Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-09-12
PITCAIRN ISLANDERS.
Curious Results Arising from . Meeting Z
n RFftfSh Vessel.

says the New York Press, the story of the
mutiny that followed is vague tradition;
and that the hneal descendants of the mutt
neers are now living, entirely by themselves,
! on an island in the Pacific ocean very few
have any knowledge. The island is known
/ as Pitcairn's Island. The ship was under a
commission from the British Admiralty to
visit the Society and other islands and col
lect number Of bread-fruit plants, which
were then to be taken to certain of the
British West Indies for the purpose of
stocking those Islands. The vessel started
/ on her homeward voyage with Lieutenant
Bligh In command. He was of an unusually
overbearing and insulting disposition He
accused Fletcher Christian, the mate. OF
having stolen some cocoanuts which he
had bought at Otaheite, one Of the islands
they had visited. Christian determined TO
/ get away from the ship, and was informed
/ by the boatswain that the crew were ready
/ TO mutiny. He surprised the Captain in his
/ berth, made a prisoner Of him, and took
/ possession Of the ship. The captain and
eighteen Of his officers and men were then
set adrift in an open boat.
Christian, with the twenty-four others
who had remained in the ship steered for
the Society Islands, and sixteen of them
nnally decided to remain at Otaheite, while
Christian and the rest, taking with them
( twelve Othaheitean women and seven men.
set sail in the ship for any place that chance
might take them
! Nothing was heard Of Christian and those
who had gone on the Bounty for twenty
! years. At the end of that time an American
/ snip, happening to touch at Pitcalrn's
Island, found there an Englishman called
Alexander Smith (this name was afterward
changed TO John Adams) who said he was
the sole survivor Of those who had sailed on
! the Bounty.
Christian, thinking the island a place
where there would be little chance Of their
being discovered, had landed there and
burned the ship. Things went smoothly
for two years, when one Of the men, having
lost his wife, insisted on taking one of the
Otaheitean mems. The Otaheiteans rebelled
and killed three Of the whites. The rest Of
the whites, with the aid of the women, then
killed all the Otaheitean men. Only four
men were now left on the island. One of
these succeeded in making an Intoxicating
liquor and drank himself to death, another
one was executed by his companions, and a
third died of consumption.
Adams, now an old man, became at last
impressed with the responsibility resting
upon him Of teaching the descendants of
himself and his companions the truth of
the Bible. The result was a model COM
munity. In 1880 the inhabitants moved to
Norfolk Island, but in 1856 part of them
returned to Pitcairn. This colony has since
been remarkable for the purity in which it
has retained the principles inculcated by
the patriarchal Adams.
Between the years 1860 and 1890 num-
Der OF ships called at the island. In 1883
the American ship Harry Mills visited the
place, and one of the inhabitants named
Mccoy accompanied the ship to LIVERPOOL.
In the same year another American ship,
the wandering Jew, stopped at the island,
and on leaving Captain Tapley, the COM
mander, took with him another one of the
inhabitants. This was Earnest Haywood
Christian, the great grandson Of Fletcher
Christian. Until his arrival at Hull, Eng,
Earnest Christian had never seen house,
horse or any other quadruped. His dc
light and establishment when he first saw
steam engine and train were unbounded.
The career of Mccoy, who preceded him to
England, had not been wholly of an agreea-
BILE character. Upon his arrival in London
some INSCRIPTIONS person, taking advan-
tage Of his utter ignorance of the ways of
the world, induced him to hold series of
receptions" at kind of variety show
When he found into what he had been en-
trapped Mccoy was very much disguised,
and blamed the captain of the Harry Mills
for not having told him the character of the
place.
AS soon as Christian arrived in Hull Nc
Coy wrote to him, beseeching him "for
Gods sake" not to come to London, "for,"
he said, "it is hell" On his arrival Chris
tan was treated with the greatest kind
ness, and when he left England took with
him many valuable presents for the island
ers.
Christian spent three years on the ship,
visiting San Francisco and going complete
ly around the world before he returned to
his island home. On her second visit to
Pitcairn Mrs. Tapely had with her young
English girl seventeen years old. She was
the youngest person who had ever visited
the island, and great was the interest and
admiration she excited among the girls Of
her own age. One in particular, Miss Emily
Mccoy, kept close to her all the time, ask
ing her all manner of questions about the
outside world.
"You are the first girl Of my own age
outside of this island that Ihave ever SEEM"
she said. "Ten me all you can. What do
horse-cars look likel And the churches
do you have people enough to fill themi"
Among the island women who visited the
ship on this occasion was Miss Rosalind
Young, one of the most attractive and en-
terprising on the island. She was at this
time about twenty-three years old, had new
er hsd a shoe on her foot, swan like fish,
played the organ in the little island church,
assisted her father in teaching the "village
school" and was the leader in every thing
among the women on the island. She has
written an account Of the island for the
Century, and she told Mrs. Tapley that she
never had an idle moment.
The islanders are still noted for their
strict religious conduct, grace being said
before and after each meal, and swearing
or any thing Of a similar character being
absolutely unknown.
When any dispute arises among them the
settlement Of it is laid over till the next ar
rival of a man-of-war, when it is referred to
the captain, and his decision is final.
Remarkable Di appearances OF . Young
Mans Corpse I'm Xenia, o.
On the morning Of the 14th day of Aug
ust, 1872, Charles J. Reid, young man Of
twenty-five years living at Xenia, O., fell
dead while walking across the dining-room
in his fathers house. The family consisted
OF his father, mother, two sisters and
cousin, boy OF fifteen.
All were present at the breakfast table
when Charles entered the room, says A. g.
B. in the San Francisco Examiner, but in
stead Of taking his accustomed seat near
the door by which he had entered, passed it
and went obliquely toward one of the win
dows-with what purpose no one knows.
He had passed the table but few steps
when he fell heavily TO the floor and never
again breathed.
The body was carried into bedroom and,
after vain efforts at resuscitation bv the
stricken family, left lying on the bed with
composed limbs and covered face In the
meantime the boy had been hastily dis
patched for physician, who arrived some
twenty minutes after the death. He after
ward remembered as an uncommon circum-
stance that when he arrived the weeping
reiations-father, mother and two sisters
were all In the room out of which the bed
room door opened, and that door was closed
There was no other n tho bod roor,,