In 1856 the greater portion of the Pitcairn families were removed to Norfolk Island, which the English Government had abandoned as a penal settlement, giving up to them all the prison buildings as a new home. For years after, Norfolk Island, like Pitcairn, was known as the home of the descendants of the _Bounty_ mutineers, and was talked of all over the world in the same strain as that other ideal community at Pitcairn, but civilization has now worked its evil ways. No longer is Norfolk Island governed in patriarchal fashion. It has been handed over by the Imperial Government for administration by the colony of New South Wales, and in a few years longer all that will remain of its _Bounty_ story will be the names of Christian, Young, McCoy, Quintall, and the rest of them--still names which indicate the "best families" of the island. To this day it is a mystery exactly how and when Christian met his death. The sole survivor of the mutineers, Smith (_alias_ Adams), when questioned, went into details regarding the desperate quarrels of his comrades, and how they came by violent deaths; but whether his memory, owing to old age, had failed him, or he had something to conceal, it is impossible now to say. However, he gave versions of Christian's death which differed materially. The generally accepted one is that he was shot by one of the Tahitians while working in the garden, but the exact place of his burial has never been revealed. In this connection there is a curious story. An English paper called _The True Briton_ of September 13th, 1796, contained the following paragraph:-- "CHRISTIAN, CHIEF MUTINEER ON BOARD HIS MAJESTY'S SHIP 'BOUNTY.' "This extraordinary nautical character has at length transmitted to England an account of his conduct in his mutiny on board the _Bounty_ and a detail also of his subsequent proceedings after he obtained command of the ship, in which, after visiting Juan Fernandez and various islands in South America, he was shipwrecked in rescuing Don Henriques, major-general of the kingdom of Chili, from a similar disaster, an event which, after many perilous circumstances, led to his present lucrative establishment under the Spanish Government in South America, for which [Sidenote: 1796] he was about to sail when the last accounts were received from him.