Revised Jun 19 2021
Very little information is at present to be gathered upon the island, concerning the famous mutiny of the Bounty. Beyond a few stray anecdotes of no great interest little remains. But the account given by the islanders, such as it is, differs materially from that published by Captain Bligh, after his return to England They flatly deny his assertion, that the original cause of the mutiny was the connexion formed by the crew, while at Tahiti, with the Tahitian women; attributing it entirely to his own perverse temper and tyrannical conduct. His language, particularly to his officers, is stated to have been habitually and inexcusably coarse. Of this a single example will suffice, which I give in the words of the narrator. “Some fruit, which had been sent on board for the captain’s cabin, having been left upon the quarter-deck, disappeared; Captain Bligh was exceedingly angry, and in rating Christian about the matter, made use of this expression, ‘I suppose you have eaten it yourself, you hungry hound!’” Can we be surprised at insults of this nature rankling in the mind of a susceptible man, and driving him at last to the desperate deed by which he secured himself against their continuance?
After the mutineers put Captain Bligh out of the Bounty into his boat, along with seven men of his crew, the mutineers made sail for the Island of Toubouai, which is about 500 miles south of Tahiti, where they agreed to remain and establish themselves, provided the natives, who were numerous, were not hostile to their purpose. Of this they had very early intimation, an attack being made upon a boat which they sent to sound the harbour. They however effected their purpose, and the next morning the Bounty was warped inside the reef that formed the port, and stationed close to the beach. An attempt was made to land, but the natives disputed every foot of ground with spears, clubs, and stones. After two days they returned to Tahiti, and were received with the greatest kindness by their former friends. After some time they again returned to Toubouai, but were again obliged to go back to Tahiti, finding the natives there opposed to their settling among them. After landing, Haywood and fifteen others of their party were taken by H. M. frigate Pandora, which was sent out in search of them as soon Bligh returned to England, and which vessel was wrecked in Torres Straits, on her way to England. Christian and eight others then sailed for Pitcairn’s Island, after securing for themselves each a wife, as well as six Tahitian men and three women, wives of three of these six men, Christian keeping his own counsel as to their destination. He resolved upon Pitcairn’s Island, induced by Carteret's description, which had chanced to be on board the Bounty.
Although many notices of the mutineers and their descendants have at different times been given to the world, I do not recollect to have seen any connected history of so interesting a community; for the simple reason, that no one has ever remained on the island long enough to obtain it, previous to my stay there. Its early records are sad indeed. The crimes of the original settlers were heavily visited upon them, as will appear by the following account, taken down verbatim—even to the grammatical errors—from the recital of Arthur Quintal, senior, who, with George Adams and five women, are all that remain of the first generation:—
“When the Bounty came here, there were nine Englishmen, six Tahiti men, twelve Tahiti women, and a little girl, landed. The Englishmen had each a Tahitian women for a wife, and three of the Tahitian men were married to the remaining three women. Some time afterwards Williams's wife died of sickness. The Englishmen then combined together, and took one of the Tahitians’ wives for another wife for Williams. This created the first disturbance between the English and the Tahitians. William Brown was sent out by the English Government in the Bounty, as gardener, to look out after the breadfruit plants, which the said vessel was to convey to the West Indies. Brown and Christian were very intimate, and their two wives overheard, one night, Williams's second wife sing a aong,— ’Why should the Tahitian men sharpen their axes to cut off the Englishmen’s heads?’ Brown and Christian's wives told their husbands what Williams's second wife had been singing. When Christian heard of it, he went by himself with his gun to the house where all the Tahitian men were assembled. He pointed his gun at them, but it missed fire. Two of the natives ran away into the bush—two of them to the west part of the island, the other to the south end of the island. The Tahitian (Talalo) who went to the west side, was the husband of Williams's second wife.
