was received

from Vice-Admiral Dixon, in a letter ad. dressed to him by Sir Thomas Staines, of his Majesty's ship Briton, of which the following is a copy:

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Briton, Valparaiso, Oct. 18, 1814.

SIR,

I HAVE the honour to inform you that, on my passage from the Marquesas Islands to this port, on the morning of the 17th September, I fell in with an island where none is laid down in the Admiralty, or other charts, according to the several chronometers of the Briton and Tagus. I there, fore hove to, until day-light, and then closed to ascertain whether it was inhabited, which I soon discovered it to be, and, to my great astonishment, found that every individual on the island, (forty in number) spoke very good English. They prove to be the descendants of the deluded crew of the Bounty, which, from Otaheite, proceeded to the above-mentioned island, where the ship was

burnt.

Christian appeared to have been the leader and sole cause of the mutiny in that ship. A venerable old man, named John Adams, is the only surviving Englisman of those

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who last quitted Otaheite in her, and whose exemplary conduct, and fatherly care of the whole of the colony, could not but command admiration. The pious manner in which all those born on the island have been reared, and the correct sense of religion which has been instilled into their young minds by this old man, have given him the pre-eminence over the whole of them, and they look up to him as the father of the whole, and themselves 、as one family.

A son of Christian's was the first-born on the island, now about twenty-five years of age, (named Thursday October Christian; the elder Christian fell a sacrifice to the jealousy of an Otaheitan man, within three or four years after their arrival on the island. They were accompanied thither by six Otaheitan men and twelve women: the former were all swept away by desperate contentions between them and the Englishmen, and five of the latter have died at different periods, leaving at present only one man and seven women of the original settlers.

The island must undoubtedly be that called Pitcairn's, although erroneously laid down in the charts. We had the meridian sun, close to it, which gave us 25° 4′ S. latitude, and 130° 25′ W. longitude, by chronometers of the Briton and Tagus.