Pitcairn Island, a solitary island in the Pacific Ocean, between Australia and South America, in 25° 3' S. lat. and 130° 8' W. long., measures 2½ miles by 1 mile. It was discovered by Carteret in 1767, and was at that time uninhabited, although there were unmistakable evidences that it had been inhabited at one time. In 1790 it was taken possession of by nine of the mutineers of H.M.S. Bounty (see BLIGH), with six Tahitian men and a dozen women, the ringleader being called Christian. Four years later the native men one night murdered all the Englishmen, except Alexander Smith, who afterwards assumed the name of John Adams. Thereupon the women, in revenge, murdered all the Tahitian men. According to another account, the white men and the Tahitians murdered each other at intervals, until only two Englishmen were left alive. Certain it is that at the end of ten years John Adams was left alone, with eight or nine women and several children; and from them the present inhabitants (126 in 1890) are descended. Adams, changed by these tragic adventures, and sobered by his responsibilities, set about the education of his companions in Christian principles. The little colony was unknown to the world until 1808, when it was 'discovered' by Captain Folger of the American sealing ship Topaz; the first British vessel to visit it did not arrive until 1814. The islanders were visited again in 1825 and 1830, and in 1831, as their numbers had rapidly increased (to 87), they were at their own request removed to Tahiti by the British government. But, disgusted by the immorality and other undesirable customs of their Tahitian relatives, the most of them came back to Pitcairn Island after about nine months, in a vessel chartered by themselves. The island was annexed to Britain in 1839. Nearly 200 of the islanders were transferred to Norfolk Island in 1856, but a number of them afterwards returned. Pitcairn Island enjoys a lovely climate; its mountainous surface reaches 1008 feet in Outlook Ridge; the soil is fertile, and produces yams, coconuts, bread-fruit, sweet potatoes, bananas, &c. The people are degenerating, from intermarriage and their being able to live without exertion.
See Sir J. Barrow, Mutiny of the Bounty (1831); Lady Belcher, Mutineers of the Bounty (1870); T. B. Murray, Pitcairn Island (1854; new ed. 1885); Rosa Amelia Young [a native], The Story of Pitcairn Island (1895).