preceding the mutiny, and for that purpose had provided himself with a stout plank, to which he had fixed several staves. On this frail raft he determined to trust himself, hoping to reach the island of Tofoa; and with this view had, with the assistance of two midshipmen, Stewart and Hayward, who were privy to his design, filled a bag with provision. The ship making very little way, prevented him from executing his design. About half past three he lay down to sleep, and at four was roused to take the watch. On going on deck he found his mate, Mr. Hayward, asleep, and the other officer, Mr. Hallett, did not appear. He instantly determined to seize the ship, went forward, spoke to some of the crew he thought he could trust, put arms in their hands, and proceeded as Captain Bligh relates.

This appears from all the various accounts of the evidence on the Court Martial, afterwards held on the mutineers, to have been the true state of the case; but the moral obligation of obedience to discipline in a ship, must have been totally forgotten by both officers and crew, when such a sudden determination was thought capable of execution, and not one soul stepped forward to oppose it.

When the boat containing Captain Bligh and his companions was cast off, there remained on board the Bounty

FLETCHER CHRISTIAN, Master's Mate, and acting Lieutenant, afterwards murdered at Pitcairn's Island. PETER HEYWOOD, Midshipman, surrendered himself to Captain Edwards of the Pandora; was tried, condemned, pardoned, and afterwards attained the rank of captain in the service.

EDWARD YOUNG, Midshipman, died at Pitcairn's Island. GEORGE STEWART, do., drowned on board the Pandora. CHARLES CHURCHILL, Master-at-Arms,

Thompson, at Otaheite.

murdered

by

JOHN MILLS, Gunner's Mate, murdered at Pitcairn's Island. JAMES MORRISON, Boatswain's Mate, tried, condemned, and pardoned.

THOMAS BURKITT, Seaman, tried, condemned, and executed.

MATTHEW QUINTAL, do., put to death by Adams and
Young at Pitcairn's Island.

JOHN SUMNER, do., drowned on board the Pandora.
JOHN MILLWARD, do., tried, condemned, and executed.
WILLIAM M Kov, do., committed suicide at Pitcairn's
Island.

HENRY HILLBRANT, do., drowned on board the Pandora.
MICHAEL BYRNE, do., tried and acquitted.

WILLIAM MUSPRAT, do., tried, condemned, and pardoned. ALEXANDER SMITH (alias JOHN ADAMS), do., died at Pitcairn's Island in 1829.

JOHN WILLIAMS, do., murdered at Pitcairn's Island.
THOMAS ELLISON, do., tried, condemned, and executed.
ISAAC MARTIN, do., murdered at Pitcairn's Island.
RICHARD SKINNER. do., drowned on board the Pandora.
MATTHEW THOMPSON, do., put to death by the natives at
Otaheite, for the murder of Churchill.
WILLIAM BROWN, Gardener, murdered at Pitcairn's Island.
JOSEPH COLEMAN, Armourer, tried and acquitted.
CHARLES NORMAN, Carpenter's Mate, do. do.
THOMAS MINTOSH, Carpenter's Crew, do. do.

When Captain Bligh's boat was cast off, Chris tian assumed the command of the Bounty; he steered for Toobouai, an island situated in latitude 20° 13′ S., and longitude 149° 35′ W., where they anchored on the 25th May, 1789. All the breadfruit plants were thrown overboard, and the property of the officers and men sent adrift was divided among the mutineers. Here they intended

to form a settlement; but, in consequence of quarrels among themselves, and with the natives, and the want of many things which could be procured at Otaheite, but which could not be obtained at Toobouai, they determined to go to Otaheite, but with no intention of remaining there. On their arrival (on the 6th of June) they told the Otaheiteans that Captain Bligh had fallen in with their old friend Captain Cook, who was engaged in forming a settlement on an island called Whytootakee, and that Captain Bligh and the rest of the crew had stopped with him; that the command of the vessel had been transferred to Christian, who had been sent to obtain a fresh supply of stores. This story was readily believed by the Otaheiteans, who immediately set about collecting provisions, and in a few days sent on board 312 hogs, 38 goats, 8 dozen of fowls, a bull, and a cow, and a large quantity of bread-fruit, plantains, bananas, and other fruits. Christian peremptorily forbade any person to remain at Otaheite, and his partisans kept so close a watch on those who were suspected of any inclination to leave them, that none could contrive to escape; and as soon as the stores were all on board, they again set sail and returned to Toobouai, where they again went to work to build a fort, but finding it impossible to agree together, it was at last determined to abandon Toobouai, take the ship back to Otaheite, and land all who chose to quit her there. They arrived in Matavai Bay on the 20th of September, when sixteen men were put on shore; the small arms, powder, and stores, were equally divided between the two parties; and on the night of the 21st September, Christian and his companions again set sail, carrying with them seven Otaheitean men, and twelve women. Where they intended to go was not known, but Christian had been heard to say, that he should seek for an uninhabited island, where there was no harbour, and should there run the ship ashore and break her up.

