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    stated , however , that Christian , on the night of his departure , was heard to declare that he should seek for some uninhabited island , and having established his party , break up the ship - > but all endeavours of Captain Edwards to gain intelligence either of the ship or her crew at any of the numerous islands visited by the Pandora , failed .

    From this period , no information respecting Christian or his companions reached England for twenty years ; when , about the beginning of the year 1809 , Sir Sidney Smith , then commander in chief on the

    Brazil station , transmitted to the Admiralty a paper which he had received from Lieutenant Fitzmaurice , purporting to be an " extract from the log-book of Captain Folger of the American ship Topaz , " and dated

    " Valparaiso , 10 th October , 1808 /' This we partly verified in our Review of Dentre , casteaux ' s Voyage , by ascertaining that the Bounty had on board a chronometer , made by Kendal , and that there was on board her a man of

    the name of Alexander Smith , a native of London . About the commencement of the present year , Rear Admiral Hotham , when cruising off New London , received a letter addressed to the lords of the Admiralty , of which the following is a copy , together with the azimuth compass to which it refers :

    " Nantucket , 1 st March , 1813 . " My Lords , u The remarkable circumstance which

    took place on my last voyage to the Pacific Ocean , will , I trust , plead my apology for addressing- your lordships at this time . Iu February , 1808 , I touched at Pitcairn's Island , in latitude 25 ° <) # S . longitude 130 W . from Greenwich . My principal object Was to procure seal-skins for the

    China market ; and from the account given of the island , in Captain Carteret's voyage , I supposed it was uninhabited ; but , -on approaching' the shore in my }> oat I was met by'three young" men in a double

    canoe , with a present , consistingof some fruit and a bog : they spoke to me in the Eng-lish language , and informed ,, me that they were born on the inland , and tbeir father was an Englishman , who had sailed with Captain Bligh .

    " After discoursing with them a short time , I landed with them and found an Englishman of die name of Alexander Smith , who informed me that he was one

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    of the Bounty ' s crew , and that after putting- Captain Blig-h in the boat , with "half the ship ' s company , they returned to Otaheite , where part of their crew chose to tarry ; but Mr . Christian , with eight others , including' himself , preferred going to a more remote place \ and , after making- a short stay" at Otaheite , where they took

    wives , and six men servants , they proceeded to Pitcairn ' s Island , where they destroyed the ship after taking every thing out of her which they thought would be useful to them . About six years after they landed at this place , their servants attacked and killed all the English , excepting the informant , and he was severely wounded . The same night the Otaheitan widows arose and murdered all their

    countrymen , leaving * Smith with their widows and children , where he had resided ever since without being resisted . 1 remained but a short time on the island , and on leaving it , Smith presented me a timepiece , and an azimuth compass , which he told me belonged to the Bounty . The time-keeper was taken from me by the Governor of the Island Juan Fernandez .

    after I bad had it in my possession about six weeks . The compass I put in repair on board my ship , and made use of it on my homeward passage , since which a new card has been put to it by an instrument maker in Boston . I now forward i < to your lordships , thinking * there will be akind of satisfaction in receiving- it , merely from the extraordinary circumstances attendingit . ( Signed ) UJayhew Folger . "

    Nearly about the same time a further account of these interesting people was received from Vice-Admiral Dixon , in a letter addressed to him by Sir Thomas Staines , of his Majesty ' s ship Briton , of which the following is a copy : " Britoriy Valparaiso , ISth Oct . 1814 , " Sir , " I have tbe honour to inform you that on my passage from the Marquesas Islands to this port , on the morning of the 17 th of September , I fell in with tin island where none is laid down in the Admiralty , or other charts , according to the several chronometers af the Briton and Tag-us . I therefore hove to , until day-light , and then closed to ascertain whether it was inhabited , whksh I soon drecoverrd it to be ; and , to my great astonishment ,, found that every individual on the island ( forty in number ) spoke very good English . They prove ta be the descendants of the deluded crew of the Bounty , which from Otaheite , proceeded to fhe above mentioned inland , where the ship was burnt . , " Christian appeared to irore beam ike

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    2 , Account of the Mutineers in the Bounty , 1789 .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1816, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2448/page/2/