The Mutineers Discovered
THE TWO chief causes of trouble and mischief being now removed, there
was prospect of enjoying more tranquillity and peace than had ever
been known before. Of the fifteen males who landed on the island,
only two now remained. These two, Adams and Young, having the whole
responsibility of the young and increasing colony devolving upon
them, arose to the exigency of the case. Young was naturally of a
thoughtful and serious cast of mind, and the scenes which he and Adams
had witnessed, and in which they had participated, had the effect of
deepening the serious impressions that had been made upon them both,
and they resolved to train, as best they could, their own children
and those of their unfortunate companions, in the paths of virtue and
right. Young’s superior education better fitted him for the grave
undertaking; but he did not long survive his repentance. He had long
been afflicted with the asthma, and died of that complaint in the year
1800, about a year after Quintall’s death.
John Adams was now sole survivor. With a deep and abiding repentance
for his former course of life, he strove to amend the misdoings of
years by instilling into the minds of the young and rising generation
around him right principles. Alone and unaided in the gigantic task, he
suffered not his courage to fail in the endeavor, and his earnestness
of purpose, directed in a right channel, could not fail to win some
measure of success. The number of children that had been born to the
mutineers was twenty-three. Fletcher Christian left three children;
John Mills, two; William McCoy, three; Matthew Quintall, five; Edward
Young, six; and John Adams, four. John Williams, a Frenchman, Isaac
Martin, an American, and William Brown, an Englishman, left no children.
John Adams used to relate that it was through the influence of a dream
that he was first led seriously to consider the condition of the
helpless and ignorant youths who were so suddenly and unexpectedly
left on his hands, and to arouse himself to the heavy responsibility
that rested on him, as the only instructor that could be had for
them, totally unfit for the task though he might be. It was a late
beginning, but he engaged in the work with all his heart. A Bible and
prayer book saved from the _Bounty_ were the only means at his command
in teaching the young people to read. But, with the blessing of God
upon his humble efforts, John Adams had the satisfaction of seeing
the children of such disreputable parentage growing up around him,
quiet, peaceable, industrious, and happy, and with an increasing love
of virtue and strict morality. A beautiful feature of the whole was
the love that united them as one family under the fatherly control of
John Adams. Such was the condition of life on Pitcairn Island when, in
1808, Captain Mayhew Folger, of the American ship _Topaz_, accidentally
discovered that the island was inhabited. Following is part of a letter
received by the writer from Mr. Robert Folger (a son of the captain
above named), who kindly gave permission to make use of it. The letter
was dated Massillon, Stark County, Ohio, August 4, 1882. After giving
his reasons for writing, the letter proceeds as follows:—
“My brother, sister, and myself are the only surviving children of
Captain Mayhew Folger, of the ship _Topaz_, of Boston, the discoverer,
in February, 1808, of the colony on Pitcairn’s Island. I do not like
to refer to the survivor of the _Bounty_ crew on the island as a
mutineer, for I cannot help feeling that the cruelty of Bligh to his
men was such as to justify almost anything on the part of the people
on board.... I may now say that I have been for nearly twenty-five
years gathering facts in regard to Pitcairn’s Island.
“I have Bligh’s own account of the mutiny, ‘Delano’s Voyages,’ my
father’s logbook, with his entry therein in his own handwriting,
dated, as I now remember, February 8, 1808—Lady Belcher’s book,
‘The Mutineers of the _Bounty_’—and numerous letters and newspaper
publications.
“If you would like a copy of my father’s journal entry, I shall
have great pleasure in transcribing it, and sending it to you. I
may as well say in advance that he, as a shipmaster, shared in the
general feeling of the world, and shipmasters especially, against the
‘arch-mutineer,’ Christian.
“The history of your island will long, I may say always, be a wonder.
During the sixty years that I remember it, it has been a wonder,
and it will continue to be, as wonders do not decrease in interest.
Three-quarters of a century have gone into the great ocean of time
since Captain Mayhew Folger discovered the colony, and the interest in
the history of the island is unabated. The island cannot be mentioned
without exciting a wonder even in the mind of the unlearned, as to the
history of the colonists, their present status, and, indeed, all that
concerns them.