The natives treated their guests with the greatest hospitality, and several of the Englishmen married Otaheitean women, and when they were seized in 1789, many of them had children. Mr. Stewart, in particular, had married the daughter of a chief, who possessed a very large tract of country; and when the Pandora arrived was living with her as a man of property and consequence*. Morrison, Heywood, and Stewart, when at Toobouai, had formed a plan of seizing the ship's boat, and escaping to Otaheite, but abandoned the design, finding that the condition of the boat was too bad to give them a chance of success. Morrison now undertook to build a schooner, which, with the assistance of the carpenter, the cooper, and some others, he completed. His object was to reach Batavia in time to join the next fleet bound to Holland, and he and six of his companions actually set sail, but found themselves obliged to return, as their stores proved too small for so long an expedition, and the natives, who did not wish to part with them, refused to give them more. This schooner ac

* The parting of poor Stewart and his wife and child is described in the first missionary voyage of the ship Duff as having been heart-rending. His wife died of a broken heart two months after his departure.

companied the Pandora when she left Otaheite, parted company with her near the Palmerston Islands, but arrived safely at Samarang, in Java, after a voyage in which the crew suffered dreadfully from want of water and provisions. She was an admirable sailer, and was afterwards employed in the sea-otter trade, and subsequently bought at Canton by the late Captain Broughton, to assist in the survey of the coast of Tartary.

Stewart and Heywood did not join Morrison in this expedition, considering it much better to remain at Otaheite, where it was certain that some European vessel would touch before a long time elapsed.

When Captain Bligh arrived in England and the account of the mutiny was given to the world, a universal feeling of sympathy for the sufferers, and of indignation against the mutineers, took possession of the public mind. It was felt, and justly, that any breach of that discipline which is the main stay of the navy, the bulwark of Britain, is deserving of severe punishment; and that the perpetrators of so flagrant a violation of the first of a seaman's duties should be pursued even to the uttermost parts of the earth, and brought back to answer for their crime to their injured country. The Admiralty were fully possessed of these sentiments, and determined to make every effort to secure the offenders: with this view the Pandora frigate, Capt. Edward Edwards, mounting twenty-four guns and manned by a crew of 124 men, was commissioned, and so well victualled that, to use the expression of Mr. Hamilton the surgeon, who has written an amusing, though rather coarse account, of a most disastrous voyage, "they were obliged to eat a hole in their bread before they had room to lie down." They sailed in August, 1790, with orders to proceed in the first instance to Otaheite, and, not finding the mutineers there, to visit the different groups of the Society and Friendly Islands, and the others in the neighbouring parts of the Pacific; using their best endeavours to seize and bring home in confinement the whole or such part of the delinquents as they might be able to discover.

On the voyage the crew suffered much from an infectious fever, and at one time thirty-five men were laid up sick in their hammocks. An alarm of a Spanish frigate bearing down, put them to much inconvenience from the lumbered state of the vessel; but when the bulk-heads were all down and the ship cleared for action, the supposed enemy turned out to be a good friend, his Majesty's ship the Shark.

They touched at Rio Janeiro, where Captain Edwards was entertained by the viceroy. His palace was handsome, and its interior decorations were very beautiful and singularly appropriate. In various apartments, paintings on the ceilings displayed all the objects of natural history peculiar to the country. In one apartment appeared the quadrupeds, in another the fishes, in a third the birds and shells were displayed in groups and borderings. This elegant mode of adorning rooms is well worthy of imitation.