"One day Talalo saw his wife, and the wives of the other Tahitian men, fishing; he beckoned to her, and she went to him. He then took her away into the bush. Another Tahitian, named Temua, then joined Talalo and his wife in the bush. After this, Christian and the other Englishmen sent a Tahitian (Manale) in search of them; he was not long away before he found them, and then returned and told the Englishmen of it. The Englishmen then consulted among themselves what to do, when they agreed to make three puddings and send them. One pudding, having poison in it, was to be given to Talalo, and the other two were to be given to the wife of Talalo and the Tahitian (Temua) who had joined them. The puddings were sent by the native, Manale, who gave them to the three natives individually; but a suspicion coming across Talalo's mind that his pudding had poison in it, he would not eat it, but eat his wife’s pudding along with her. When Manale found he would not eat his pudding, he induced the three to go up into the bush a little way, where be told them he had left his wife among some breadfruit trees. As they went up to see Manale's wife, the foot-path being very narrow, they walked behind each other, Manale being behind and next to Talalo. Manale, having a pistol with him, and having instructions to kill Talalo before he returned, now took the opportunity, and pulled the trigger of his pistol, it being pointed at Talalo's head; but it misfired. Talalo, having heard the noise occasioned by the trigger being pulled, turned round, and saw the pistol in Manale's hand Talalo then ran away and Manale after him; they then had a severe struggle, when Talalo called to his wife to help him kill Manale, and Manale told the woman she must help him kill her husband, which she did; and in a very short time Manale and Talalo's wife killed Talalo. Manale, the woman, and the other native Temua, then returned to the European settlement. Williams then took the woman again for his second wife, as he had formerly done. Christian and the other English men then sent Manale to find the other Tahitian Ohuhu, who had gone to the south side of the island, whom he also soon found, and then reported his success to the Englishmen. The English then sent Manale and another Tahitian (Temua) to kill him, which they succeeded in doing, while pretending to cry over him. They then returned home again to the Europeans.
“The whole of the Bounty people then lived together for some time (about ten years) in perfect harmony. The six Tahitian men from the Bounty were brought down as servants to M’Coy, Mills, Brown, and Quintal. This island, when these came here, was completely covered with sea-birds, and when they arose, they completely darkened the air. These remaining four natives were employed to work in collecting a lot of these birds for their masters’ food, after they had done their work in their masters’ gardens; they also fed their pigs which they brought from Tahiti on these sea-birds. Whenever the Tahitians did any thing amiss, they used to be beaten by their masters, and their wounds covered with salt, as an extra punishment. The consequence was, that two of these Tahitians, Temua and Nehou, took to the bush, and with them each a musket and ammunition, with which they used to practice firing at a target in the bush. Edward Young had a garden some little distance from the settlement; and the two natives which took to the bush, used at times to come and work for him, as well as the other two natives, who lived in the settlement. Young appeared to be very friendly with the Tahitians; and John Adams mentioned that he had every reason for supposing that Young had instigated the natives to destroy the Englishmen excepting himself (John Adams), Young wishing to keep Adams as a sort of companion.
“At planting time, each Englishman had his own garden, which were some distance apart from each other, being in separate valleys, on the north end of the island Three of the Tahitians, finding that the whole of the Englishmen were widely scattered and unprotected, commenced to destroy them, beginning with John Williams and Fletcher Christian. At the time they shot Christian, Christian hallooed out. Mills, M’Coy, and Manale, were then working about 200 yards from Christian's garden, and M’Coy hearing Christian call out, ‘Oh dear!’ told Mills he thought it the cry of a wounded man; but Mills thought it was Christian's wife calling him to dinner. After the three Tahitians had killed Christian, they then went to where Mills was working, and one of them (the other two being concealed in the bush) called to Mills, and asked him to let his native, Manale, go along with them to fetch home a large pig they had just killed. Mills then told Manale that he might go. Manale then joined the three Tahitians, when they told Manale that they had killed Williams and Christian, and wanted to know how they might destroy Mills and M’Coy. It was at last agreed that these three men should creep into M’Coy's house, unobserved; which they succeeded in doing. Manale then ran and told M’Coy that the two natives that had taken to the bush were robbing his house. M’Coy then ran to his house, and as soon as he got to the door, these three natives fired upon him, but did not kill him. Manale, seeing that they had not killed him, seized him; but M’Coy, being the strongest of the two, threw him into the pig sty, and then ran and told Mills to run into the bush, as the natives were trying to kill all the white men. But Mills would not believe that his friend Manale would kill him. M’Coy then ran to tell Christian, but found that he had been murdered already. About this time, M’Coy heard the report of a gun, which he supposed had killed Mills, and which turned out to be the case.
