Negotiating With The British
When the British frigates Briton and Tagus arrived at Pitcairn on the morning of 17 September 1814, Thursday and George Young paddled out in canoes to meet them. Both spoke English well, and gave a good impression to the officers and men of the ships as they met on the deck of the Briton. Their demeanour helped persuade the two captains that John Adams had created a civilized society, and did not merit prosecution for the mutiny. The ships stayed only for a few hours, and sailed away later that evening. This was when the only surviving portrait of Thursday was drawn.
Captain Philip Pipon, commander of the Tagus, describes Thursday as being "about twenty five years of age, a tall fine young man about six feet high, with dark black hair, and a countenance extremely open and interesting. He wore no clothes except a piece of cloth round his loins, a straw hat ornamented with black cock’s feathers, and occasionally a peacock’s, nearly similar to that worn by the Spaniards in South America, though smaller."
Pipon refers to him as "Friday October Christian," because they had discovered that the islanders' calendar was off by one day. The Bounty had crossed the international date line going eastwards, but the mutineers had not adjusted their calendar for this. Thursday soon went back to his original name, but the Pitcairn Islands stamp that shows his picture identifies him as Friday October Christian.
Read more about this topic: Thursday October Christian I
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