THE WEEK'S GREAT DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 218, 15 September 1930, Page 6

THE WEEK'S GREAT DAY.

SEPTEMBER 15.—THE BOUNTY MUTINY. ■> (Copyrighted,) One hundred and thirty-eight years ago, on September 15, 1792, ten British seamen, who had taken part in the mutiny on board H.M.s. Bounty in the South Seas three and a half years earlier, were tried by court-martial in England. Seven of the men were acquitted, but the other three, who were found guilty and condemned to death, were hanged a few days later. ' At the end of 1787 the British Government had dispatched the' Bounty to the South Seas, under the command, of Captain William Bligli, with the object of removing a stock of breadfruit trees from the island of Tahiti to Jamaica and other West Indian islands, where it was intended to replant the trees to provide food for. the slave populations. v The ship arrived at Tahiti in the following October, and during the next six months 1015 trees were dug up and placed on board. Their lengthy stay on the beautiful and productive island demoralised the seamen, and when the ship set sail for the West Indies on April 8, 1789, they 'began to contrast the. soft and luxurious life of the Tahitian natives with their own hard lot. Their spirit of dissatisfaction rapidly grew into one of mutiny, and Fletcher Christian, the master's mate, organised a plot to seize, the ship and return to Tahiti. On. April 28 Captain Bligh and eighteen'members of the crew who remained loyal to him were overpowered by the mutineers, twenty-five in number, and placed in the ship's launch, which was then cast adrift. The boat was scantily provided w.ith food and water, but Captain Bligli, who had neither sextant nor map, to aid him, was a man df great courage, skill and perseverance, and he determined to make strenuous efforts to save his unfortunate companions and himself. He measured out the provisions sparingly from meal to meal, and although the men suffered terrible hardships from exposure in their open ci*aft, they successfully kept afloat 'through a series ol severe storms, reaching land after a voyage of forty-seven days. On June 14 they landed at a Dutch settlement on the island of Timor, to the east of Java, without the loss of a single man. In the meantime the mutineers had sailed back to Tahiti, where sixteen of them landed and remained, but the other nine, fearing the arrival of a warship to capture them, determined to seek refuge elsewhere. They persuaded eighteen Tahitians, six men and twelve women, to accompany them;and eventually selected the uninhabited Pitcairn Island for their home. Captain Bligh's return to England a warship, was immediately dispatched to Tahiti, when ten of the mutineers were captured and taken home to face their trial. Nothing was known of the whereabouts of the settlers on Pitcairn Island until 1808, in which year an American ship by chanco visited the island, where John Adams, the only survivor of the party of nine, was discovered, living in a colony comprised of the Tahitian women, who had accompanied the mutineers,. and nineteen children, who had been born there. The mutineers had, burnt the Bounty and murdered thesix m,ale Tahitians soon after their arrival on Pitcairn Island, and the eight men, who had died, were the victims'of their Incessant orgies of drunkenness, debauchery and unbridled passion, but Adams had been sobered and subdued by the scenes through which he had passed and had become a devout student of the Bible, which he had in his possession. He had done his best .for the regulation of the little colony, and his efforts had been attended with remarkable success. Although the island was visited subsequently by British warships Adams was allowed to remain unmolested, and he died there in 1829.