The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-10-21
PITCAIRN ISLAND.
LIFE AMONG THE PEOPLE OF
THAT LONELY ROCK.
The Homes and Occupations of the
Sons and Daughters of Famous
Mutineers-AIl is Peace
and Happiness.

1 dUu E1dpplhSsS.
All those who have read the romantic
and remarkable story of the Pitcairn
Islanders are always glad to hear of the
prosperity and happiness of this simple
and pious people. Their fathers were
the band of desperate sailors of the ship
Bounty who set their captain and part
of the crew adrift in small boat on the
Pacific Ocean and then sought refuge
from the vengeance they feared upon the
almost unknown rock of Pitcairn. The
islanders of to-day sprung from the union
of the mutineers with the women of
Tahiti, whom they took from their ma
tive island when they sailed into the un-
known. When news comes from Pitcairn
the names of the people who are men
toned never fail to recall their unhappy
Christian, Young, Mccoy and
the others who perished, all but one of
them, in their prime, most of them by
violence, the victims of their own strife
or of the treachery of the few Tahitian
men whom they had taken with them.
Only one ef these was saved, John
Adams, to be the redeemer of his people,
saws writer in the New York Sun.
With the wives and helpless children of
his brothers in crime all around him,
John Adams discerned the noble mission
before him and eagerly embraced the op-
portunity to wipe out his past. He pored
over the books that had beer saved from
the Bounty, adding to his own meager
knowledge that he might the better in
struct his little people. He taught them
to read and to love morality and religion.
As he grew in years the graces of perfect
simplicity, unselfshness and loving kind.
ness more and more possessed him, and
were reflected in the characters of the
little band who revered and cherished
him as their father and guide. But fot
his nurturing hand Pitcairn Island
would never have become the "Garden
of Eden," as it was described by the
early visitors there after the world had
heard the story of the mutineers.
Sometimes whole year elapses with.
out any news from Pitcairn Island,
though the inhabitants always watch
their chance to send letters by the ships
which happen to be passing. The 00er-
land Monthly publishes number of let
ters written by Miss Rosalind A. Young
to friend in this country. They are
very Interesting, because they picture in
the language of an educated young wo-
man the present life of the islaudets, of
which we have had no detailed account
for many years. The islanders are said
to be fonder of Americans than Of the
British, whose protection they enjoy.
They, however, have good reason to en-.
tertain the kindliest feelings toward
Queen Victoria.
Miss Young is the school teacher on
the island. Her ancestor, Edward
Young, was one of the two mutineers on
the island who died natural death. he
succumbed to asthma in 1900, leaving
Adams as the only survivor of the mu-
tineers. Every one, Miss Young writes,
addresses the others by their Christian
names. "For that matter" she says, 1--WE
are like one family. Thus my father is
Simon, my mother is Mary, and so on.
All are like brothers and sisters" Then
she describes the way in which the
islanders spend their time, speaking first
of the Sabbath. "On Sundays" she
says, ''after family prayers all the young
people prepare themselves for Sunday.
school. The teachers are five in mum.
! ber-my father, V. Young, Miss Mary
Ann Mccoy, mccoy was one of the
most ignorant and depraved of the mu.
tineers. He found root from which
! he was able to distill an intoxicating
liquor, and his last years were spent in
almost incessant intoxication. In fit
of delirium tremems, in 1898, he threw
himself from rock and was killed. Mrs.
Sarah Young, my sister.in-law, and my
self. Father has class of the Oldest OF
the young people, and V. Young the
larger boys and Miss Mccoy the young
girls in their teens. Mrs. Sarah Young
has the younger boys and I have the
youngest children, boys and girls. The
average attendance Is about forty"
In speaking of the work on week days
she writes that the men are usually en-
ployed in field work, planting, wedding
and supplying the food thus produced
for home. When the weather has con-
tinued for long time dry, and after the
rain has come to water the ground. the
women generally help their husbands and
brothers in field work, as that is some
times heavy, and also it is necessary to
have your crops planted before the
ground becomes dry again. Such work
is always healthful, invigorating and
mostly pleasant.
The women employ their time doing
housework, sewing, washing, ironing,
cooking, and all like to spend a day
fishing now and then. If you want tc
be properly tanned the most efectual
way to do it is to spend day on the
rocks fishing in the hot sun, and having
salt water bath after you have done.
Sleep after day so spent comes natur'
ally and is refreshing.
The little island where this young
woman IS spending her life is only q
mile and half long and a mile wide,
and yet she finds unending pleasures in
the varying aspects of the little rock, ,ano
in the different moods of the ocean which
stretches away on every side.
The island is full of hills and valleys.
The trees are not many in kind, but
there are great many OF them. Flowers
are few, and what they have are mostly