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The first who came on board the Briton, was Thursday October Christian, Son of Fletcher Christian by an Otaheite woman; he was the first born upon the Island (which must have been soon after the arrival & settling on it) & was called Thursday October in consequence of his being born on that day of The Week & in that Month.
He was then, when we saw him, about 25 Years of Age, a tall fine young Man, about 6 feet high, dark black hair, a Countenance extremely open & interesting; as he wears no Cloaths except a piece of Cloth round his Loins, a Straw hat ornamented with black cocks feathers & occasionally a Pauncho, nearly similar to that worn by the Spaniards in South America tho smaller, he is of course of a brown cast, not however with that mixture of red, so disgusting in the wild Indians. With a great share of good humour & a disposition & willingness to oblige, we were very glad to trace in his benevolent countenance, all the features of an honest English face. he is married to a Woman much older than himself, one of those that accompanied the Mutineers of the Bounty from Otaheite. I must confess I could not survey this interesting personage without feelings of tenderness and compassion.
He spoke English in a manner vastly pleasing he was accompanied by another young Man of the name of George Young, a very fine youth of about 17 or 18 years of age, who also spoke English perfectly well, indeed it is their common & general language. These young men informd us of many singular events, but referred us for further particulars to an old man by the name of John Adams, the only surviving Englishman that came away in the Bounty; he was not by his own account, in the smallest degree concernd in the Mutiny, he being at the time it happened, sick in bed; he is now between 50 & 60 years of Age, & in him the welfare of the Colony entirely depends; indeed as it consists at present, principally, of very young Men & young Women, with very few old ones of the latter class; without his advice assistance & instruction they would soon be exterminated, for the Land, altho extremely fertile, will not produce without cultivation. This Island having no good Anchorage & the Bounty I imagine weakly manned when she arrivd here, inducd Christian to run the Ship in a Creek - against the Cliffs in order to unload her of such articles as were necessary for their new Settlement, as well as to get the Hogs Goats Poultry &c on shore & having affected this, he set her on fire, to prevent doubtless the escape of his Companions,