ans of
extending their dominion over Pitcairn Island also. May Adams's paternal
government never be exchanged for despotism, nor his practical lessons
of piety be forgotten in empty forms of prayer.

In the year 1791, the English frigate Pandora was sent, under the
command of Captain Edwards, to the South Sea in pursuit of the mutineers
against Bligh. Those who had remained in Tahaiti were found and carried
back to England, where they were condemned to death according to the
laws; the royal mercy was extended to a few only, the rest suffered the
full penalty of their crime.

[Illustration: CHART OF THE NAVIGATORS' ISLANDS]

THE NAVIGATORS' ISLANDS.

THE NAVIGATORS' ISLANDS.

On leaving Tahaiti, I proposed to pass a few days on the Radack Islands,
which I had formerly discovered; and, on my way thither, determined to
visit the Navigators' Islands. These are probably the same seen by
Roggewin in 1721, which he called Baumann's Islands; but Bougainville
has appropriated the discovery, as made by him in 1766, and given them
the name they now bear, on account of the superior sailing vessels built
there, and the remarkable skill the inhabitants display in their
management. Neither Roggewin nor Bougainville have given their situation
accurately, nor have these original errors been perfectly corrected by
the unfortunate La Perouse, or the Englishman Edwards, who alone are
known to have since touched on these islands; the former visited only
the more northern islands; and the latter communicated no particulars of
his voyage to the public. I therefore considered it worth the trouble to
complete the survey, by examining those which lay to the south of La
Perouse's track.

I at first steered past the Society Islands, lying to leeward from
Tahaiti, in order to rectify their longitude; and afterwards carefully
endeavoured to avoid the course taken, to my knowledge, by any former
navigator.

On the 25th of March we saw, to the north, the island of Guagein, and to
the north-west that of Ulietea. When the western point of the latter lay
due north from us, I found its longitude, according to our chronometers,
151 deg. 26' 30", which is nearly the same as on the maps.

The island of Maurura, on the contrary, is very inaccurately laid down;
we found the longitude of the middle of this island, as we sailed past
its southern coast, to be 152 deg. 10' 40". In the evening we had already
cleared the Society Islands, and