Pitcairn Islands – from Polynesian settlers to the refuge of the Bounty mutineers
Polynesians lived on Pitcairn long before Europeans arrived, leaving behind stone tools, rock carvings and platforms, but the island was deserted when a British ship sighted it in 1767 and named it after the young midshipman who first saw it.
In 1790 mutineers from HMS Bounty, led by Fletcher Christian, arrived with a group of Tahitian men and women, burned their ship and settled on the remote island. The early years were marked by violence, and most of the men died. When an American ship found the community in 1808, only one mutineer, John Adams, was still alive, living with the women and children in a small, devoutly Christian society.
In 1831 the islanders moved briefly to Tahiti before returning. Pitcairn came under British protection in 1838, and its constitution of that year was among the first anywhere to give women the vote. In 1856, when the island had become too small for its growing population, the community resettled on Norfolk Island; some families later returned. In the late 19th century the islanders adopted the Seventh-day Adventist faith. In the early 2000s criminal trials over historical sexual abuse deeply affected the tiny community.
Today Pitcairn, one of the least populated territories in the world, is shaped by its Bounty heritage, the Pitkern language, its isolation and one of the largest marine protected areas on earth.
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