ted to repeat the
manoeuvre, amid shouts of laughter from all who saw her. After that the
various portholes had to be closed up, and the precocious baby to be
more carefully watched.

"I have come to the conclusion," said Christian to Young, as they paced
the deck by moonlight that same night, "that it is better to settle on
Pitcairn's Island than on any of the Marquesas group. It is farther out
of the track of ships than any known island of the Pacific, and if
Carteret's account of it be correct, its precipitous sides will induce
passers-by to continue their voyage without stopping."

"If we find it, and it should turn out to be suitable, what then!" asked
Young.

"We shall land, form a settlement, and live and die there," answered
Christian.

"A sad end to all our bright hopes and ambitions," said Young, as if
speaking to himself, while he gazed far away on the rippling pathway
made by the sun upon the sea.

Christian made no rejoinder. The subject was not a pleasant one to
contemplate. He thought it best to confront the inevitable in silence.

Captain Carteret, the navigator who discovered the island and named it
Pitcairn, after the young officer of his ship who was the first to see
and report it, had placed it on his chart no less than three degrees out
of its true longitude. Hence Christian cruised about unsuccessfully in
search of it for several weeks. At last, when he was on the point of
giving up the search in despair, a solitary rock was descried in the far
distance rising out of the ocean.

"There it is at last!" said Christian, with a sigh that seemed to
indicate the removal of a great weight from his spirit.

Immediately every man in the ship hurried to the bow of the vessel, and
gazed with strangely mingled feelings on what was to be his future home.
Even the natives, men and women, were roused to a feeling of interest
by the evident excitement of the Europeans, and hastened to parts of the
ship whence they could obtain a clear view. By degrees tongues began to
loosen.

"It's like a fortress, with its high perpendicular cliffs," remarked
John Adams.

"All the better for us," said Quintal; "we'll need some place that's
difficult to get at and easy to defend, if one o' the King's ships
should find us out."

"So we will," laughed McCoy in gruff tones, "and it's my notion that
there's a natural barrier round that island which will go further to
defend us agin the King's ships than anything