lent death of all those misguided men (with the exception of Young and Adams) who accompanied Christian in the Bounty to Pitcairn's Island.

It may be recollected that the Bounty was carried away from Otaheite by nine of the mutineers. Their

names were

1. Fletcher Christian, Acting Lieutenant.

2. Edward Young, Midshipman.

3. Alexander Smith (alias John Adams), Seaman.

4. William M'Koy,

5. Matthew Quintal,

6. John Williams,

7. Isaac Martin,

Seamen.

8. John Mills, Gunner's Mate.

9. William Brown, Botanist's Assistant.

They brought with them six men and twelve women, natives of Tabouai and Otaheite. The first step after their arrival was to divide the whole island into nine equal portions, to the exclusion of those poor people whom they had seduced to accompany them, and some of whom are stated to have been carried off against their inclination. At first they were considered as the friends of the white men, but very soon became their slaves. They assisted in the cultivation of the soil, in building houses, and in fetching wood and water, without murmuring or complaining; and things went on peaceably and prosperously for about two years, when Williams, who had lost his wife about a month after their arrival, by a fall from a rock while collecting birds' eggs, became dissatisfied, and insisted on having another wife, or threatened to leave the island in one of the Bounty's boats. Being useful as an armourer, the Europeans were unwilling to part with him, and he, still persisting in his unreasonable demand, had the injustice to compel one of the Otaheitans to give up his wife to him.

By this act of flagrant oppression his countrymen made common cause with their injured companion, and laid a plan for the extermination of the Euro

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peans; but the women gave a hint of what was going forward in a song, the burden of which was, Why does black man sharpen axe ?-to kill white man. The plot being thus discovered, the husband who had his wife taken from him, and another whom Christian had shot at (though, it is stated, with powder only), fled into the woods, and were treacherously murdered by their countrymen on the promise of pardon for the perpetration of this foul deed.

Tranquillity being thus restored, matters went on tolerably well for a year or two longer; but the oppression and ill treatment which the Otaheitans received, more particularly from Quintal and M‘Koy, the most active and determined of the mutineers, drove them to the formation of another plot for the destruction of their oppressors, which but too suc cessfully succeeded. A day was fixed for attacking and putting to death all the Englishmen while at work in their respective plantations. Williams was the first man that was shot. They next proceeded to Christian, who was working at his yam-plot, and shot him. Mills, confiding in the fidelity of his Otaheitan friend, stood his ground, and was murdered by him and another. Martin and Brown were separately attacked and slain, one with a maul, the other with a musket. Adams was wounded in the shoulder, but succeeded in making terms with the Otaheitans, and was conducted by them to Christian's house, where he was kindly treated. Young, who was a great favourite of the women, was secreted by them during the attack, and afterward carried to Christian's house. M'Koy and Quintal, the worst of the gang, escaped to the mountains. "Here," says Captain Beechey, "this day of bloodshed ended, leaving only four Englishmen alive out of nine. It was a day of emancipation to the blacks, who were now masters of the island, and of humiliation and retribution to the whites."

The men of colour now began to quarrel about choosing the women whose European husbands had been murdered; the result of which was the destruction of the whole of the former, some falling by the hands of the women, and one of them by Young, who, it would seem, coolly and deliberately shot him. Adams now proceeded into the mountains to communicate the fatal intelligence to the two Europeans, M'Koy and Quintal, and to solicit their return to the village. All these events are stated to have happened as early as October, 1793.

From this time to 1798 the remnant of the colonists would appear to have gone on quietly, with the exception of some quarrels these four men had with the women, and the latter among themselves; ten of them were still remaining, who lived promiscuously with the men, frequently changing their abode from one house to another. Young, being a man of some education, kept a kind of journal; but it is a document of very little interest, containing scarcely any thing more than the ordinary occupations of the settlers, the loan or exchange of provisions, the dates when the sows farrowed, the number of fish caught, &c., and it begins only at the time when Adams and he were sole masters of the island; and the truth, therefore, of all that has been told rests solely on the degree of credit that is due to Adams.

M'Koy, it appears, had formerly been employed in a Scotch distillery, and being much addicted to ardent spirits, set about making experiments on the tee-root (dracana terminalis), and at length unfortunately succeeded in producing an intoxicating liquor. This success induced his companion Quintal to turn his kettle into a still. The consequence was, that these two men were in a constant state of drunkenness, particularly M'Koy; on whom, it seems, it had the effect of producing fits of delirium; and in one of these he threw himself from a cliff and

was killed on the spot. Captain Beechey says, "the melancholy fate of this man created so forcible an impression on the remaining few, that they resolved never again to touch spirits; and Adams has, I believe, to this day kept his vow."

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Some time in the following year, that is, about 1799, we learned from Adams," says Captain Beechey, "that Quintal lost his wife by a fall from the cliff, while in search of birds' eggs; that he grew discontented, and, though there were several disposable women on the island, and he had already experienced the fatal effects of a similar demand, nothing would satisfy him but the wife of one of his companions. Of course neither of them felt inclined to accede to this unreasonable demand; and he sought an opportunity of putting them both to death. He was fortunately foiled in his first attempt, but swore openly he would speedily repeat it. Adams and Young, having no doubt he would follow up his intention, and fearing he might be more successful in the next attempt, came to the resolution that, as their own lives were not safe while he was in existence, they were justified in putting him to death, which they did by felling him, as they would an ox, with a hatchet.

"Such was the melancholy fate of seven of the leading mutineers, who escaped from justice only to add murder to their former crimes;" and such, it may be added, was the polluted source, thus stained with the guilt of mutiny, piracy, and murder, from which the present simple and innocent race of islanders has proceeded; and, what is most of all extraordinary, the very man from whom they have received their moral and religious instruction is one who was among the first and foremost in the mutiny, and deeply implicated in all the deplorable consequences that were the results of it. This man and Young were now the sole survivors out of the fifteen males that had landed upon the island.

Young, as has been stated, was a man of some education, and of a serious turn of mind; and, as Beechey says, it would have been wonderful, after the many dreadful scenes at which they had assisted, if the solitude and tranquillity that ensued had not disposed them to repentance. They had a Bible and a Prayer Book, which were found in the Bounty, and they read the church service regularly every Sunday. They now resolved to have morning and evening family prayers, and to instruct the children, who amounted to nineteen, many of them between the ages of seven and nine years. Young, however, was not long suffered to survive his repentance. An asthmatic complaint terminated his existence about a year after the death of Quintal; and Adams was now left the sole survivor of the guilty and misguided mutineers of the Bounty. It is remarkable that the name of Young should never once occur in any shape as connected with the mutiny, except in the evidence of Lieutenant Hayward, who includes his name in a mass of others. He neither appears among the armed nor the unarmed; he is not stated to be among those who were on deck, and was probably therefore one of those who were confined below. Bligh, nevertheless, has not omitted to give him a character. "Young was an able and stout seaman; he, however, always proved a worthless wretch."

If the sincere repentance of Adams, and the most successful exertions to train up the rising generation in piety and virtue, can be considered as expiating in some degree his former offences, this survivor is fully entitled to every indulgence that frail humanity so often requires, and which indeed has been extended to him by all the officers of the navy who have visited the island, and witnessed the simple manners and the settled habits of morality and piety which prevail in this happy and well-regulated society. They have all strongly felt that the merits

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