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The First Account of the Royal Navy's Discovery of the Pitcairn's Island Colony is Brought to England by H.M.S. Cherub in 1815.

The Ipswich Journal (Ipswich, England),
Saturday, May 13, 1815.


      Saturday evening arrived at Portsmouth his Majesty's ship Cherub, Capt. T.T.Tucker, from the Pacific Ocean, where she has been cruizing a year and two months; during which she visited the Sandwich, Friendly, and most of the other islands in those seas: she captured two American prizes at the former islands. We learn by this opportunity, that the place where Christian, and a number of the other mutineers of the Bounty, resorted to, was an uninhabited island, called Pitcairn's Island, solitarily situated nearly in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Immediately after the mutineers had turned Capt. Bligh out of the ship, they steered for the island of Otaheite; on their arrival there, disagreements took place between them, respecting their future proceedings, which determined Christian to take the first opportunity of leaving the island again; and accordingly he and seven others, a few days afterwards, obtained eight of the women, and with eight men and their wives {of the island), a quantity of hogs and poultry, proceeded on board the ship, cut her cables, and put to sea, leaving the remainder of the mutineers on shore, on the island of Otaheite. Soon afterwards, they made Pitcairn's Island; and Christian finding that it was uninhabited, and a fine island, determined to make a settlement on it. He landed his companions and all the stores, erected huts on the shore, and after taking out every thing that could be serviceable to them, destroyed the ship. A few years after, the woman that Christian cohabited with as a wife, died;_ and he immediately took the wife of one of the natives from him, which so enraged the man, that he took the first opportunity, when Christian was busily employed cultivating his grounds, to get near him, unperceived, and shot him dead on the spot. - Out of the whole number of mutineers, there was, in the month of September, 1814, only one alive; his name was John Adams; he appeared to be the father of the whole island, as they all seemed to look up to him with the greatest respect and veneration. They all speak English, and there are several children of Christian's on the island. It is a fine fertile island, but there is no anchorage for shipping near it.

Source:

      This transcription was made from the following newspaper article: "Wednesday's Post.", The Ipswich Journal (Ipswich, England), Saturday, May 13, 1815. British Library Newspapers, Part I: 1800-1900. Web. 1 Dec. 2016.

      This article was one of many taken from other newspapers and combined under an inclusive heading of "Wednesday's Post."


Last updated by Tom Tyler, Denver, CO, USA, Dec 3 2021.


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