Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1913-03-14
nine MUT|NEERS.
Story of Supposedly Lost Ship
Bounty Rivals Fiction.
ALL BUT ONE MAN SLAIN.
Sole Survivor Found After Twenty
Years on Tahiti lsland--Avenging
Widows Took Natives Lives For
Their Husbands.


Their Husbands.
| Political economists are little given
to dreaming, but for purposes of illus
| tration they often imagine the case Of
man east on Il solitary island and
! speculate on what he would do and
what he could accomplish. Robinson
| CruSoe is their example.
But what would band of nine Grim
inalS do if they set themselves up in Il
hitherto uninhabited island 200 miles
from the nearest point Of land? Sup
pose they took wives from among the
women Of Tahiti and impressed six
south sea island Mcn to act rs servants
and went to a blooming isle where all
that was necessary to sustain life was
TO sleep under bread fruit tree until
breakfast, dinner and supper fell down
to wake them up? The offspring Of
these people would be degenerate. eS-
pecially after they intermarried for Il
hundred Years, most persons would say.
Would they: asks the Kansas City
! Times.
1t was in 1850 that the british war
ship Bounty sailed for Tahiti, follow
Ing the route of Captain Cook. The ex-
petition was to gather breadfluit and
other tropical plants to bo taken TO the
West Indies for tranSplanting.
When the ship anchored at Tahiti all
hands, from the commander, Captain
Rligh, down to the seamen. started in
on lazy. luxurious existence. There
was little or no work to be done, the
weather was balmy. fruit and other
good things were plentiful. and when
the time came to set sail the men were
inclined to grumble at the prospect OF
sea fare and work again. 70 make
matters worse, Bligh was a man with
Il short temper and sharp tongue.
and he gave most Of his crew Il turn in
irons.
Captain Bligh awoke one morning to
find his bunk surrounded by armed sail
orS. Already one of the ships boats
had been dropped astern. and in it sat
eighteen men who refused to join the
mutineers. The captain was forced
food and water lowered after him.
The ship sailed off, leaving the faithful
few without a compass or any means
Of discovering land.
Bligh was Il blunt man, but he was
a brave and determined sailor, and he
made plucky fight for life. He won
too. After sailing 5000 miles in an open
boat fighting storms and hunger, he
reached land without the loss of a sim
gle life.
When he arrived in England Bligh
cleared himself Of all blame and was
made an admiral little later when he
distinguished himself in battle
A man-of-war was sent out to search
the Pacific for the mutineers. The ones
who had joined unwilingly in the re-
volt were found at Tahiti, and three Of
them We're hanged. But nine OF the
most desperate, led by Fletcher Chris
tan, who seemed to have been driven
half insane by his commanders cruel
ty, had set out in the Bounty to find Il
lonely isle where they could hide from
all mankind.
All the world supposed that the
Bounty had gone down, and it was
twenty years before the truth was
known. 1t was an American whaler
that discovered the retreat of the mu-
tineelS in 1908. 1t had stopped at the
island of Pitcairn for water, and the
crew was thunderStruck at being hail
ed from the shore in good English. The
man who hailed them was the only
survivor of the piratical nine who had
escaped.
According to the story of this man,
John Adams, about four years after
their arrival the six men from Tahiti
they had brought with them revolted
from the tyranny of the white men
and killed all except him. The same
night the widows of the EngliShmen
arose and put to death the whole Of
the TahitianS, leaving him the only
man alive on the island, with eight or
nine women and several children.
For a time, it seemed, the mutineers
had lived peacefully, having divided
the tillable land into nine parts, and
using the POlynesian men as servants.
All went well until the wife Of Chris
tian died, and he determined to fill her
place with the wife OF his servant.
The man shot Christian and anarchy
began. The downtrodden Savage5
withdrew 10 the slope Of the mountain
(the island is only Il great peak sur
rounded by coral reef, and it contains
abolt two square miles, Then
Scotchman and companion went off
in the forest and found Il root out OF
which they made a very satisfactory
substitute for whisky. Under the in
tuence Of this they terrorized their
more peaceable neighborS until the two
fell or were pushed over Il cliff. Fur
Their trouble over the women was end
ed only when Adams was the only
man left alive.