This mural depicts the 150 years since Pitcairn Island was abandoned by the descendants of the Bounty mutineers in 1856 and their subsequent re-settlement on Norfolk Island in 1856 and the building of the airport in 1942 through until 2006.br/The mural pays tribute to the 12 Tahitian women who came with the mutineers to Pitcairns Islandbr/br/The motto of Norfolk Island is "Inasmuch" perhaps the World's Shortest National Mottobr/br/Norfolk Island, a small inhabited island and Australian territory in the Pacific island, took its motto from Matthew 25:40 "Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me"br/br/Inasmuch is defined as "In like degree; in like manner; seeing that; considering that; since; - followed by as".br/__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________br/br/lt;bgt;lt;ugt;A History of the Bounty Mutineers and Pitcairn Islanders up to Re-Settlement of Norfolk Island in 1856lt;/ugt;lt;/bgt; br/Lieutenant William Bligh had been commanded by the British Admiralty to sail the HMS Bounty with a crew of 45 to Tahiti to collect Breadfruit seedlings to be taken to the West Indies as a source of food for the slaves held in the British colonies there. Bligh was a skilled navigator but a man with a short temper and he eventually destroyed his working relationship with his 'First Mate' Fletcher Christian and many others. Bligh's treatment of Christian became unbearable and Christian and others hatched an un-thought out mutinous plan to seize control of the Bounty which they carried out in a bloodless mutiny on 28 April 1789.br/Bligh and 18 men, were placed in a 7 Metre (23 foot boat) and set to sea about 56 km (30 nautical miles) from Tofua. Amazingly after 47 days they made it to Kupang in Timor having traveled over 6,710 km or 3,618 nautical miles. Other loyalists were left in Tahiti, there being no room in Bligh's longboat. Owing to their needed skills 4 loyalists were forced to accompany Christian.br/Bligh and his crew attempted to land at Tofua to augment their scarce provisions but were attacked by natives resulting in John Norton being stoned to death. Remarkably Norton was the only casualty on Bligh's epic 47 day long boat voyage.br/With Bligh gone, in September 1889 Fletcher Christian and the mutineers sailed the Bounty to the island of Toubouai where they had intended to land. However the natives refused to admit them so they proceeded on to Otaheite. After sailing back to Tahiti for supplies a second ineffectual attempt at landing on Toubouai was attemped before, refuge was this time found for a short time at Otaheite, With tensions rising Christian decided it was time to leave and he and eight of the mutineers sailed in the Bounty for the Pitcairn Islands having kidnapped 8 Otaheitan women and a 15 year old girl (Susannah) as well as 6 Otaheitan men. An additional 3 Otaheitan women are thought to have undertaken the voyage voluntarily. Twelve of the Bounty mutineers and the four Bligh loyalists who had been unable to accompany Bligh were permitted to remain at Otaheite, taking their chances that the Royal Navy would not find them and bring them to justice.br/Bligh's return to England in 1890 led to the commissioning of the HMS Pandora to search for the mutineers. The Pandora reached Tahiti on 23 March 1791. The mutineers and loyalists were quickly apprehended and trials of the 14 living mutineers who had remained in Tahiti followed once back in Britain. Only three were ultimately hanged for the Mutiny.br/Two of the 16 mutineers had died in Tahiti between 1789 and 1790. Matthew Thompson shot Charles Churchill and was subsequently stoned to death by Churchill's Tahitian family in an act of vendetta.br/In September 1889 23 year old Fletcher Christian sailed the Bounty from Tahiti in search of the Pitcairn Island group along with the 8 remaining mutineers, six Otaheitan male servants and 12 women, one with a baby. The 6 Otaheitan men shared 3 Otaheitan women according to Tahitian heirarchical rules. Each of the 9 mutineers took a Otaheitan wife. They eventually sighted the conveniently incorrectly mapped Pitcairn Island on 15th January and landed on the 17th January 1790. The Bounty was burnt to the waterline on 23rd January 1790 in what is now Bounty Bay in order to avoid their detection. br/The mutineers successfully evaded capture on Pitcairn Island for some years however with the exception of John Adams by 1800 all the men including the 6 Tahitian men had been killed as a result of jealousy in fights over the women or by alcohol induced tensions.br/Mutineers Fletcher Christian, John Mills, William Brown, John Williams and Isaac Martin all died on 20th September 1793, just over 4 years after the Bounty Mutiny in what was reported to be a massacre perpetrated