and fit for use. The natural colour is buff, but it is dyed variously, red, blue, and black, and is covered with the figures of animals, birds, and fish.

The inquiry was made of Smith very particularly in regard to the conduct of the sexes toward each other, and the answer was given in such a manner as entirely to satisfy Captain Folger that the purest morals had thus far prevailed among them. Whatever might be the liberties allowed by the few original Otaheitan women remaining, the young people were remarkably obedient to the laws of continence, which had been taught them by their common instructor and guide.

neers.

Smith is said, by later visitors, to have changed his name, and taken that of John Adams. This probably arose from a political conversation between him and Captain Folger, and from the account then given him of the Pandora under the command of Captain Edwards, who was sent out in pursuit of the Bounty and the mutiThe fears of Smith were somewhat excited by this last article of intelligence. As the federal constitution of the United States of America had gone into operation since the mutiny; as Captain Folger had given Smith an animating and patriotic account of the administration of the new government and its effects upon the prosperity of the country; and as the name of President Adams had been mentioned, not only with respect as an able statesman and a faithful advocate of civil liberty, but as an inhabitant of the commonwealth in particular where Folger lived; it is thought to be probable enough that this is the circumstance which suggested the name that Smith afterward adopted.

The

When he was about to leave the island, the people pressed round him with the warmest affection and courtesy. The chronometer which was given him, although made of gold, was so black with smoke and dust that the metal could not be discovered. girls brought some presents of cloth, which they had made with their own hands, and which they had dyed with beautiful colours. Their unaffected and amiable manners, and their earnest prayers for his welfare, made a deep impression upon his mind, and are still cherished in his memory. He wished to decline taking all that was brought him in the overflow of friendship, but Smith told him it would hurt the feelings of the donors, and the gifts could well be spared from the island. He made as suitable a return of

presents as his ship afforded, and left this most interesting community with the keenest sensations of regret. It reminded him of Paradise, as he said, more than any effort of poetry or the imagination.

The conversations between me and Captain Folger upon this subject, were all previous to the dates of the several printed accounts, to which I have referred in this chapter. There are a few points only in which the article in the Quarterly Review differs from the impressions upon my mind at the time when I read it. In the volume for 1810, as well as in that for 1815, the Reviewers appear to have gone out of their way, and to have taken very unworthy pains to connect slanders against my countrymen with their remarks upon Pitcairn's Island. Perhaps in the next chapter, which is to contain some reflections upon the whole subject, this topic may be taken up.

In regard to the extent of the population of the island a remark may be made. Captain Folger says there were thirty four in eighteen hundred and eight. Sir Thomas Staines mentions forty in eighteen hundred and fourteen. The Review afterwards says, there were about forty six besides a number of infants. As every one of the forty whom Sir Thomas Staines saw, spoke good English, and as this cannot be applied to the very young children, there must have been a larger number on the island at that time. The population now must be, at the lowest estimate, not less than sixty.

CHAPTER VI.

Reflections on the History of the Bounty, and of Pitcairn's Island.

THE mutiny, which happened in the Bounty, invites some reflec

tions. This subject was often discussed between Commodore McClure, his officers, and the Dutch gentlemen at Timor, who saw Lieutenant Bligh and his companions on their arrival at that island, and who were acquainted both with him and with them during their stay there. The manner in which his officers spoke of him, and the kind of treatment which they observed in regard to him, are still distinctly remembered as stated at Timor. The mutineers are not so much excluded from sympathy among the gentlemen at that place, as they possibly may be among those in England who have only read the story of one of the parties. My mind was prevented from falling into rash conclusions and censures, by the conversations in which I then joined ; and it has been placed in a still more impartial state by the information which Captain Folger gave me as he received it from Smith. Extreme depravity rarely belongs to persons educated as Christian and his adherents were, and who have manifested so many virtues on other occasions. Acts of a desperate character are not likely to have been performed by such men without considerable provocation. Lieutenant Bligh, I suppose, is still living, and it seems that he has become an admiral. It is proper to speak of him with respect, although we may ascribe to him the ordinary failings of our nature. Anecdotes have been told to me concerning his conduct at Copenhagen with Lord Nelson, which naturally prevent me from viewing him as beyond those weaknesses and defects which most of us are so often obliged to acknowledge, and by which our pride receives a salutary mitigation. The Quarterly Reviewers are unwise, if they wish to be considered as the friends of Admiral Bligh, to provoke an examination of this subject by

