Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1884-05-23
I i ROMANCE OF TIE SEA.

came aboard and reported los persons on the
Island 80 males and IS females. She took their
mail, soma twenty five letters, for different
parts Of the world IA s s....
At long intervals an item like the.
above recalls to The minds OF few Of
the older generation Of readers . for
more interesting romance Of the sea
than Robinson Crusoe, - and one which
has what De Foes immortal story has
not--the essential element of truth.
Though Byron has utilized the princi-
pal incidents in his poem "The Island, =
yet they are comparatively unfamiliar
to the public Of to-day and may be
worth brief revival. II
Pitcairn Island is located near the
southeastern corner of the great Poly
nesian Archipelago. in the Pacific Ocean.
In latitude Is degrees, minutes, 6 sec
onds south, and longitude 100 degrees, 6
minutes west. It is entirely alone in
that wide waste Of waters, the nearest
main land being the coast of Chill,
more than 2, 1000 miles away. It's length
is about two and half miles, it's breath
half as much, and the total area about
one and half square miles. Sur
rounded by rocks and reefs, with
no harbor for larger craft than boats,
and a soil not specially productive, it
would hardly be mentioned even in
Biographies but for the strange his
tory of witch it is the center and
scene. It was first discovered by Car
teret in 1857. and named for the officer
who first saw it from the masthead, af-
forwards Maj. Pitcairn, who led the
British marines at the battle of Bunker
Hill and was killed there. In Decem-
Der, 17S7, the government sent the ship
bounty" under command of Capt.
William Bligh, to Tahiti for the pur-
pose of collecting bread fruit plants
which were to be introduced into the
West India colonies. On the voyage
from Tahita to Jamaica long slumber-
ing mHtiny broke out, due in large
measure 10 the unbearable tyranny OF
Bligh. who, as the sailors say, had "a
genius for making hell afoat." The
leader was the ranking midshipman and
acting first lieutenant, Fletcher Chris
tian, q young man of good family, who
ceased to be a virtue. Bigh and eigh-
teen men who choose to accompany him
were sent adrift in an open boat, and
managed TO make their way in safety to
Timor, an inhabited island 5000 miles
distant. The Bounty" in charge Of
Christian, went back to Tahiti, where
sixteen of the crew preferred to remain.
The rest, nine sailors, with six Tahitian
men and twelve women, after cruising
about for some time, landed on Pitcairn
Island, where the ship was broken up
and burned and permanent settlement
made. As soon as possible after Bigh's
arrival in England the government dis
patched the Pandora" sloop of war in
search of she mutineers. OF the six
seen who had remained at Tahiti, four
teen were captured, Of whom three were
executed in September, 1892; but no
trace could be obtained Of their COM
panions, and the search was finally
abandoned. Not until 1908 were they
heard from by the outside world.
In that year Capt. Folger, an
American, touched at what he supposed
o desert island, and found q happy and
prosperous little colony--all of whom
spoke English-r,nder the leadership of
the last survivor of the original settlers,
Alexander Smith, who had changed his
name to John Adams. He YVES very un-
communicative in regard to the past,
but admitted that the mutineers and the
Tahitians had quarreled among them
selves and killed each other; Christian
having been murdered in his own house,
Which he had built on lofty peak,
whore he could sweep with his glass the
ocean, which, sooner or later, he feared,
would bring she ministers OF vengeance.
Adams had been converted from evil
ways by means of prayer-book and on
these he laid the foundations of the re-
form that produced Christian COM
munity in which crime was utterly un-
known and perfect peace and harmony
prevailed. Folger, on his return, re-
ported what he had seen to the British
Government, which was then too busy
with the Napoleonic wars to give the
matter any attention. In 1914, however,
. British vessel called at the island,
found old Adams still alive and the con-
trolling spirit of a devoted band of dis
oiples. Since then the colony has be en-,
to q certain extent, under the patronage
and protection Of England. In 1881, the
population having outgrown the means
Of subsistence, eighty-seven persons
were transported to Tahiti; but dislik-
ing their new home they returned to
the old one within six months. In 1856,
the number having again become too
large, all were removed at their own
request to Norfolk Island; but in 1856,
two families, embracing seventeen per
sons, went back to Pitcairn and from
these, with some smallre-enforcement
the present population of fifty-two
males and fifty three females has risen,
They have their own code of laws, S.
primitive almost as those in the Gar
don of Eden, and complete isolation
from the worlds vices and the most of
its miseries. Lady Belcher has writ
ton very interesting book on "the
Mutineers Of the Bounty" and, singu-
larly enough, an American edition of
this book, given bya St.Louis gentle
man to a sea captain in the Australion
trade, gaw to the descendants of Chris
tian and his companions on Norfolk
Island the. first intelligence that their
history had been fully published by a
competent hand.
/ The Sweet Singer Of the sierras.
From the Brooklyn Eagle. A. .. ...ss...