Cartaret's account of Pitcairn's Island, thought it better adapted for
the purpose, and shaped his course thither. Having landed and traversed
it, they found it every way suitable to their wishes, possessing water,
wood, a good soil, and some fruits. Having ascertained all this, they
returned on board, and having landed their hogs, goats, and poultry, and
gutted the ship of everything that could be useful to them, they set fire
to her, and destroyed every vestige that might lead to the discovery of
their retreat. This was on the 23d of January 1790. The island was then
divided into nine equal portions amongst them a suitable spot of neutral
ground being reserved for a village. The poor Otaheitans now found
themselves reduced to the condition of mere slaves; but they patiently
submitted, and everything went on peacefully for two years. About that
time Williams, one of the seamen, having the misfortune to lose his wife,
forcibly took the wife of one of the Otaheitans, which, together with
their continued ill-usage, so exasperated the latter that they formed a
plan for murdering the whole of their oppressors. The plot, however, was
discovered, and revealed by the Englishmen's wives, and two of the
Otaheitans were put to death. But the surviving natives soon afterwards
matured a more successful conspiracy, and in one day murdered five of the
Englishmen, including Christian. Adams and Young were spared at the
intercession of their wives, and the remaining two, M'Koy and Quintal
(two desperate ruffians), escaped to the mountains, whence, however, they
soon rejoined their companions. But the further career of these two
villains was short. M'Koy, having been bred up in a Scottish distillery,
succeeded in extracting a bottle of ardent spirits from the _tee root_;
from which time he and Quintal were never sober, until the former became
delirious, and committed suicide by jumping over a cliff. Quintal being
likewise almost insane with drinking, made repeated attempts to murder
Adams and Young, until they were absolutely compelled, for their own
safety, to put him to death, which they did by felling him with a hatchet.