Revised Jun 22 2021
THE REGISTER OF Pitcairn's Island, from 1790 to 1854, is a very interesting document, and will probably be of great value hereafter, as a record of names and events connected with that little world.
The author has lately had the pleasure of receiving, as a present from the islanders, the original folio manuscript volume of the Register. A memorandum, inserted between the end of the Journal and the beginning of the Shipping List, is in the handwriting of the Rev. G. H. Nobbs, and states that the book had suffered so much from getting wet with salt water, when taken on board the Virago, early in 1853, during his absence, that it had become necessary "to prepare a new book, by copying the contents of this into it, and then continue from this date. It is my intention," he adds, "to send this to my well-beloved friend, the Rev. T. B. Murray."
Accompanying the book were the following articles:—A desk made by the islanders from the bread-fruit-tree and miro wood; a large sheet of tappa cloth; a thick pane of glass, Which was the window of Bligh's cabin in the Bounty, and afterwards the window of Mr. Nobbs's house at Pitcairn; and some nails manufactured from the copper bolts of the Bounty by Isaac Martin, one of the mutineers.
The first entry in the manuscript occurs January 23d, 1790. "H.M.S. Bounty burned.
"Fasto, wife of John Williams, died. Thursday October Christian born."
The annals of 1793 are of a melancholy kind, recounting the massacre of Fletcher Christian, John Mills, William Brown, John Williams, Isaac Martin; and the death of all the Otaheitan men, "part by jealousy among themselves, and others by the remaining Englishmen!"