The Sun.
London, England, 1840-11-13 00:00:00

PITCAIRN'S ISLAND.

It may be remembered that when the mutineers of her
Britannic Majesty's ship Bounty, Lieutenant (late Admi-
ral) William Bligh, &c., seized upon the ship, they took
her to Pitcairn's Island, which was then scarcely known,
and uninhabited. The following is a copy of a letter just
transmitted to us for insertion :

Sir,—We touched at the Sandwich Islands, firstly, in
1837, when they were doing pretty well, in the China and
North-west fur trades, California, and the whale-fishing,
&c, ; but on our second visit, the latter part of the past
year, they were in rather a poor condition, as a French
frigate (l'Artemise, Captain Laplace) had made a heavy
demand upon them, and actually obtained twenty thousand
Spanish dollars. This had justly given offence to them,
the more especially as the English flag, which they had
for a long while considered a protection, seemed to afford
them no protection at all ; and as to the Consulate, it
appeared merely in name. The Sandwich islanders seem
to be desirous now of soliciting protection from the Ame-
rican or Russian flag. Having visited the Society
Islands also twice in the course of our voyage, I found
the moral state of this beautiful group, still far behind
those of the Sandwich islands. Thieving, prostitution,
drunkenness, and such-like, more or less, the same, I am
' sorry to say, as when I first knew them, a considerable
time back, especially at Papeete, the head-quarters of the
shipping at Tahiti : indeed the Wapping and sink of the
South Seas 1 Besides, they have had, for some time, a
very immoral foreigner, a native of Antwerp, half Dutch,
half French, together with his Valparaiso Spanish harlot,
residing among them at Tahiti.• This man was the prin-
cipal cause of their recent troubles, and the " coerced "
payment of two thousand hard Spanish dollars, by the
foreign residents (not the Queen nor native chiefs of
Tahiti, as bas been incorrectly represented) to the cap-
tain of another French fifty-gun frigate,( Venus). More-
over, he caused an English ship (Pomare) to be illegally
condemned at Papeete (Tahiti), thus cheating the Lon-
don underwriters out of ten thousand Spanish dollars or
more, whilst we were refreshing our crew in 1832, at
that place. The zealous Wesleyan missionaries at the
Friendly Islands were going on, and doing as well as
possibly could be expected. They have recently given a
good moral code of laws to their " King George," in fur-
therance of the general welfare at that fine group. I
must now beg to observe that, when we touched at the
interesting little island of Pitcairn's, on a previous voyage
in 1834, we really found them the happiest people I ever
saw, then under the immediate teaching of a highly re-
spectable English Gentleman (Mr. Joshua Hilles) the
same who had rendered essential service both at the
Sandwich and Society Islands, whilst I visited them, and
who tried hard to establish a Temperance Society,
though without success, at the very time I was at Tahiti
in 1832. But, alas the fallen condition of Pitcairn's I
Since their faithful aged pastor above mentioned was
obliged to leave them, three runaway sailors have settle.;.
among them, and so corrupted them as to cause the utter
ruin of this colony.t Pitcairn's being the last place un-
touched at, previous to our coming round Cape Horn,
and the weather (being their summer season) so fine and
smooth, we remained off and on the island several days,
obtaining such produce, in exchange, as they could spare,
• for our voyage home. In the meanwhile, through a few
honest ones yet left, I found out their secret plans, which,
in a word, is always to• seem to be vastly happy, and
perfectly united among themselves, whilst any ships or
visitors arc at their island ; even keeping " a good look
out," lest they might, by any possibility, be again taken
by surprise, as was the case when Mr. Hilles detected
them with two stills up (one for each party) and all drunk
on a Sunday morning in 1832, but he forthwith had the
stills put down, and a Temperance Society established.
Shortly after a Captain of the Royal Navy sentenced
these bad men to be sent off; when the isle became like
a paradise ; the men were unfortunately allowed to return,
and go on in their old Ways! Their main object now
is to impose on the world, the more especially her
Majesty's Government, thus to obtain, from time to time,
presents more freely ; for they, like the Tahitians, have
become great beggars and liars, which I know to be a fact.
Those men are: the principal cause of all the mischief
at the various islands, among the natives, in the Pacific,
making no scruple of letting out their women, by way of
example, a /a Tahitien, to such as will make them pre-
sents. Moreover, they have again the cursed stills at
work ; not in the village, as before, but up the mountains
among the trees, for secretly making ardent spirits. Go-
vernment should not allow those men to remain upon such
a mere "bay-cock" of an island as Pitcairn's ; it being
less than five miles in circumference, very rocky and
mountainous. As for expecting that the natives them-
selves should ever send them off their island, it is entirely
out of the question, for by the art and low cunning of the
fellows, is " party spirit" is kept alive among the weak
and timid islanders, who are thus equally divided ; and,
in a physical point of view rendered impotent ; no one
dare openly make a complaint even when a man of
war happens to visit them. But, on the contrary,
each of these fellows have their deluded party friends,
ever ready to take every opportunity, whether on
board the ship or on shore of misleading the stranger in re-
gard to the real state of their affairs. Hence, I promised
the few yet uncorrupted (to whom I have alluded) that I
would make their sad case known to the benevolent peo-
ple of England; and I would beg that, as early as pos-
sible, there may be sent out a good moral character, an
ordained clergy man of the Established Church. I sin-
cerely hope, that all of our respectable editors will copy
this article from your paper as a real act of charity.
There is an excellent native man, by name Edward Quin-
tal, of middle age, on Pitcairn's, who, in my humble
opinon, should be put by her Majesty's Government as
Chief at the head of the people of that island.
I am, Sir, with due respect and consideration, your very
obedient servant, WNI. SNIITII.
Brunswick Terrace, Commercial-road, Limehouse,
September 1, 1140.
• Morenhout. Nobbs, Buffett, and Evans.