The voyage from Rio was prosperous, and the vessel arrived in Matavai Bay on the 23rd of March, 1791. Immediately on her arrival, Coleman, the armourer of the Bounty, put off in a canoe, and went on board; he was quickly followed

by Stewart and Heywood, who voluntarily surrendered themselves; they, however, met with a very ungracious reception from Captain Edwards, who ordered them to be put in irons immediately. A party was sent after the rest of the mutineers, who were soon secured; and the whole were lodged together in a small prison erected for the purpose on the quarter-deck, the only entrance to which was by a scuttle in the roof, about eighteen inches square, and confined with both legs and feet in irons. "The prisoners' wives," says Mr. Hamilton, in his account of the Pandora's voyage, "visited the ship daily, and brought their children, who were permitted to be carried to their unhappy fathers. To see the poor captives in irons weeping over their tender offspring, was too moving a scene for any feeling heart. Their wives brought them ample supplies of every delicacy that the country afforded while we lay there, and behaved with the greatest fidelity and affection to them."

Sixteen men had left the Bounty at Otaheite; fourteen were now on board the Pandora; the remaining two had both died violent deaths. One of these, Churchill, was murdered by his companion Thompson, for some insult he had received; and Thompson was in return stoned to death by the natives, the friends of the murdered man, who had attained the rank of a chief.

The Pandora set sail on the 8th May, and proceeded to make a search, prolonged for three months, among the various groups of islands, but without meeting with any trace of Christian and his companions, except on one of the Palmerston Islands, where a mast and some spars belonging to the Bounty were found. On the 29th of August they arrived off New Holland, and ran along the barrier reef, a boat being sent out to look for an opening, but in the night the ship struck, and she immediately began to fill with water; all hands were employed at the pumps and baling from the hatchways, but to no effect: the leak increased, and the ship beat over the reef into the deep water on the other side. It was evident that she was sinking, and the people took to the boats. Three only of the prisoners had been liberated to work at the pumps, but the prayers of the others to be allowed to assist were totally disregarded; the guard over them had been doubled, and all would have been drowned if the armourer, either by accident or from design, had not dropped his keys into the prison, and with them they set themselves free; one of the sailors, at the risk of his life, held on by the coombings, and drew out the long shackle bolts, and thus all but four, who miserably perished, saved themselves at the moment that the ship went down, and when the whole deck was under water. Stewart was one of those who were thus unfortunately lost.

All who had contrived to escape made for a sandy key about three miles from the wreck, and on mustering the hands it was found that 89 of the ship's company and ten of the mutineers, were saved; but thirty-one of the ship's company, and four of the mutineers, had gone down with the wreck.

The survivors were now distributed in the boats, and after a miserable voyage arrived at Coupang on the 15th of August, where they remained three weeks. Here the prisoners were again confined in irons in the castle, and were treated in the same way

women, natives of Otaheite and Toobouai. His object was to seek out an uninhabited island, out of the track of voyagers, where he intended to break up his vessel, and live with his companions secluded from the world. He fell in with an island first discovered by Captain Carteret, and named by him Pitcairn's Island. It was by him laid down 3 degrees of longitude out of its true position, which is 25° 4' S. lat., and 130° 25′ W. long.

Here Christian and his companions ran the ship on the rocks, and after getting out every thing useful, set her on fire. The English divided the whole island among them, reserving nothing for the Otaheiteans, whom they treated as servants. They, however, lived together peaceably for two years, built houses for themselves, and cultivated the ground; but a quarrel now broke out between the white and the black men. Williams, one of the Englishmen, had lost his wife, who fell from the rocks while gathering birds' eggs; and he now insisted on having another wife, or leaving the island in one of the ship's boats which had been preserved. As he was a useful man, the English wished to keep him, and made one of the black men give up his wife. The blacks determined on revenge, and laid a plot to murder all the English. Their plan was discovered by the women, who were more attached to the whites than to their own countrymen, and the affair ended in the death of two of the natives, who were treacherously killed in the woods by their companions on a promise of pardon for themselves.

Another interval of quiet now took place, but the tyranny of their masters again drove the Otaheiteans to rebellion. Christian, Williams, and Mills, fell victims to this attack; Quintal and M'Koy fled to the mountains; Young was saved by the women; and Smith, or as he now called himself, Adams, after being wounded, made his peace with the natives. After this execution, the Otaheiteans proceeded to choose wives for themselves, from the widows of the murdered men; but violent disputes arose, and in the end, all the native men fell by the hands of the women, except one who was shot by Young. The men who had fled to the mountains, now returned, and the four, Adams, Young, M'Koy, and Quintal, lived peaceably for some years.

