Fletcher Christian, the Polynesians and the eight remaining Bounty mutineers’ discovered the tiny speck of Pitcairn Island in January 1790 by chance; it had previously been incorrectly chartered. They manoeuvered Bounty into the only feasible landing place and named it Bounty Bay. After unloading everything of value, they burnt Bounty to the ground.
Now there was no escape.
Pitcairn Island proved uninhabited but previous settlement by South Pacific islanders had brought breadfruit, coconut, plantain and sugar plants to the island already. The mutineers added animals, citrus and other plants. The rich volcanic soils and regular rainfall provided fruitful harvests but these did little to temper the disputes between the surviving mutineers.
Christian ensured the arable land on Pitcairn was divided equally among the mutineers. He did not extend this charity to the Polynesians. They were forced into subservience by the mutineers, including being denied their own wives. Within a year, this situation proved unsustainable.
Although isolated, Pitcairn did receive visitors. This meant that news that the Bounty survivors were there filtered back to England within a few years. The Admiralty decided leaving them there was punishment enough.
There are four principal sources on the massacre of September 1793 that caused Fletcher Christian’s death. Despite this, they are riddled with inconsistencies, translation issues, and selective memory. This means that the exact circumstances of Christian’s death – and if he really died at all – remain shrouded in secrecy.
The bones of the massacre lay in the way the Europeans subjugated the Polynesians. When mutineer John Williams’ wife Fasto died collecting birds’ eggs, he demanded another wife. The other mutineers refused to give up theirs. But then Williams threatened to leave the colony in the only remaining boat. Needing his carpentry skills, the mutineers gave Williams’ Nancy, the wife of one of the Polynesians.
This enraged the Polynesians, especially Tararo, Nancy’s husband. He took Nancy back and with the younger Oha, hid in the bush. Under pressure from the mutineers, the other Polynesian men hunted Tararo and Oha down, killing them. Nancy went back to Williams.
The mistreatment of the Polynesians only escalated from there. Then on 20 September 1793, the islander men rose against their oppressors. Records showed they shot or bludgeoned to death Fletcher Christian, John Williams, John Mills, Isaac Martin and William Brown.
Four mutineers survived: Young, McCoy, Quintal and John Adams.
The surviving Europeans had unexpected allies in their Polynesian women. Much to the Polynesian men’s lament, it seemed the women preferred the Europeans and acted against them to protect their suitors.
After the killings, an unsteady peace descended on Pitcairn. Then in 1798, McCoy began producing his own home brew; with disastrous results. Crazed by it, he threw himself into the sea. A year later, Quintal’s wife died and he demanded McCoy’s widow. Refusing to allow it, Young and Adams killed him. A year after that, Young died of a chest complaint.
Within 10 years of their arrival, only one adult man survived on Pitcairn: John Adams. He shared the island with six or seven women and around 19 children.
Although Adams devoutly Christian leadership driven by prayer and social decorum ensured the little colony’s survival, he also initiated a dark and highly sexualised culture that would explode into the international media 200 years later.