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    they had a good deal of decent furniture , consisting of beds laid upon bedsteads , with neat coverings $ they had also tables , and large chests to contain their valuables and clothing , which is made from the bark of a certain

    tree , prepared chiefly by the elder Otaheitan females . ~~ Adams ' s house consisted of two rooms , and the windows had shutters to pull to at night . ^ The younger part of the sex are , as before mentioned , employed with their brothers , under the direction of

    their common father Adams , in the culture of the ground , which produced cocoa-nuts , bananas , the bread fruit-tree , yams , sweet potatoes and turnips . They have also plenty of hogs and goats ; the woods abound with a species of wild hog , and the coasts of the island with several kinds

    of good fish . Their agricultural implements are made by themselves from the iron supplied by the Bounty , which with great labour they beat out into spades , hatchets , crows , &c . This was not all : the good old man kept a regular journal , in which was

    entered the nature and quantity of work performed by each family , what each had received , and what was due on account . There was , it seems , besides private property , a sort of general stock out of which articles Avere issued on account to the several

    members of the community } and for mutual accommodation exchanges of one kind of provision for another were very frequent j as salt , for fresh provisions , vegetables and fruit , for poultry , fish , &c . Also when the stores

    of one family were low , or wholly expended , a fresh supply was raised from another , or out of the general stock , to be repaid when circumstances were more favourable ;—all of which was carefully noted down in John Adams ' Journal ,

    But what was most gratifying of all to the visitors was , the simple and unaffected manner in which they returned thanks to the Almighty for the many blessings they enjoyed . They never failed to say grace before and after

    meals 5 to pray every morning at sunrise j and they frequently repeated the Lord ' s Prayer and the Creed . " It was truly pleasing , " says Captain Pipon , "to see these poor people so well disposed , to listen so attentively to moral instruction , to believe in the

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    attributes of God , and to place their reliance on divine goodness . ' * The day on which the two captains landed was Saturday , the 17 th September ; but by John Adams ' s account it was Sunday , the 18 th , and they were

    keeping the sabbath by making it a day of rest and of prayer . This was occasioned by the Bounty having proceeded thither by the Eastern route , and our frigates having gone to the Westward ; and the Topaz found them right according to his own reckoning , she having also approached the island

    from the Eastward . Every ship from Europe proceeding to Pitcairn ' s Island round the Cape of Good Hope will find them a day later—as those who approach them round Cape Horn , a day in advance , as was the case with Captain Folger and the Captains Sir T . Staines and Pipon .

    The visit of the Topaz is of course , as a notable circumstance , marked down in John Adams ' s Journal . The first ship that appeared off the island was on the 27 th December , 1795 5 but as she did not approach the land ,

    they could not make out to what nation she belonged . A second appeared some time after , but did not attempt to communicate with them . A third came sufficiently near to see the natives and their habitations , but

    did not attempt to send a boat on shore ; which is the less surprising , considering the uniform ragged ness of the coast , the total want of shelter , and the almost constant and . violent breaking of the sea against the cliffs . The good old man was anxious to

    know what was going on in the old world , and they had the means of gratifying his curiosity by supplying him with some magazines and modern publications . His library consisted of the books that belonged to Admiral Bligh , but the visitors had not time to inspect them .

    They inquired particularly after Fletcher Christian : this ill-fated young man ^ it seems , was never happy after the rash and inconsiderate step which he had taken ; he became sullen and morose , and practised the

    very same kind of conduct towards his companions in guilt which he and they so loudly complained against in their late commander . Disappointed in his expectations at Ota-Ueite , and the Friendly Islands , and

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    Account of the Mutineers in the Bounty , 1789 .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1816, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2448/page/5/