Evening star., 1901-09-28
Land Where There's No Medicine
Tobacco or Rum.
is l,200 MILES FROM ANYWHERE
Descendants of the Bounty's
Mutineers Heard From.
GOOD -LOOKING PEOPLE
Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
LONDON, September 10, 1901.
1t was nearly three years since anything
definite had been heard of the queerest
community In the world-the inhabitants of
| the little dot of land in the Southern Pa
| ciic known to fame as Pitcairn Island,
| but now the captain Of H. NJ. s. Icarus has
| paid them a call, and he says that appar-
emily things are going well with the de-
scendants of the good ship Bounty's mutt
neers.
| They live 200 miles from the nearest
point Of land, and have intermarried and
reintermarried until every one is every one
else's cousin, to say the least, and yet they
object strenuously to any new settlers in
their island. They have no medicine and
yet they are healthy-possibly because they
have no liquor Of any sort and no tobacco.
Conflicting reports had come recently
from Tahiti. Pitcairns nearest neighbor,
one of which said that these exclusive ISL
anders were rapidly degenerating. while
according to the other the Pitcairn folk
were far from degenerating that they
had grown tired Of being merely pictur-
esque and wanted to be a commercial COM
munity. Capt. Knowing, the latest vis-
itor, says the latter report is true. There
are only twenty-nine working men on the
island, but they have just finished building
a new model school, and now are alternate
ly occupied with putting up church, lay
ing the timbers of a new whaling vessel
and making a road to their little harbor.
Their great ambition. however, is to es-
tablish regular trading relations with the
points nearest them.
Yankee Spirit There.
1t is entirely in line with the recent trend
of events that even in far away and Brit
ish Pitcairn Yankee enterprise should step
In and help the island folk out. Although
the colonial office has been trying for some
time to arrange this matter, the British
consul at Tahiti has just reported that
service is to be established during the next
few months 'by vessels sailing under the
American flag"
Fortunately for Pitcairn. the able Mr..
Mccoy who Is now president of the COM
munity of 142 souls seems to be made of
good stuff and until he dies affairs in the
island probably will go well. Some time
ago President Mccoy was obliged to be
away from the island for nearly a year.
and during that time things went rather
badly-a murder occurred. the first one
stree the islands settlement-but when the
president returned 1t took him only short
time to set matters right. To illustrate the
pluck of the man. the Pitcairn folk tell how
he went on board a burning ship and him
bier Island. 1000 miles away. and beached
her there, rather than to allow her captain
to run her ashore on Pitcairn Island, as he
intended to DO
Parliament Of Seven.
With such a man for their president 1t is
not surprising that there is remarkably
good discipline in the island, especially as
Mccoy is well backed up by the other men,
bers of the funny little parliament" of
seven. elected by the people. All the male
adults have to give half their days work
% Ito
the morning, have breakfast and work un-
til 2 in the afternoon, which is dinner time.
After dinner every mans time is his own,
and he spends 1t in gardening, repairing his
boats or shooting wild goats for food The
women, besides doing the housework.
smooth and paint cocoanuts in an odd
way, or make different plated things to
sell to the crews Of ships which anchor of
the island to take fresh water. These av-
erage about thirty-f1ve a year, but the Pit
cairn folk are rather strict about letting
their crews land. for fear Of disease. as a
wrecked ships company cast up on the
island in 1894 brought typhoid fever and
started an epidemic that came within an
ace Of wiping out the little community,
The Oldest man In the island bears the
Christian, possibly in celebration Of the day
Of his birth. He is a grandson OF the mas
ter's mate of the Bounty, one of the mu-
others OF the men are more than seventy
Ave. while the eldest Of the women is sew
enty-two.
Queer Ailments.
None Of these old people has any all
ments beyond the feebleness of old age; in
fact, the only flaw in the otherwise perfect
health enjoyed by the members Of this iso-
lated community is queer affection which
attacks the teeth Of the upper Jaw, gener-
ally causing their total loss early in life.
Il probably Is this feature which has given
rise to the stories Of physical degenera-
ton among the Pitcairnites. Its cause is
supposed to be the excessive intermarriage
among the island families How great this
las been Is shown by the fact that of the
tians, fortyseven Youngs, twenty Warrens.
eleven Coffins, six McCoys, two Buffers
one Buffet and four Smiths. Still the mem
bers of some families In which intermar-
riage has been constant have perfect teeth
while other families in which this practice
has not obtained suffer from the affection
The Pttcairnites are all Seventh Day Ad-
venttsts, and although they are not as
intensely devout as their ancestors became
under the influence of the converted sailor.
John Adams. there is little or no immoral
ity among them. The captain of the Icarus,
after studying the people carefully, found
only three features Of their condition that
he thought did not promise well for the
future. There is no one of the men of
early middle age on the island who seems
quite capable of taking up the presidents s
work and carrying 1t on as intelIigently.
Also as is almost always the case in small
and secluded communities, the surplus of
girls over boys among the children is great.
but 1t is hoped that as some of the girls
grow older they can be induced to leave the
island. The third difficulty is less serious.
being simply the adoption among the is
landers of what is practically a new lam
guage-a sort of dialect or pigeon English,
the result Of slurring or clipping Anglo
Saxon words. This has now gone so far
that some of the people are really slow
about understanding when ordinary En-
glish is spoken to them.
The Mutiny Of the Bounty. Il
It was in 1850 that the British warship
Bounty sailed from Spithead for the Island
OF Tahiti. where she was to be stationed
for six months and then sail for the West