M'Koy, who was a Scotchman, and could not forget his beloved whiskey, was continually trying experiments on the tee root, and at last succeeded in manufacturing a spirituous liquor; the consequence of this was, that he and Quintal were constantly intoxicated, and in his own case this proceeded so far as to produce delirium, and in one of the fits he threw himself from a cliff, and was killed on the spot. This was about 1798.

In the course of next year Quintal's wife was killed from a fall from the rocks, and nothing would satisfy him but the wife of one of his companions, although there were several unmarried women to choose from; Young and Adams would not give up their wives, and in revenge Quintal attempted to murder them. His design was prevented, but he swore he would carry it into execution. Young and Adams now considered themselves justified in putting Quintal to death, to secure their own lives; and accordingly they executed their purpose by cutting him down with a hatchet.

Two men alone were now left of all who had landed on the island; their situation, and the dreadful scenes they had witnessed scenes of guilt which entailed their own punishment, appear to have had their due effect. Young, who was of a respectable family, was tolerably educated, and Adams, who was a man of considerable abilities, both applied themselves in earnest to manage their little settlement with regularity and order. They studied the bible, and from its pages learnt and taught the good lessons of correct life in this world and the steadfast hope of a happier future. They read the church prayers every Sunday, and instructed the children. Young died about a year after Quintal, and Adams was now left the solitary survivor. He steadily pursued the good course he had begun, and was looked up to by all as their chief; he was their friend, adviser, comforter, instructor, and governor. He regulated every thing, and under his rule they prospered.

Thus they lived on, unknown to the world, but happy in their own society, and pure from the follies and wickedness which disturb the tranquillity of others, till the year 1808 (eighteen years from the foundation of the settlement), when an American vessel, the Topaz, Capt. Folger, touched at the island. Capt. Folger was astonished at discovering the descendants of the mutinous crew of the Bounty, in a race of young people rapidly springing up to manhood, and speaking both English and Otaheitean fluently. He found the little settlement in great order and harmony; their number was about thirty-five, who all looked upon Adams as their father and commander. Captain Folger did not publish any account of his discovery, which was first noticed in the newspapers, and afterwards authenticated by a communication made by him to Lieutenant Fitzmaurice at Valparaiso.

No more was heard of Pitcairn's Island or its inhabitants, till 1814, when two frigates, the Briton and Tagus, commanded by Sir Thomas Staines, and Captain Pipon, cruising in the Pacific, came to Pitcairn's Island, which, from the error in the charts before alluded to, they were surprised at meeting with in that position. Their astonishment was increased when they were hailed by the crew of a canoe which had put off to them, with "Won't you heave us a rope now?" After some difficulty, for the rope could not be made fast to the canoe, the crew came on board; they were fine young men, about five feet ten inches high, with manly features, partaking somewhat of the Otaheitean cast of countenance, and with long black hair. Their dress was a mantle tied round the waist by a girdle; one end being thrown over the shoulders, and the other hanging to the knees, very much in the fashion of the belted plaid of the ancient Highlanders. They wore straw hats ornamented with feathers. The young women have invariably beautiful teeth, fine eyes, and an open expression of countenance, with an engaging air of simple innocence and sweet sensibility; and their manners, far from displaying the licentiousness common to the inhabitants of other South Sea islands, were simple and unsophisticated, but perfectly modest.

* An account of the voyage of the Briton was published by Mr. Shillibeer, one of her lieutenants.

A few questions put and answered on both sides explained every thing, and one of the visitors proved to be son of Christian, who was the first born on the island, and christened Thursday October, and another was the son of Young. They were naturally delighted and astonished at all they saw in the ship, but were greatly puzzled with the cow, and could not determine whether it was a huge goat or a horned pig, those being the only two quadrupeds they were acquainted with.

They were asked into the cabin to breakfast, but before partaking of the meal, both stood up, and one of them, putting his hands in a posture of devotion, asked a blessing; and they were surprised to observe that this practice, which they said was taught them by Adams, was not attended to by their new acquaintance.

