[Letter] 1935 October 17, Pitcairn Island, [to] Henry C. Hoffman / Fred M. Christian.

Autograph letter, signed.

Christian writes from Pitcairn island to thank Hoffman for sending the $2, and to request that he sell more of the painted, pressed leaves which he encloses along with two baskets his wife made for Hoffman. Christian goes on to answer Hoffman's questions about the size, dominion, population (210), language (English and Tahitian), schooling, climate, and grave customs on Pitcairn Island. He remarks that only one grave of the Bounty mutineers was ever marked, that being John Adams, for whom the British government sent over a tombstone. Christian also observes that they currently have nine visitors "none of them want to leave," and tells Hoffman about their housing, livestock, religion, and crops. Pitcairn Island was originally settled by mutineers of the HMS _Bounty_ led by Fletcher Christian (played in the movie versions by Clark Gable and Errol Flynn); they revolted in April 1784 against the alleged cruelties of Captain William Bligh, intermarried with Tahitian women, and then settled with their families on Pitcairn. John Adams was the only one of the original mutineers left alive in 1808 when an American ship _Topaz_ investigated the island. He was not able to convincingly relate the fates of the other mutineers, but the author of this letter, Fred Christian, is probably an original descendant of Fletcher.