Litchfield enquirer., 1871-03-30

Before tracing the subsequent fortunes of the mutineers on Pitcarin's Island. it may be interesting to note what befel the sixteen men who had been left by Chris tian at Tahiti. After the departure of the Bounty, they separated, going to different parts of the island to live, and cultivating, for the most part, friendly relations with the natives. One married the daughter of a native chief. Two of the most turbulent, who quarrelled with the natives and with each other, came to violent deaths. The greater part of the time, for several months, was spent in building a vessel in which they hoped to make their escape to Bata- via. It was schooner-rigged and thirty feet in length, and they christened it, at the moment of it's successful launch, "The Resolution. But they had no sails, and the vessel was useless for any long voyage. Two years and half passed by without tldings from England, when there came to the island Fl. M. 8. Pandora, Captain Ed wards. charged with experimenting the mu- tineers an and bringing them back to Eng land. They were readily secured, fourteen in number, and at once transferred to the Pandora, where they were heavily ironed and confined in 8 narrow cage or box, with not even hope for companion. The Resolution was made prize and the two set sail for the island of Tfmor. Of the barbarities inflicted upon the unhappy prisoners, some of whom were innocent of all participation in the mutiny; of the wreck of tho Pandora, attended with the loss of several lives, and of the other in- cidents of the return to England, 1t. would prolong this narrative unduly to speak. Suffice 1t to say, that three of the prison ers were hanged under the sentence of Q court-martial, and that with this vindica- tion of the outraged law the Mutiny of the Bounty for the time passed out of the minds of the English people.
 Nearly twenty years elapsed before any thing transpired of the fate of Christian and his companions. Suns rose and set, moons waxed and waned, season succeeded season Tn tlnvarying round, and no sail was seen by the fugitives from their lonely seclusion " far out amid the melancholy main." The great storm of the French Revolution had meanwhile upheaved all Europe, Napoleon had fsurped the impe- rial crown, the battle of the Nile and Ira falgar had been fought, Washington had died, the most important occurrences of modern times had startled the civilized world without the knowledge of these Eug- Eshmen, glad to hide themselves from the face of man.
 At last un American ship, the Topaz, Captain Martin Folger, in the month of September, 1908, stood in for water, and q boats crew was landed upon Pitcairn They learned from Alexander Smith, who had changed his name to John Adams, and who was then the sole survivor of the mutt. neers, the story of their life upon the island-a story sad enough to have satis- fled the veDgeful feelings of Lieutenant Bligh. Christian and four of the other Englishmen had been slain, three years after the occupation of Pitcairn, in an af- fray with the Tahitians. All the Tahiti men were subsequently, assassinated. Two others of the mutineers, having succeeded in distilling an intoxicating liquor from a root found upon the island, perished from the effects of it. One threw himself, in @ fit of deliriuns trensens, from precipice His two remaining companions were com pelled to kill the other in self-defence. And now a change came over the colony. Henceforth the annals of the island were never to be stained by crime. A reforms tion was wrought in the lives and conduct of the inhabitants which transformed their settlement into garden of peace and pu- rity, change little short of miracle, the work of Bible and Prayer Book which had been left among Christians effects.
 Smiths sole white companion, Edward Young. who had been midshipman on the Bounty, was nephew of Sir George Young, Bart, and had enjoyed the benefit of early religious training, and he united readily with Smith John Adams) in in structing the Tahitian women, and the children of the intermarriages with them, in the precepts of Christianity, and with such happy success that in the lapse of time there was not on the globe commu. nity so free from vice, so blameless, so simple.minded and afectionate as the peo- pie of Pitcsirn's Island. But in lSOO Young had died of asthma, and Adams be- came the sole surviving man on the island, and the only guardian and teacher of helpless women and young children. :"
 The Topaz reported the discovery of the colony on Pitcairn s Island, and the news awakened public curiosity for the moment in England, but vessels of war could not be spared for 8 voyage to the Pacific, no steps were taken to prosecute further inqui- ries, and the interest in the matter again subsided. -@
 And so the children grew to manhood and womanhood, and inte1married, ana tAVVA 4OAOW0 2AvOSe 4CA4OVO AACAA SAVA1IAd. tion and its vices. 'engirdled by the sea.
 No want was there of human sustenance.
 Soft fruitage mighty nuts and fourishing roots, Nor, save for pity, was it hard to take ~ The helpless life so wild that it was tame,
 There in 8 seaward- gazing mountain gorge a They built and thatchd with leaves of palm, their
 huts, @fLP @ -la 2s' E Half hut, half native cavern. So the tribe,
 Set in this Eden of all plenteousness,
 DWelt with eternal eumuner
 A few years after the visit of the Topaz, two English frigates, in search of the American ship-of-War Essex, touched at Pitcairn's Island-the Briton, Captain Staines, and the /Tagus, Captain Pipon. As they stood off shore" two men were seen rapidly descending to the shore, with canoes on their shoulders. One of these canoes was boldly launched among the breakers, and then dexterously padded through the surf alongside of the Briton. Won't you heave us rope now 2 was the request from the canoe, and a rope be- ing thrown out immediately, fine young man sprang actively upon bhe deck. His athletic figure was quaintly attired in vest without sleeves, and trowsers to the knee ; and he wore hat jauntily decked with black.cocks' feathers. He answered the question, sWho are you 2 with an in- genuous frankness am Thursday Octo- Der Christian, son of Fletcher Christian. the mutineer, by Tahitian mother, and