these being better suited than ships' boats for passing the breakers.

"Having set foot on shore," says Mr. Brodie, who was there in March, 1850, "you ascend a steep hill, almost a cliff, for about three hundred yards, to a table-land, planted with cocoa-nut-trees, which is called the market-place, about a quarter of a mile beyond which, at the north end of the island, lies the settlement, flanked by a grove of cocoa-nut-trees, kumeras, and plantains, &c. which make the approach very picturesque."*

Though the island, according to Captain Carteret, owes its name to young Mr. Pitcairn, he having been the first native of this kingdom who noted the place, it was doubtless once known by some other name, which is now lost, together with all traces of its former inhabitants, except a few human skeletons, idols, and weapons, which were discovered there by the mutineers. It has become a clear matter of fact, that the island was inhabited previously to their arrival. Overlooking Bounty Bay is a lofty

*

"Pitcairn's Island, and the Islanders in 1850." By Walter Brodie.

peak, within 100 yards of which were found on a rock four images, about six feet in height, placed upon a platform, which is called a paipai. One of these was a rude representation of the human figure, to the hips, hewn out of a piece of red lava. Each of the skulls which were dug up had under it a pearl shell, according to the mode of burial adopted in the place at the time, probably some centuries since. It has been suggested with reason, that the ancient occupants were drifted to this place from the Gambier, or other islands, on a raft. Several specimens of hatchets, and spear-heads of very hard stone, and a large stone bowl, were discovered. The mutineers also met, on the east side of the island, with certain uncouth carvings of the sun, moon, stars, a bird, men, &c. in a cavern situate in the face of a cliff.

There are some inaccuracies in the narrative forwarded by Captain Folger, in his letter of March 1, 1813, respecting his visit to the island. He stated that about six years after the arrival of the nine mutineers, the Otaheitans had killed all the Englishmen, except Smith, who was severely wounded;

and that on the same night the Otaheitan widows had risen, and murdered all their countrymen, leaving only Smith, with the widows and children. His account may be corrected by the following statement :

After getting rid of Mr. Bligh, and his crew, the mutineers sailed for Toubouai, an island about 500 miles south of Otaheite, where they intended to land; but the natives refusing to admit them, they proceeded to Otaheite. A second ineffectual attempt at settling having been made on Toubouai, and a refuge having again been found, for a short time, at Otaheite, Christian and eight of his comrades left for Pitcairn, in the Bounty, with certain Otaheitans, the rest of the mutineers remaining at Otaheite. It happened that Carteret's description of Pitcairn had been on board the Bounty; and this probably determined Christian in his choice.

When the Bounty arrived at Pitcairn's Island, she had on board nine Englishmen, with nine Otaheitan women, their wives; six Otaheitan men, three of whom had wives; and a little girl; making twenty-eight persons who landed. This little girl, then an

G

infant of ten months old, was afterwards the wife of Charles Christian, and the mother of Mr. G. H. Nobbs's wife. The names of the nine mutineers who reached the Island in the Bounty were

Christian and Young were men of good education. The former was the brother of Edward Christian, Esq. Professor of Law at Cambridge, and Chief Justice of Ely. Young was a nephew of Sir George Young, Bart. The other mutineers who landed at Pitcairn were chiefly sailors of the ordinary class.

During the frightful period of domestic warfare between the Europeans and the blacks, in which the former often adopted the tremendously simple rule of might against right, the blacks made common cause together, and planned the murder of

their imperious masters. This plot reached the ears of the wives of the mutineers: and the females are said to have disclosed it to their husbands, just before the time of the intended massacre, by adding to one of their songs. these words, "Why does black man sharpen axe? To kill white man." In the course of the deadly struggles occurring between the several parties, Christian, Mills, Williams, Martin, and Brown, were murdered in the year 1793 by the Otaheitan men whom they had brought to the island with them. All the Otaheitan men were killed in the same year, one of them having been destroyed by Young's wife with an axe. As soon as she had killed the last survivor but one of the Otaheitans, she gave a signal to her husband to fire upon the remaining black, which was done with fatal precision. This woman, Susannah, who afterwards married Thursday October Christian, Fletcher Christian's son, died at an advanced age in the year 1850. She was the last survivor of the Bounty.

The sanguinary frays among the members of the small body of inhabitants, from the time of their landing, to 1794, have been