ISLAND OF DREAMS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 19035, 12 June 1924, Page 3

ISLAND OF DREAMS.

LIFE ON PITCAIRN. A ROMANTIC HISTORY. LAST CHAPTER STILL TO BE WRITTEN. OBSERVATIONS AND IMPRESSIONS BY A RECENT VISITOR. (By T.C.L.) Who in his youth has not read of the Mutiny of the Bounty, with all its pathos and romance, its display of human passion in all its varying moo'Js, its dire tragedy, its renunciation, and its lesson to erring humanity? It is one of the classics g£ the soa, and. uniike the story of Robinson Crusoe that stirs the imagination of youth even unto this day, it is but a record of unvarnished and brutal facts. The Bounty was engaged by the British Admiralty in conveying bread-fruit plants from Tahiti to the West Indies, whose people oftentimes ran short of food, when off an island named Tof'.ei (in April, 1789) the mutiny occurred, Fletcher Christian, the second in cv.--u--mancl, assuming command and putting off Captain Bligh and 17 others in a boat but 23ft. long. Captain Bhgii was a martinet, and the verdict of history is that the mutiny was caused largely by the cailous and brutal treatment he meted out not only to the seamen hut to his officers as well. He was, however, an excellent, resourceful and brave seamen, as evidenced by the manner in which he made his way in his cockleshel of a boat over 3600 miles in tropical weather, with little or no provisions or water, to Timor, an island in the Dutch East Indies. The crew experienced the most awful sufferings and hardships, and the journey is still regarded by seamen as one of the most wonderful on record. The Bounty steered for Tahiti, where many of the mutineers remained. The vessel subsequently sailed with nine white mon, six natives and twelve native women, wives of the whites and of three of the Tahitians, to look for ' Pitcairn Island, that had been charted

by a navigator named Cateret some

years before. Christian, a capable sailor, found that no island existed where shown on the map, and was about to give up the search when the natives told him to steer in a direction whence they had observed birds flying early in the mornings. He followed their advice, and duly found the island, which was many miles distant from the point shown on the chart, and, going ashore (not an easy task owing to the absence of inlets and the heavy seax which broke all around its rocky and precipitous sides), was agreeably surprised to find a land rich in tropical fruits and containing soil in which almost everything could successfully be grown. QUARRELS DESTROY PEACE. The mutineers decided to settle in what to them appeared to be a Garden of Eden. They dismantled the Bounty and sank the hull, and, with the aid of the natives of their parry, constructe<i houses for the white men, and set aside sections of land for each. Peace ruled for about two years, when jealousy and quarrels arose, mainly over the native women. The native men seized the firearms and attacked the whites who were working in their cultivations, and killed five of the nine, including the leader, Fletcher Christian. The women begged tone infuriated natives to spare the others, which they did. From that time the remaining three whites never felt sale, and determined to wipe out the native men, which they subsequently accomplished. After ten years from the arrival of the Bounty only one man remained on the island, death having meantime claimed the other three whites, the survivor being Alexander Smith, who changed his name to John Adams. He taught himself to read and write, and took in hand the education of the half-caste children, of whicn there were now over twenty. In. 1808 a passing vessel discovered the island to be inhabited. Tho master was surprised to see a well-built boat headjng for the ship, and even more surprised to hear the dusky oarsmen cry out in English: <-‘Good day! Heave us a rope!” He went ashore, and met John Adams, who was now of a deeply religious turn of mind, and from Mm obtained details of tho tragic happen' ings since Captain Blight was placed aboard the small boat to fare as best he could in the middle of the Pacific. In 1838 Pitcairn was formally annexed to the British Crown, and now comes under the administration of the Commissioner of the Western Pacific. In 1856 the inhabitants numbered 193, and, fearing that the island wou d not support them in times of drought, they were taken by the British Amiralty to Tahiti, whence their mothers had come, but the conditions thera did not appeal to them, and they were unhappy until they were returned to Pitcairn. Subsequently, running short of water and foodstuffs again, they were taken to Norfolk Island, which had previously been used as a penal settlement. They were given the use of the Government buildings, but the life here did not commend itself to many of them, who took the first opportunely of going back to their ancestral island. Here they remained, and to-day .the island, being almost in the track of vessels running between New Zealand and Panama, is regularly visited and therefore kept in more or less close touch with the outside world. No vessel is more anxiously awaited than the Remuera, and no one held in greater regard than Captain Cameron, whom th> y call “Our Father.” And a good father he is to them. In fact, he is a kina of Santa Claus. He brings them letters, papers, parcels and goods, and occasionally takes one of the men on a visit to England or New Zealand. No wonder they look up to him and regard him so benignantly. FIRST GLIMPSE OF ISLAND. It was early Sunday morn, March 30, when we got our first glimpse of the island. The sea was smooth and blue as it can only be blue in tropical parts. Far ahead could be seen a faint outline of land. As we came closer it took the form of the Saddleback, at New Plymouth. or Somes Island, at Wellington. The officers said we would arrive about 11 o’clock, and probably would meet there the Ruahine coming from Panama. Church service was therefore begun on the deck at 10.30 instead of I I. It was a unique scene—the vessel moving through the pellucid seas; flying fish and sharks (observable by their ugiy fins) gamboling qu either side, shepherding the boat as it were; land in the form of what appeared to bo a conglomeration of rock arising abuptly from an illimitable expanse of water; a mijed congregation following tho Church of England service presided over by a Nonconformist but assisted by Anglican clergymen (for there were eight of nine padres aboard), and singing such appropriate hymns as “For Those in Peril on the Seas.” The backs of most of the congregation were to the island, and, as soon as the short service concluded, all eves were turned towards tho romantic isle. It was a picture on which the eyes feasted for many minutes. Instead of masses of rock one saw verdant patches, cocoanut and other tropical trees \Y av i n g> an *i ut the bottom, near the shore, clusters of people, ant-like in size from our distance.

