y reached the
staggering age of infancy when taken on board the _Bounty_ to begin her
strange career.

Thus the party consisted of twenty-eight souls--namely, nine mutineers,
six native men, twelve native women, and the light-brown baby.

It was a pleasant bright morning in September 1790 when Fletcher
Christian and his followers bade farewell to Otaheite. For some time
the breeze was light, and the _Bounty_ hovered round the Island as if
loath to leave it. In the dusk of evening a boat put off from her,
pulled to the shore, and Christian landed, alone, near the house of a
chief who had become the special friend of Peter Heywood and Stewart.
With the two midshipmen he spent some time in earnest conversation.

"I could not leave you," he said in conclusion, "without relieving my
mind of all that I have just said about the mutiny, because you are sure
to be sent for and taken to England as soon as the intelligence of this
sad affair reaches. I advise you to go off at once to the first ship
that may appear, and give yourselves up to the commander."

"Such is our intention," said Heywood.

"Right," rejoined Christian; "you are both innocent. No harm can come
to you, for you took no part in the mutiny. For me, my fate is fixed.
I go to search for some remote and uninhabited island, where I hope to
spend the remainder of my days without seeing the face of any Europeans
except those who accompany me. It is a dreary thought, lads, to lose
country and kindred and friends for _ever_ by the act of one dark hour.
Now, remember, Heywood, what I have told you to tell my friends. God
knows I do not plead guiltless; I am alone responsible for the mutiny,
and I exonerate all, even my adherents, from so much as suggesting it to
me; nevertheless, there are some who love me in England, to whom I would
beg of you to relate the circumstances that I have told you. These may
extenuate though they cannot justify the crime I have committed. I
assure you, most solemnly, that almost up to the last I had no intention
of doing more than making my own escape from the ship which the
injustice and brutality of Bligh had made a place of torment to me.
When you called me, Stewart, to relieve the watch, my brain seemed on
fire, and it was when I found the two officers both asleep, who should
have been on duty, that I suddenly made up my mind to take the ship.
Now," concluded Christian, grasping the hands of the youths, "I must say
farewell.