The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-10-18


munity of the Pitcairn Islands is threat
ened by the restless, reforming eye of
Mr. Joseph Chamberlain. He finds that
they need an overhauling before they
can be brought into line with the general
pace of an empire marching on a bush
ness basis. They are not very anxious to
trade and consort with their neighbors,
dotted about in their region of the Pa
cific. To learn the reason of this the
British secretary called upon the British
government high commissioner for the
Western Pacific for a report The reply
is remarkably instructive to anyone at
tracted by the little side histories of
those human oddments who leave the
track of their neighbors, and at vast
distances contrive to maintain through
several generations an ordered commune
~ of their own deyising
This official report finds that these de-
scendants of the mutineers of the British
ship Bounty are temperate healthy and
Industrious. After century of acclima-
tizing and social self-adjustment, they
display on a microscopic scale the feat
ures of similar groups who in other parts
of the earth have elected to live a life
apart, the world forgetting by the world
forgot. Against certain attractive de-
lvelopments, comforting to those who are
| optimists in the matter of human nature,
l'there appears in the story of the Pit
cairn Islands the phenomenon, SO regu-
larly noticed elsewhere, that when a
small fraction wrenches itself free from
the main body and hopes to live on as a
self-sufffcing unit it succumbs TO a habit
which makes it's growth tend downward.
The naval officer who sends the reports
OF ms personal association with TIE is
anders to the High Commissioner speaks
very highly of the mode of life Of the
few hundred jewellers on Pitcairn but he
notes "a tendency growing among the
islanders to make use of a sort of ian
suage of their own, which, 1 am told, IS
a clipping of English words, and which
is at the best a species of pigeon Eng
lish. This shows signs already of MAX
ing some of them slow of comprehension
when addressed in English This officer,
Commander Knowing of the British
cruiser Icarus, gives this pithy account
of his visit to them:
Il arrived in Bounty Bay at 5 p. m. on
Feb. 81 1901. A boatload of islanders
(men) came off, but in view of there still
being several cases of dengue fever in
the ship, I only allowed Mr.. james r.
Mccoy, the chief magistrate, on board.
He reported all well in health, 126 peo
pie on the island the adult females being
Frather in excess of the males. Arranged
to land next day, and then proceeded to
northwest anchorage where was less
kswen Anchored there-lcsing an anchor
(which was afterwards recoYered-for the
night and landed at Bounty Bay the
next morning. After this | communicat-
ed with the island each day, myself and
a few officers landing but by the sur
geon's advice. no islanders being allowed
on board. The swell continued more or
less heavy in both anchorages, so We
stood off and on, or lay to off the island
during the remainder of our stay. Mr..
Mccoy has only recently returned to the
island, he having very pluckily piIoted
burning ship to Mangareva, Bleaching her
there rather than agree to her captain
running her, as he wished to do, on TO
the coast of Pitcairn"
The soil and temperature are all that
could be wished for, and there is scarcely
a wholesome root or fruit that does not
grow most readily. Commander knoWi-
ing proceeds:
During the last four years thirty-five
vessels on an average have called at the
island each year, but the islanders gen
orally seem to see very little of the
crews of merchant vessels. In most
cases the master only of the vessel lands
for a short time the ships scarcely ever
anchoring. During his stay last month
In Mangareva Gambler Islands, Mr..
Mccoy endeavored to arrange something
in the way of a regular trade between
the two islands. and one of their vessels
has since called at Pitcairn, taking away
large quantities of bananas, pumpkins,
and arrowroot The leading men here
think that they will be able to maintain
this trade.
THE adult males have to give all of
their labor during the early part of the
day-viz, from after an early breakfast
at a. m. until 2 p. INTO works for
the public good, directed by the local
parliament of seven. At the present time
| twenty-nine men are available, and their
labor is divided between building new
! church adjoining the present schoolroom,
| a new whaIer and the necessary boat
work, shooting of goats, etc. Two o'clock
| is the dinner hour, and the remainder of
the day the people employ themselves
about their own business of gardening,
| etc The women of the family do all the
! housework, and many of them SMOOTH
and paint cocoanuts, plat and decorate
mat bags, etc.
Disease appears to be still almost I'm
known. The typhoid of 1894 was brought
| here by a shipwrecked crew, and no 9TH
er epidemic has touched the islands
since. The leading people prefer to con
tinue as hitherto, without medicines Of
any sort One small boy has been re-
Gently killed by a fall while chasing
goats on the cliffs. Thursday October
! Christian, son of the man of the same
name, and grandson of Fletcher Chris
tian masters mate of the Bounty is the
Oldest man on the island, aged now SO;
! two other men are over rs and the CID
est woman is a. None of these old peo-
| pie suffer from anything beyond the
weakness of old age, and all seem thor
ioughly contented and happy.
THE early loss of the front teeth in
the upper jaw continues among many of
| the islanders. but the teeth of numbers
of adults, as wen as of the children, are
without a flaw. Some families. in which
up to the present there has been prac-