FRIENDLY VISITS
ABOUT the middle of the year 1880 seven of the youth from Norfolk
Island came on a visit to the old home of their parents. Scarcely any
communication passed between the two islands, so that the event of
their coming was improved in learning all about the state of the island
and people they had lately left.
The friends of the young men noticed with surprise that, with but one
exception, they were all slaves to the tobacco habit, both chewing
and smoking, for not one among the youth of the island practiced the
unclean vice. The captain of the whale ship with whom they had come was
himself a total abstainer as regarded both tobacco and spirits, but all
his endeavors to reform the young men under his command, example and
precept notwithstanding, failed to have the desired effect. He was more
successful when he attempted a reform among the old men of the island,
in one case at least, as the following incident will show.
In a meeting held on Sunday evening the captain addressed himself
to the tobacco users, seven in number, and those, five at least, the
oldest men in the community. He spoke very strongly against the bad
habit to which they were addicted, and its consequent evil results.
Some of his hearers were for the moment impressed with his appeals, and
two of them almost decided to abandon the vice forever. They respected
their would-be reformer enough not to indulge in the practice in his
presence. On the following morning, as one of the men was walking along
the road with a lighted pipe in his mouth, he espied the captain a
few yards ahead of him, waiting to give him a warm morning greeting.
Regardless of the consequences, in the fear of being found out, he
quickly caught the heated clay pipe from his lips and thrust it into
his pocket, which was as quickly burnt through. Though smarting with
the pain, he bravely shook hands with the captain and passed on, not
daring to betray his pipe, even at the cost of suffering. But it was
the last struggle he had with the habit, for from that day it was
abandoned, and he was made free, yet “so as by fire.”
It was during this same year, 1880, that an unusual and very peculiar
visitation appeared among the community, affecting only the younger
members, eleven or twelve young persons in all having been subject to
it. The disease, if such it may be called, was temporary insanity, the
case that lasted the longest not extending over two years. The first
symptom of the attack was a strange hallucination of the mind, the
person affected seeing some object which greatly terrified him, or
hearing voices calling to him, then gradually losing all recollection
of former events, until the mind became an utter blank. One peculiar
feature of the disease was a distorted vision, that transformed every
object into something different to what it was, as, for instance, a
full-grown man or woman appeared as but a child, while a mere baby
would assume the full proportions of a man. In almost every case the
patient was calm and quiet; the power of speech seemed taken away,
while the vacant stare showed that the mind had lost control over
itself.
[Illustration: GIRLS IN BATHING COSTUME.]
One case was that of a youth who had been shipwrecked, and whose stay
was prolonged on the island. This was in 1881. One morning he declared
that during the night he saw his mother’s coffin pass above him out of
the window, and nothing could persuade him that it was a delusion. A
few hours afterwards he became oblivious to everything that was going
on around him, and in the very first stage of the disease was entirely
deprived of the power of speech. When speech returned after a few days,
he employed himself searching from house to house for some fancied
friend who was unjustly condemned to prison, and whom he was sparing no
effort to release. On one occasion he wandered away during the night
to the opposite side of the island, where he was found by a party who
went in search, sleeping under an overhanging rock, wrapped up in his
scout’s blanket, for at that stage of his derangement he declared that
he was Davy Crockett out on an Indian trail. Davy Crockett was only
one out of the many different characters whom he personated in the
different stages of the disease.
Many and various were the phases that the disease assumed, each patient
being acted upon in a different manner. There has never been any
satisfactory explanation of the cause that produced it. The case above
mentioned as being of longest duration was that of a young girl whose
mind became affected in April, 1884, and was restored in the early part
of the year 1886. Since that time the peculiar disease has not made its
appearance.
In the early part of 1881 two young men left the island to venture for
the first time as far as England. There every kindness that could be
shown them was bestowed. One of them, however, almost immediately on
landing, was secured as a highly prized specimen of the human species,
to be exhibited in the Westminster Aquarium. Entirely ignorant of the
intention of the parties who had obtained him, he consented to their
proposal to accompany them, and they were soon speeding away from
Liverpool to London, where he was duly settled in his place in the
aquarium, and advertised. “Does he eat like other people?” was one of
the many questions that amused him, as it was earnestly put by one of
the spectators. A bluff old sea captain was very indignant that he had
to pay for the privilege of seeing an old acquaintance whom he had
twice visited in his far-away island home.
But he was not kept long in his unenviable position, for the Rev. A. W.