Sir Thomas Staines and Captain Pipon determined to go on shore, which they effected through a considerable surf, which thoroughly wetted them; and when Adams found that there was no intention of seizing him, and that the two captains had come ashore unarmed, he came down to the beach. He was a fine looking old man, between fifty and sixty. He took the captains to his own house, which stood at one end of the square, round which the houses, which all exhibit traces of European construction, are placed; the centre is a green, fenced in for the poultry, of which they have a large stock.

Sir Thomas Staines made a proposal to Adams to go home with him, which he appeared anxious to do; but when he spoke of his desire to his family, a touching scene of sorrow was immediately displayed, and his daughter flinging her arms round his neck, asked him "who would then take care of all his little children?" He could not resist such entreaties, and although it was perhaps the strict duty of the captains to take him, yet they felt themselves justified in waiving its execution in this peculiar case.

They found every thing regulated with the most exact order; every family possessed its separate property, which was well cultivated, John Adams leading the young men and women to work every day. He did not encourage marriage before some property was got together for the support of a family; a rule that was willingly submitted to, and in no case had the slightest tendency to libertinism been observed.

Adams was accustomed to perform the ceremonies of baptism and marriage, but had not ventured to administer the sacrament.

After a stay of two days only, the Briton and Tagus departed, and the next account of the island is that of Captain Beechey, who visited it in 1825; he gives an equally pleasing account of the people or as it may not improperly be described, the family of Pitcairn's Island, and of the patriarch Adams. He found a new-comer among them, a man named Buffett, who had belonged to a whaler, but was so much delighted with the society of this little settlement, that he begged to remain. He was a man of a religious turn of mind, and being possessed of some information made himself very useful both as schoolmaster and clergyman. Captain Beechey attended church, where John Adams read the prayers of the Church of England and Buffett preached, but for fear any of his sermon might be forgotten he repeated it three times over.

All the inhabitants were particular in their religious observances, never omitting their morning and evening prayer and hymn.

The furniture of their houses was very good; they manufactured bedsteads, chests, tables, and stools. The cloth for their sheets and dresses is manufactured from the paper mulberry tree. Their houses were large and strongly built of wood, thatched with the leaves of the palm-tree; they build them with two stories, the upper one being the sleeping room, and the lower the eating

room.

The peculiar and unprecedented condition of these happy islanders, has always excited the most lively interest in all who have visited their hospitable village; uniting all the simplicity of the untaught savage, with the regular industry and religious feelings of cultivated society, they presented an anomaly in the human race which had never before been presented to the eye of the philosopher.

All their feelings and habits were moulded upon the patriarchal model; Adams was looked on as their chief and father, from a natural feeling of reverence for him, the oldest of the community, whose wisdom taught them how to supply those wants which they felt, and how to secure the happiness they experienced by pursuing a life of peace and concord. Being himself taught by example, his pupils profited by his experience without being exposed to the snares and temptations of corrupt society.

What would have been the result, had this society been permitted to remain unmolested on their sea-girt and rock-embattled fortress for two or three generations, it is impossible to determine; the enemy have surprised the fort, the wolf has found his way into the sheepfold!

When John Adams was dying, he called his children, as the islanders may not improperly be termed, around him, and after exhorting them to remember the good counsels he had given them, and never to fail in their religious and moral duties, he recommended them, when he was gone, to choose one from among them who should be their chief.

They did not follow this advice of the venerable patriarch, and the reason is obvious. At this time three other Englishmen, besides Adams, were residing on the island, each of whom, from his presumed superior knowledge, was by the unsophisticated simplicity of the islanders considered better fitted to command than one of themselves, and who would probably have refused to obey one of those whom they considered as their pupils. Had a choice been made among the Englishmen, there was (from their character and various pretensions) every probability of a contest for power. One of them, by marriage with Adams's daughter, was possessed of property in the island, and as such might perhaps have claimed the succession as the legitimate representative of the last chief; Buffett had long lived among them, exercising the honoured offices of their schoolmaster and spiritual teacher; whilst George Nunn Hobbs, who appears to have been an ignorant fanatic, was already disputing the latter function with Buffett.

They feared that discord and contention would result from any choice under these circumstances, and as ambition had not yet lighted her unhal