settling for life at Toobouai, and to seek some other place of refuge for himself, and those who were still inclined to follow his fortunes. He accordingly summoned all the Bounty’s people together on the llth Sept., when it was decided by a shew of hands, 16 against 9, that the former number should be landed at Otaheite, with a fair proportion of the arms, ammunition, and every description of property on board; and that the Bounty should then be resigned, with her sails, tackle, and furniture complete, to Mr. Christian and his adherents, for their conveyance to any other island that they might think proper to fix upon.
This decision being made known to the ruler of the district in which they resided, he requested to be taken on board, saying that their departure would be the signal for his destruction by the other chiefs, whose jealousy had been excited by the alliance formed between him and the English. The Otaheitean men, whom the mutineers ha<l usually employed as servants, were then sent to collect the stock which had been dispersed about the island; but in this they were opposed by the hostile natives, and several severe conflicts took place before the animals could be recovered. On one of those occasions, Mr. Christian was severely wounded in the right hand, and Thomas Burkitt received a spear in his body; which were the only casualties sustained by the British during their stay at Toobouai. The natives on the contrary appear to have had eighty-four killed, and a great number wounded, in the different battles that were fought, from the time of the Bounty’s first arrival, till that of her final departure, in Sept. 1789.
The Bounty anchored a third time in Matavia Bay, on the 22d of the same month, and those who had voted for that measure were then landed, together with the Toobouaite chief, Heete-heete, and most of the Otaheitean men; but the servants of the chief, 3 other males, 12 women, and an infant girl, remained with Christian, who sailed suddenly in the night, and proceeded to Pitcairn’s Island, where the only surviving mutineer was discovered by an American ship, in Feb. 1808, as will be more fully noticed in a subsequent part of his work.
Having thus taken leave of the Bounty for the present, we
