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[Page 24]
the retreat of the Mutineers of the Bounty.
It is therefore an extraordinary Circumstance, that chance and mere accident should have led us hither; for had we been aware that Pitcairn Island was near us we should have avoided it. We considered ourselves nearly 200 miles from it when land was discovered, and we verily believed that that in sight was some new Discovery: to the error therefore in which it is laid down, is to be attributed Chiefly this unexpected visit of ours to it; Happy however that it is in our power to communicate the fate of the wretched people who composed the crew of the Bounty after their shameful Mutiny against their Captain.
It is impossible to describe the surprize we all felt, when we heard the natives (the descendants of Fletcher Christian