PITCAIRN ISLAND, a British posses sion in the Polynesian Islands, belonging to the Low Archipelago, in lat. 25° 5' S.; long. 130° 5' W., about two miles long and one mile wide. Its coast is almost perpendicular and is fringed with rocks and reefs, making it impossi ble to land except at a few points. The interest which attaches to this island is derived from its history; it was discovered by Carteret in 1767 but was uninhabited till 1790, when nine British sailors, mutineers of the British ship Bounty, together (with 18 natives of Tahiti, 6 men and 12 women, landed on this island. Their subsequent contentions resulted in murders and various crimes. After 10 years John Adams (q.v.) and a few survivors were left. His reform and his manner of teaching and supervising the little colony led to a complete change. They became peaceable, moral and industrious. He had saved a Bible from the ship and ruled his little kingdom with wisdom and justice. An American sealing ship visited Pitcairn in 1808 and H. M. S. Britain in 1815. The British Crown took formal possession in 1839. In 1856 the community (194 in number)
was removed to Norfolk Island, Pitcairn hav ing become too small for their comfortable subsistence. Some of the number, about 40, returned to Pitcairn. In 1911 there were on the island 145 persons (40 adult males, 45 adult females, 43 children aged 6 to 16, and 17 infants under 6). In religion the islanders are Seventh Day Adventists. A recent colonial office report describes the people as having degenerated from their former manner of living. The products of the island are sweet potatoes, beans, sugarcane, yams, taro, melons, oranges, bananas, pineapples and arrowroot. Excellent coffee also grows. There are on the island about 200 wild goats and a small stock of chickens. The local government is adminis tered by a council of seven members, with a president, who acts also as chief magistrate, and a vice-president, who is also government secretary, subject to the control of the high commissioner for the western Pacific. See BLIGH, WILLIAM.