"M’Coy then ran to Christian's wife, who was at her house, and told her that her husband had been killed. Having been confined that day she could not move. M’Coy then ran to Matthew Quintal, and told him to run into the bush. Quintall and M‘Coy then took to the bush, and Quintall told his wife to go and tell the other Englishmen what had happened. While she was going along she called out to John Adams, who was working in his garden, and asked him why he was working this day, she thinking that he had heard of everything that had taken place. Adams did not understand her; she said ho more, but went away, without telling Adams any thing about the murders. The four natives then ran down to Martin's house, and finding him in his garden, ran up to him and asked him if he knew what had been done this morning. He said ‘No.’ They then pointed two muskets at his stomach, and pulled the triggers, and said ‘We have been doing the same as shooting hogs. He laughed at them, not suspecting anything the matter; they then immediately recocked their muskets and again pulled the triggers. The muskets going off the second time, Martin fell wounded but not killed. He then got up and ran to his house, the natives following him; when they got hold of one of the Bounty's sledge hammers, which they found in his house, and beat his brains out. They then went to Brown's house, and found him working in his garden. They fired at him and killed him.
“Adams, hearing the report of the guns when Brown and Martin were killed, went to see what was the matter. When he arrived at Brown's house he saw the four natives standing leaning on the muzzles of their guns, the butt of their muskets being upon the ground. Adams asked them what was the matter. They said ‘Mamu!’ (silence). They then pointed their guns at him, when he ran away, the natives following him; but he soon left them behind. He then went into Williams's house, with the intention of getting some thick clothes to go into the bush with, when he discovered that he had been killed. He however took some thick clothes from the house, and returned to his own house round by the rocks. He then took a bag from his own house, and whilst putting some yams into it to take into the bush, he was fired upon by the natives, and a ball passed in at the back of his neck and came out of the front of his neck. He then fell; when the four natives approached him and attempted to kill him with the butt end of a musket; but he guarded himself with his hand, and had one of his fingers broken by so doing. After struggling for some time, he managed to get away, and ran off and the natives after him. When he had got some distance a-head of them, the natives cried out for him to stop, which he refused, saying that they wanted to kill him. The natives then said, ‘No, we do not want to kill you; we forgot what Young told us about leaving you alive for his (Young’s) companion.’ Adams then went to Young’s house with the four natives, and found Young there.
“The natives then went into the mountains, armed, to try and find M’Coy and Quintal, and after several days’ search they found them along with Quintall’s wife, in M’Coy's house, which was up the mountain. When they found them, they were all asleep. The natives fired upon them, but did not wound any of them. They then took to the bush again. After this the four natives returned to the settlement again. One evening, when Young’s wife was playing upon a fife, Manale, one of the other natives being present, became jealous at Temua's singing to Young’s wife. Manale then took up a musket, and fired at Temua, which only wounded him. Temua immediately told the woman to bring him a musket to shoot Manale. Manale in the mean time reloaded hi musket, and shot Temua dead. The two other natives then became much annoyed, and threatened to kill Manale. Manale then took to the bush, and joined Quintall and M’Coy; but they would not have anything to with him until he put his musket down, which they took possession of. He then told them of what had taken place, and said that be had come to join them and be their friend. Manale then persuaded Quintall and M’Coy to go down with him to the settlement, so that they might kill the other two Tahitians. When within a few yards of the house where the natives were, Manale saw the two natives, and sprang upon the stoutest of them. Quintall and M’Coy, thinking it a scheme of Manale's to entrap them, made off for the bush again; but such was not the case. Manale soon after joined M’Coy and Quintal.
