The Bounty was beached and burnt, and from her remains and the island timber the mutineers built themselves homes.  Soon dissensions arose, murder followed, and within a few years after landing every Englishman save Smith was dead, nearly all of them dying violent deaths.  Smith changed his name to John Adams, took a Bible from the Bounty’s library as his guide, and set to work to govern and to train his colony of half-caste children.

From 1815 Pitcairn became a pet colony of the English people, and every ship that visited it brought back stories of the piety and beautiful character of its population.  Smith or Adams died in 1829.  He had long before been pardoned by the English Government, and [Sidenote:  1829] the good work he began was carried on by Mr. Nobbs, one of several persons who from time to time, attracted by the story of life at Pitcairn, had managed to make their way to the island.

In 1856 the greater portion of the Pitcairn families were removed to Norfolk Island, which the English Government had abandoned as a penal settlement, giving up to them all the prison buildings as a new home.

For years after, Norfolk Island, like Pitcairn, was known as the home of the descendants of the Bounty mutineers, and was talked of all over the world in the same strain as that other ideal community at Pitcairn, but civilization has now worked its evil ways.  No longer is Norfolk Island governed in patriarchal fashion.  It has been handed over by the Imperial Government for administration by the colony of New South Wales, and in a few years longer all that will remain of its Bounty story will be the names of Christian, Young, McCoy, Quintall, and the rest of them—­still names which indicate the “best families” of the island.

To this day it is a mystery exactly how and when Christian met his death.  The sole survivor of the mutineers, Smith (alias Adams), when questioned, went into details regarding the desperate quarrels of his comrades, and how they came by violent deaths; but whether his memory, owing to old age, had failed him, or he had something to conceal, it is impossible now to say.  However, he gave versions of Christian’s death which differed materially.  The generally accepted one is that he was shot by one of the Tahitians while working in the garden, but the exact place of his burial has never been revealed.

In this connection there is a curious story.  An English paper called The True Briton of September 13th, 1796, contained the following paragraph:—­

    “CHRISTIAN, CHIEF MUTINEER ON BOARD HIS MAJESTY’S SHIP ‘BOUNTY.’