In 1811 Mary Russell Mitford published Christina, Maid of the South Seas, a poem which drew inspiration from a report in the Quarterly Review of the discovery of a settlement on Pitcairn Island founded by surviving mutineers from the Bounty. For assistance with the historical notes, she enlisted James Burney, a retired Royal Navy captain turned naval historian. Between them, Mitford and Burney drafted forty-seven notes of varying lengths which were appended to the four-canto poem in the published version. Analysis of selected notes reveals the tensions between the sensibilities of the poet and the historian, and raises questions about gender, generational, educational, and philosophical differences in the collaboration. These differences helped to shape the balance between romance and history in the emerging literature of the South Pacific.