by the Tahitian men. Its causes were attributed to the fact that Williams had earlier demanded taking one of the 3 wives allocated to the 6 natives after his own wife had been accidentally killed. William McCoy suicided in 1797-98 and Matthew Quintal was executed by John Adams and Edward Young when he seriously threatened the lives of others. Young died of asthma related causes in 1800.br/The next generation of births began soon after arrival of the mutineers on Pitcairn with a male child,Thursday October Christian, born in October 1790 . In 1791-92 Matthew Quintal, Daniel McCoy, Elizabeth Mills and Charles Christian were born and Mary Christian in 1793. br/The number of children that had been born to the mutineers was twenty-three. Fletcher Christian left three children, with Thursday October Christian, a male child, the first born on the island. John Mills left two children; William McCoy, three; Matthew Quintal, five; Edward Young, six; and John Adams, four. John Williams, a Frenchman, Isaac Martin, an American, and William Brown, an Englishman, left no children.br/While a number of ships had passed by Pitcairn Island it was not until September of the year 1808, that Captain Mayhew Folger, in the ship Topaz, of Boston, on a sealing voyage, actually cautiously landed and went ashore at Pitcairn Island. There, after initial reticence, he met John Adams, his real name, although he is sometimes referred to by the alias Alexander Smith. By this time Adams was the only remaining living mutineer. Folger was so impressed by the functional god fearing community that was now Pitcairn that he favourably relayed this impression back to Britain. Adams asked his wive and family if they wanted to go to England but it was agreed that they would stay and live out their lives on Pitcairn.br/John Adams by 1808 had surviving the killing of 7 of the mutineers, all 6 of the Tahitian males, and the deaths of 3 of the Tahitian women, to become the only adult male left on Pitcairn along with nine Tahitian women and 23 children. John Adams had become the patriarch and after turning to christianity had succeeded in creating the model harmonious community that had so impressed Captain Folger. br/Following Captain Folger's accidental discovery of the Pitcairn Island colony, it was nearly nearly six years before, in 1814, the Her Majestys ships Briton and Tagus, commanded by Captains Staines and Pipon, passed near the island. They were met by canoes manned by Thursday October Christian, 24, son of Fletcher Christian, the mutineer, and George Young, 18,son of Edward Young. Captain Staines, so impressed by the Pitcairn community decided to leave John Adams on Pitcairn and sailed away.br/On 10th December 1823 British whalers John Buffett and John Evans arrived to introduce the first non Bounty non Polynesian blood to Pitcairn Island. Buffett was granted permission to stay by the Captain of the Whaling ship Cyrus but John Evans being refused, jumped ship. br/In 1825 Captain Beechy arrived in Pitcairn on the ship Blossom. Adams, now 62 and feeling secure from prosecution, gave the captain of the HMS Blossom a written account in of the mutiny. This, and evidence of the functionality of the Pitcairn community earned him an amnesty in that year from his part in the mutiny.br/In 1825, the Pitcairn community numbered twenty adults and thirty-five children, making a total of sixty-one persons. During a period of thirty-five years there had been twenty-seven births, and of the original settlers from the Bounty there remained only John Adams and five of the Tahitian women. These six, with the addition of Buffett and Evans, now made up eight of the adult population. On the 29th of March, 1829 John Adams died on Pitcairn Island aged 69 years having made an enormous contribution to the survival and stability of Pitacairn Island.br/In 1828 twenty nine year old George Hunn Nobbs former privateer and soldier of fortune arrived and was to soon oust both Buffett and Adams and become the community patriarch virtually taking over from Buffet as the teacher for which role he was more qualified. Nobbs also had passed to him by Adams the role of officiating pastor.br/On February 28th 1831 the sloop Comet arrived as a convoy vessel for the Lucy Ann which was to transport on March 7th 1831 the 87 residents,the entire population from Pitcairn to Tahiti where they had been given land and support by the British Government. The experiment failed as much for cultural reasons as for the deaths of several due to disease. Within the space of 5 months the entire population was back on Pitcairn with the population problem to remain a continuing issue. a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/blackdiamondimages/8994885173/"; target="_blank"More/a