Mutiny on the Bounty first port of call. Christian therefore headed "Bounty" towards the small island of Tubuai, some south of Tahiti. Tubuai had been discovered and roughly charted by Cook; except for a single small channel, it was entirely surrounded by a coral reef and could, Christian surmised, be easily defended against any attack from the sea. "Bounty" arrived at Tubuai on 28 May 1789. The reception from the native population was hostile; when a flotilla of war canoes headed for the ship, Christian used a four-pounder gun to repel the attackers. At least a dozen warriors were killed, and the rest scattered.
Henderson archaic pigeon Henderson archaic pigeon The Henderson archaic pigeon ("Bountyphaps obsoleta"), or Henderson Island archaic pigeon, is an extinct bird in the Columbidae, or pigeon family. It was described in 2008 as a new genus and species from subfossil remains found on Henderson Island in the Pitcairn Group of south-eastern Polynesia. The genus was named for both the ship HMS "Bounty" with which, following the famous mutiny, Europeans first discovered the Pitcairn Islands, and for the former bounty the bird provided as food; with the Greek "phaps" (wild pigeon). The specific epithet comes from the Latin adjective for "extinct" or "forgotten about".