crew at a distance, while they weighed anchor
and stood out to sea, with eight Tahaitians and ten women, whom they
had enticed to accompany them. After a search of some weeks in those
seas, they accidentally lighted upon Pitcairn Island, discovered by
Carteret in the year 1767. Its extent is inconsiderable, but they found
it uninhabited, and the soil fruitful, although high and rocky.
Christian and his companions examined it closely, and, charmed with its
luxuriant vegetation, resolved here to conceal themselves for ever from
the world, hoping by this means to escape the punishment they so well
merited.

All their endeavours to discover a harbour capable of admitting the
Bounty, proving fruitless, they determined to place themselves under the
lee of the island, save the cargo, and then destroy the ship, lest its
appearance might betray them to vessels passing by.

This resolution was carried into effect, the cargo was brought quickly
ashore, and the ship burnt.

At first the colony suffered from a scarcity of provisions, as the
island produced neither bread-fruit nor cocoa-trees; they, however,
contented themselves with a temporary subsistence on roots and fish,
relying for the future improvement of their supplies on the trees
destined for the West Indies, and other plants brought from Tahaiti;
which had all been landed uninjured, and immediately planted. Time
indeed was required before the bread-fruit and cocoa-trees would bear,
but some sweet potatoes, yams, taro-roots, and others, yielded in the
following year an ample harvest.

Unanimity and concord appeared firmly established among the colonists,
who, by common consent, elected Christian as their head. Pretty little
huts, and diligently cultivated fields of taro, yam, and potatoes, soon
adorned the wilderness. After the lapse of three years, Christian became
the father of a son, whom he named Friday Fletcher October Christian;
but the infant's birth made its father a widower. Strongly inclined to a
second marriage, and all the women being already provided with husbands,
he seduced a wife from one of the Tahaitians, who, incensed at this
outrage, watched an opportunity when Christian was at work on his
plantation, attacked, and murdered him. Intelligence of this deed
spreading quickly through the colony, produced instant retribution from
the musket of an Englishman.

Long inflamed by jealousy, at the decided preference shown by their
females for the strangers