"Adams and Young wrote them a letter, and sent it by Quintall’s wife, to persuade them to kill their new friend, Manale; which they succeeded in doing, by shooting him with his own gun, which he gave them when he went to make friends with them. After this, the two remaining Tahitians again went in search of M’Coy and Quintal, when they found them under a tree. They fired upon them, but did not wound either of them. They again ran away from the natives, and, whilst running, M’Coy cut his foot with a piece of wood. The natives seeing the blood, thought they had wounded him, and then went home and told Young they had wounded M’Coy. Young then sent his wife and Martin's widow round to find McCoy and Quintal, and to see if either of them were wounded. Young told his wife to tell them that on a certain day they all intended to kill the two remaining Tahitians, and that a certain signal would be made to that effect. These two women then returned, and told Young that neither of them were wounded. The plan was now arranged to kill these other two natives, in the following manner:—
"Young persuaded Brown's widow to go to bed with Tetihiti, the most powerful of the two Tahitians, and cautioned her on no account to put her arm under the Tahitian’s head when she went to sleep, as his wife intended to cut his head off with an axe as soon as he went to sleep. When Young’s wife had killed this Tahitian, she was to make a signal to her husband to fire upon the other Tahitian, by shooting him with his musket; but during the time that Young was loading his musket, the young Tahitian told Young to double load it, the young Tahitian thinking that Young was going out to shoot M’Coy and Quintal. Young answered, ‘Yes, I will.’ Young’s wife then struck the stout Tahitian in his bed, but did not hit him fair. The stout Tahitian, upon getting up in his bed, was struck a second time with the axe, which killed him dead; at which time she told her husband to fire which signal he obeyed, and blew the young Tahitian’s head nearly off his shoulders. Thus ends the tragedy of the Tahitians. The signal was then made to M’Coy and Quintall to come down, as the two Tahitians were killed; but they would not believe it. Young then cut the hands off the two dead Tahitians, and sent them up by some of the women to M’Coy and Quintal, as a sort of certificate that the two Tahitians were really dead. Upon the women delivering the hands to them, M’Coy and Quintall then descended the mountain, along with the women, and reached the house of Young in safety.
“They all now remained upon friendly terms for some time. Young took two of the widows into his house (Williams and Christian's) and three children; Adams took Mills's widow and two children, and the widows of two of the Tahitian men; M’Coy took Brown's widow, and Quintall took Martin's widow, into their houses. Adams and Williams lost their wives previous to this bloody tragedy, in 1793. Young was a half West Indian, born in St. Kitts. Whilst there he learned to make spirits. By his knowledge of making them there he soon made them here, out of the ti-root, by the aid of a large copper boiler which came out of the Bounty. The consequence was, that they all took to drinking at times, and many quarrels ensued. Quintal, about this time, lost his wife, she having been killed by falling over the rocks, while searching after birds’ nests. Quintal, after the loss of his wife, wanted to marry another one, but the rest of the white men were against it. He then threatened all their lives. Soon after this they got him to drink, and made him intoxicated, when the three Europeans killed him with an axe. After this, M’Coy drank to excess. At times he used to be away from home for a week, and no one knew where he was gone. At last he fastened a large stone round his neck and jumped into the sea, where he was drowned. The day previous to M’Coy drowning himself, Young died of asthma.
“Adams was now the only man upon the island The women and children all looked up to Adams with great respect, and always called him father. About ten years after, Adams had a most extraordinary dream, which was, that the angel Gabriel came down from heaven and warned him of his danger for his past wickedness. From this time Adams became a most religious man, and used every act and means in his power to instruct the women and children then upon the island in reading and writing, and in the fear of God. At this time, Adams always had morning and evening prayers—the only books that were upon the island, at this time, being a few Bibles and Prayer Books. While looking over the Prayer Book one day, he found that Ash Wednesday and Good Friday were fast days, and, at the same time, thought that every Friday and Wednesday were fast days also; and, as such, he kept them until 1823, when Mr. Buffett arrived among them to reside as schoolmaster, and told him of his error. He gave up the Wednesdays as fast days some time previous to his death, which the inhabitants were very glad of, as their hard labour, and two strict fast days a week, did not agree with them. Many of them fainted for want of food; but Friday was kept as a fast day until his death. The only fast day now kept is Good Friday.
"The manner in which the children first learned their prayers is rather strange. Adams wanted a piece of ground broken up to plant some yams in, and he engaged two young men, Edward Quintall and Robert Young, to do the same for him; and as payment, a small phial of gunpowder was to be given. After the ground was all broken up, and the yams planted, these two young men asked Adams which he would like to do best—give them the gunpowder, or teach them some prayers out of the Prayer Book: Adams, who was much pleased with this remark, consented at once to teach them, and offered them the gunpowder, which they refused to take from him. Adams told them that, if there were any more of them who would like to be taught, he would teach them. The consequence was, that the whole of them came to him, much to old Adams’s delight. The Lord’s Prayer and Creed Adams taught them first, immediately after his dream of the angel Gabriel’s appearance.”