an officious and unnecessary bitterness in their condemnation of the leader of the mutineers. The zeal which leads them to record in their pages, without any correcting remarks, two contradictory modes of death for Christian, as they do in February 1810, and in July 1815; and the anxiety which they show to have crimes, which are incompatible with each other, laid to his charge, cannot be well fitted to engage the reader's confidence, or to conciliate his partiality. Perhaps the fling against my countrymen, in the volume for 1810, and particularly against so well known and excellent a man as Captain Folger, and the series of abusive attacks upon the inhabitants of the United States at large, in the article quoted from 1815, as well as in many other parts of the same publication, may have rendered my perceptions more ready to detect this unworthy spirit in the representations given against Christian.

I have a great horror of the crime of mutiny, and feel as every master of a vessel naturally will upon this subject. The bias of mind, which my office in my profession has produced, is against whatever may tend to rebellion in the subject, and in favour of whatever may secure the prerogative of the commander. Crews and subordinate officers ought to suffer very extensively before violent measures against the master of a vessel can be vindicated. Indeed I should find it difficult to point out a case in real life where a mutiny was necessary, or justifiable. I have known more than twenty instances, where crews have attempted to do themselves justice by violent measures against their commanders, and in every one of them, the departures from subordination and obedience uniformly increased the evil, and led to the most unhappy consequences. Probably it is best without a single exception for the sufferers to wait till they are on shore, and can have a regular trial by proper authorities, before they attempt to seek a remedy in any other way than by mild and respectful expostulations. However much commanders may be tempted by sloth, ignorance, sel fishness, or passion, to neglect or violate the laws of justice and humanity in regard to the rights and duties of their crews, yet mutiny and piracy are not the means to remedy the evil, or to arrest the course of crime and affliction. The alternative is no doubt often grievous, and sometimes hardly to be allowed, either to persuade a commander by mild and respectful representations, to be just and humane, or to submit in silence and patience, during a long cruise, to his pas

sions, his caprices, his follies, and his oppressions. But this alternative is always found to be less dreadful than that of mutiny and violence. A resort to the last opens a train of evils which seems never to have an end till all the subjects are in the grave, and even then their children and relatives continue to suffer. Vengeance will not always sleep, but wakes to pursue and overtake them.

Masters and commanders ought to have been regularly educated on ship-board, at least so far as to have an experimental acquaintance with the feelings of the sailor as well as with those of the officer. Mere theory can never give to the mind the knowledge of those sympathies, or those alienations and emotions of hostility, which are developed in the actual intercourse between a crew and their commander. No man's nature is so perfect that he can dispense with the necessity of a personal experience in the operations of feeling and passion on the part of inferiors, if he would fully understand the wants, the dangers, and the duties which are attendant upon the exercise of authority over them.

Not only an education on ship-board, so far as this principle extends, is required to make an accomplished commander, but he must also be thoroughly qualified to judge of the powers, obligations, and rights of every class in his crew, and of every department in the services which they are to render. While he respects himself, and exacts what is his due, he must also respect them, and be as careful to observe the law of gradation in their favour as in his own. If he shows himself more disinterested than might at first be expected, he will never suffer in consequence of it, but will be sure to find the good effects returned upon him sooner or later.

He must never countermand his own orders without very good reasons, and generally such as are obvious. Considerable loss had better be borne than to permit the idea of indecision on his part to be established in the minds of the crew. Rules, which he has made for the ship, he must regard as punctiliously himself, wherever they affect him, as he expects the same of his inferiors. He will never permit them to volunteer in giving him advice upon his duty, but he will often find benefit in asking it for deliberation, and in allowing it to have due weight in his determinations. He will lean toward the system of encouragement much more than toward that of censure and punishment. Understanding the value of praise, he will employ it freely as well as judiciously, and will re