“In connection with the truth concerning the colonists, there has
been a great deal of error and nonsense published. _Blackwood’s
Magazine_ is not free from being a participant in setting afloat
most senseless statements, which were about twenty-four years since
repeated in this country. There are very few living who can enter into
the _spirit_ of Pitcairn’s history, and, what is to me most singular
and unaccountable, a large number of would-be historians are engaged
in uttering most senseless pretensions to correct the history of the
island, from the arrival of the _Bounty_ until the arrival of the
_Topaz_—a period of twenty years when nothing was known, nor could be
known, of the island, nor was known until the arrival of the _Topaz_
in February, 1808.
“You, undoubtedly, have had access to the account of the mutiny by
Captain Bligh, also to ‘Delano’s Voyages,’ published in 1817, in
which are two letters from Captain Folger, one to Captain Delano, and
one to the Lords of the Admiralty, R. N., and which was received
by them through Rear-Admiral Hotham, who, in 1813, was, I think, in
command of the English blockading squadron on our coast in the War of
1812.... It was through Rear-Admiral Hotham that my father sent the
Azimuth compass, and within five years last past I have noticed in
some publication (I cannot state what one) that Her Majesty’s navy had
obtained the _Bounty’s_ chronometer, which was taken from my father at
Valparaiso when his vessel was confiscated by the Spanish governor of
Chile when he reached the South American Coast, after having visited
Pitcairn’s Island.
“As your grandfather, Mr. Buffett, mentions ‘Delano’s Voyages,’ I
suppose you too have read that, in many respects, curious book. In
the main, the portion which refers to my father is correct. Captain
Delano visited my father at Kendal in 1817.... In reading Mr. Delano’s
book you will find a letter to the Lords of the Admiralty dated at
Kendal.... If I were to write a history of the island, I could give a
chronological statement that would be in order and critically correct,
as I think I have in my library every date from the discovery of the
island in 1767, by Captain Cartaret, of H. B. M. ship _Swallow_, to
the present time....
“Since writing the foregoing, I concluded to copy all the entries from
my father’s logbook in which the island is mentioned....
“‘Ship _Topaz_, of Boston, Mayhew Folger master, on a sealing voyage
to the South Pacific Ocean, 1808.
“‘Saturday, 6th February.—First part light airs at east, steering
west by south, half south by compass. At ½ past on P. M. saw land
bearing southwest by west half west. Steered for the land with a light
breeze at east, the said land being Pitcairn’s Island, discovered
in 1767 by Captain Cartaret in his Britannic Majesty’s sloop
_Swallow_. A 2 A. M. the isle bore south two leagues distant. Lay off
and on till daylight. At 6 A. M. put off with two boats to explore and
look for seals.
[Illustration: BOUNTY BAY FROM THE CLIFFS.]
“‘On approaching the shore saw a smoke on the land, at which I was
very much surprised, it being represented by Captain Cartaret as
destitute of inhabitants.
“‘On approaching still nearer the land, I discovered a boat paddling
towards me with three men in her. On approaching her, they hailed
me in the English language, asking who was the captain of the ship,
and offered me a number of cocoanuts, which they had brought off as
a present, and requested I would land, there being, as they said, a
white man on shore.
“‘I went on shore and found there an Englishman by the name of
Alexander Smith, the only person remaining out of nine that escaped
on board the ship _Bounty_, Captain Bligh, under the command of that
arch-mutineer, Christian. Smith informed me that, after putting
Captain Bligh in the longboat and sending her adrift, Commander
Christian proceeded to Otaheite. There all the mutineers chose to stop
except Christian himself, Smith, and seven others. They all took wives
at Otaheite, and six men as servants, and proceeded to Pitcairn’s
Island, where they landed all their goods and chattels, ran the ship
_Bounty_ on shore, and broke her up, which took place, as near as
he could recollect, in 1790. Soon after, one of their party ran mad
and drowned himself; another died with a fever, and after they had
remained about four years on the island, their men servants rose
upon them and killed six of them, leaving only Smith alive, and he
desperately wounded, with a pistol ball in the neck. However, he and
the widows of the deceased arose and put all the servants to death,
which left him the only surviving man on the island, with eight or
nine women and several small children. He immediately went to work
tilling the ground, so that it produces plenty for them all, and he
lives very comfortably as commander-in-chief of Pitcairn’s Island.[3]
[Footnote 3: There is a little difference between Captain Folger’s
statement and the real facts of those early days, as handed down
through succeeding generations, from those (especially Susanna, the
girl of fifteen from Tahiti) who were eye-witnesses of the dreadful
scenes that took place, when bloodshed followed treachery in their
dealings between master and servant.]