Drew, a clergyman of the Church of England, no sooner learned of the
facts of the case than he immediately came to the rescue. He at once
had the visitor from Pitcairn Island, whose health was much impaired,
removed to his own home, where he was taken care of and waited upon
in his hours of weakness and suffering with every attention and care
that kindness and love could suggest. Even when his life was all but
despaired of, the good clergyman and his estimable wife never gave
up their hope and trust in God that He would bless the efforts that
were made to restore their guest to health again. Their house was his
home during the rest of his stay, and the unwearying love and care
manifested by the many friends who came to see him, as well as by
the clergyman and his family, made an impression upon his mind that
could never be effaced. The other visitor shared the same kindness and
attention that were so lavishly bestowed upon his companion, the worthy
people of Hull, to which port his ship went, doing all that lay in
their power for him while he stayed with them. On their arrival in San
Francisco they experienced everywhere they went the utmost favors that
thoughtfulness could suggest or friendship could show.
In June of the same year another of the young men from the island left
for England. The two who preceded him returned home after an absence
of one year and two years respectively, but the third, Richard Young,
never came back, and after a period of nine years’ absence, died in
Oakland, California.
In the meantime another shipwrecked crew had been thrown upon the
hospitality of the islanders. The English ship _Acadia_, outward bound
from San Francisco, in about a month from leaving that port, was
wrecked on Ducie Island. As soon as it was ascertained that the ship
could not be saved, preparations were made to abandon her. The crew
were able to save a considerable portion of their clothes, and, putting
into their two boats as much provision as they could safely carry, made
sail for Pitcairn Island, stopping for a day at Elizabeth Island. On
leaving the ship, one of their number, the boatswain, received the
untimely discharge of a pistol in his body, which fortunately did not
prove serious.
On leaving Elizabeth Island, the wind, being in their favor, enabled
them to make a speedy passage to the place whither they were bound,
and on the morning of the second day the shipwrecked mariners were
gladdened by the sight of the English flag hoisted on the high peak
above the landing place. As before, the men were taken in by the
different families, in twos and threes, until they should have an
opportunity to leave. This soon occurred, Captain George, the first
officer, Mr. John Simpson, and two or three of the lads that were with
them on the _Acadia_, leaving on the American ship _Edward O’Brien_,
for England.
It may not be out of place to say here that, the trial that awaited
them having terminated favorably, Captain George and Mr. Simpson each
accepted a berth on board the steamer _Escambia_, the former occupying
the position of first officer, and Mr. Simpson a grade lower. The
_Escambia_ left London for China, going thence to San Francisco, where,
after loading, an attempt was made to put to sea before the cargo had
been properly adjusted. This imprudent act ended disastrously, for the
vessel keeled over and sank in a few minutes. Most of those on board
went down with the ship, and amongst those who thus perished were the
late captain and mate of the ill-fated _Acadia_. Of the rest of the
crew left on the island, three took passage for England on the American
ship _Alfred D. Snow_, and, later on, the remainder returned to San
Francisco, with the exception of three, who chose to remain on the
island, and a youth, whose home and parents were in San Francisco, but
who had been unfairly left behind. Nor did he have an opportunity to
return home until after a nine months’ stay on the island.
Two of the men whose choice was to remain were after a while married,
one making his home on the island, while the other, after a stay of
three years, left with wife and two little children for his home in
Wales, where the wife and mother died in less than a year.
The third, the carpenter of the ship, had also decided to follow his
two shipmates’ example, and succeeded, not wisely but too well, in
winning the affections of a girl who was shortly to be married to one
of the island men. But the unfortunate attachment ended unhappily, for
some of the young woman’s relatives, indignant at the turn of affairs,
set themselves to put the matter right, according to their judgment,
and enlisted the sympathies of the magistrate in their favor. He soon
had an opportunity, from a fancied insult to himself, to order the
Englishman off the island. The act, unjust in itself, was carried out,
and he left the island on the British man-of-war _Sappho_, in July,
1882. Captain Clark, of the _Sappho_, did not conceal his opinion of
the whole proceedings, but openly declared the injustice of the act.
However, in accordance with the magistrate’s strongly expressed wish,
he received the carpenter on board his ship, and gave him a passage to
Honolulu, where he obtained suitable employment.
In letters received from him he denounced bitterly and in unsparing
terms all who had shared in the unworthy strife that ended in his being
sent away. Before leaving, Captain Clark, by special request, framed a
law which forbade henceforth the marriage of a stranger to any of the
islanders, with the intention of settling amongst them. Several reasons
were given why such a law should be made, the principal one being
that the population was increasing quite rapidly enough without any
addition from the outside. The law was afterwards amended by a clause
stating that should anyone whose stay could benefit the island, wish to
settle there, he might do so. But as the island offered no inducement
whatever to anyone outside of its own inhabitants as a desirable place
for a home; there was no danger of any addition to the population from
outsiders, and the law might have remained as it was originally written.
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