Barkcloth made by Fletcher Christian's
widow
Pitcairn Islands, probably late 18th/early 19th
century AD
The people of the Society Islands, in common
with most other Polynesian islanders, made a form of felted cloth
known as barkcloth
(tapa) by beating out
the inner bark of a tree - mostly that of the paper mulberry. The
cloth was used for garments and
bedding.
This barkcloth is
said to have been made by Mauatua, the daughter of a Society
Islands chief and the partner of Fletcher Christian, the leader of
the mutiny on HMS Bounty
in 1789.
In 1787,
Lieutenant William Bligh, who had recently served as sailing master
to Captain James Cook on his voyages to the South Pacific, was
commissioned by Sir Joseph
Banks and the British Admiralty to undertake a
voyage to collect breadfruit plants from the Society Islands and
transport them to the West Indies to be cultivated as food for
slaves. Christian was one of several crew who had formed
relationships with local women during their long stay in the
Society Islands. The mutineers set Bligh and his supporters adrift
in the ship's boat and sailed to the remote and uninhabited
Pitcairn Island.
They were
accompanied by twelve new 'wives' and a few men
from the Society Islands. Mauatua was given the nickname
'Mainmast' in recognition of her tall stature, but
Christian called her Isabella. She bore him three children. It is
thought that Christian was murdered on Pitcairn
Island.
The British people,
on learning of the mutiny, were greatly interested. Bligh was
regarded as a hero and a great navigator, and his account of the
mutiny was published in July 1790.
T. Lummis, Pitcairn Island: life and deat (Aldershot, Ashgate Publishing Limited, 1997)
S. Kooijman, Tapa in Polynesia (Honolulu, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Bulletin 234, 1972)