“‘All the children of the deceased mutineers speak tolerable English;
some of them are grown to the size of men and women; and, to do
them justice, I think them a very humane and hospitable people; and
whatever may have been the errors or crimes of Smith, the mutineer,
in times back, he is at present a worthy man, and may be useful to
navigators who traverse this immense ocean.
“‘Such is the history of Christian and his associates. Be it
remembered that this island is scantily supplied with fresh water,
so that it is impossible for a ship to get a supply. I place it in
latitude 25° 2′ south, and 130° west longitude, from my last lunar
observation.
“‘Sunday, 7 February.—Light airs from the eastward and very hot. The
ship laying off and on, I stayed on shore with the friendly Smith
and his truly good people until 4 P. M., then left them and went on
board and made sail, steering southeast and southeast by east, bound
for Massafuero, having received from the people on shore some hogs,
cocoanuts, and plantains. At noon the isle bore northwest by north by
compass 34′ dist. Latitude observation 25° 31′ south, etc.’”
After Captain Folger’s accidental discovery of the little colony on
Pitcairn Island, nothing more was known or heard of them for a period
of nearly six years. In the year 1814 H. M. ships _Briton_ and _Tagus_,
commanded respectively by Captains Staines and Pipon, out on a cruise
and returning to Valparaiso from the Marquesas, passed near the island.
So strange was the sight of a ship that when these two were first
descried approaching the island, the young woman who first saw them ran
to make it known to the rest by saying that “two _paafata_ [a wooden
flooring erected on four posts, on which the feed for their goats was
kept] were floating in toward the shore, with their posts turned wrong
end up.” But the experienced eye of John Adams soon discerned what the
visitors were.
As for the people on board, they were not a little surprised to see
from their vessels the land laid out in regular plantations. The
houses, too, that could be seen were different in make from those of
the other islands they had lately visited. In a short time a canoe was
seen paddling off towards the ships. To the astonishment of those on
board, the visitors from the shore, on coming near enough to speak to
those on the _Briton_, called out in plain English, “Won’t you heave us
a rope now?” A rope was thrown them, and they were warmly welcomed on
board.
The mystery was explained when, on being questioned, they said that
they were Thursday October Christian, son of Fletcher Christian,
the mutineer, and George Young, son of the midshipman Edward Young.
The former was named after the day and month of his birth. He was
described as a “tall and handsome young man about twenty-four years
of age, his scanty clothing consisting of a waistcloth, while he
wore a broad-brimmed straw hat adorned with black cock’s feathers.”
His companion, George Young, was said to be a “fine, noble-looking
youth, 17 or 18 years of age.” On being invited below, and having food
set before them, they further astonished their kind entertainers by
reverently asking a blessing before partaking of their food. In reply
to a question they said that the good custom had been taught them by
John Adams. Every kindness was shown to the two young men, and when
they were taken to see a cow that was on board the ship, they created
some amusement by asking whether the animal was “a huge goat or a
horned sow.”
[Illustration: THURSDAY OCTOBER CHRISTIAN.]
Captain Sir Thomas Staines went on shore, and was agreeably surprised
to find the youthful colony living harmoniously together under the
patriarchal rule of John Adams. Great fears were entertained by the
humble islanders lest their only instructor and teacher should be
removed from them, more especially as he had fully decided to give
himself up should he be required to do so. But the Tahitian women
pleaded strongly that he might be allowed to remain, and, clinging to
John Adams, weeping while they pleaded, the humane captain, himself
deeply touched at the scene, resolved not to disturb them. At the same
time he advised Adams not to go down to the landing place, where the
boat was, himself making the excuse that the path to the beach was
sufficiently rough and stony for the old man not to venture. The advice
was followed, Adams accompanying the kind-hearted captain only part of
the way. Thanking him for the thoughtful consideration shown to himself
and people, he bade Captain Staines farewell, and returned to the
little village.
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