“Will we see the Ruahine?” was the question. “Just around the corner!” answered an officer. Smoko arose and everybody rushed off to get his or her letters, etc., ready to be posted for New Zealand. As we round the island, instead of the Ruahine we saw a trail of smoke. The vessel had slipped on to the other side and wq,s making for her destination. “A dirty trick ” < xclaimed an irate lady from Taranaki; “they could easily lave waited a f3w, minutes longer and taken our letters and postcards.” The name of the cup-

tain of the vessel was taken in vain morejthan once by the indignant passengers, who talked of wirelessing their protest to him. IMPRESSIONS OF THE PEOPLE. Meantime, specs on the ocean began to assume the proportions of boats, heavily laden and strongly manned. They were the Pitcairn Islanders. Naturally, after the lecture given the previous evening by Captain Cameron on the Mutiny of the Bounty and the life of the Pitcairners, all were eager to ascertain what manner of men and women were tho descendants of the mtuineers. They found them totally unlike any other people. Of course they varied in type. One .could see evidence of the Caucasian origin. Especi ally was this the case in connection with one named McKoy, a lineal descendant of the armourer or blacksmith McKoy, who, were he set in different surroundings, would be regarded as a jovial-natured Hibernian. McKoy, by the way, is one of the rangitiras of the island. Then one remarked the refined and a > retie features of one or two of the men, and it was not surprising to find they bore the names of Christian and Young. These, it was subsequently found, are the most common names on Pitcairn. Christian, of course, was the leader of the mutiny, and Young was a midshipman, both coming from leading English families. They are still known by their progeny.. Some of the other islanders partook of the appearance of their maternal forbears, albeit there was apparent a sallowuess bctakening a tendency to T.B. There were quite a number of island women in the boats, which now num bered three, and large ones they were, all made, we learned, by the islanders themselves and capable of holding forty persons. The women were not altogether prepossessing, though there were exceptions. Their appearance was largely spoilt by their teeth, or want of thjm. Unlike the Maoris and other aboriginals, they have veiy poor teeth. Whether this is caused by a lack of lime in the plant and vegetable life or the water they drink, or is a legacy bequeathed to them by their paternal forbears, has not been defined. They have a dentist on the island. In size, he is the biggest man there, and called Melville Christian. He has a set of primitive forceps, and his greatest pleasure, so it is said, is to use them. When an islander, has toothache he promptly goes to Melville, who as promptly gets to work with the forceps. He believes in the frontal attack as affording the only effective remedy for teeth troubles. None of your stopping or crowning or bridging for him! Yank them out! A few trips ago Melville saw the Rcmuera surgeon and commissioned him to use some cocaine, as his feminine victims wer complaing of tho pain attending the extractionfl The surgeon, however, declined, feeling that Melvtll-a was already doing a good deal of harm %nd he did not desire to be an accessory to extending his opportunities for further mishchiof. SKILL IN LANDING But, back to the boats. Chattering like so manv monkeys, some singing chanties of the briny, others humming popular English airs, ropes were thrown to them from the ship, rope ladders put down, and with an agility born of long practice, and cumbered with baskets of fruit (more or less green), small workbaskets, boxcsi shell necklaces and other articles of their own manufacture, they negotiated the ladders and sprang aboard, and having made due obeisances to the captain and his officers, commenced selling their wares to indulgent and curious passengers. Oranges, looking far from appetising, though sweet and juicy, were off ere i at eight fo ra shilling; bananas, also green at about the same price; coconut boxes with handles, 2s 6d; work-boxes made from native miro wood, from 10s to £1; little palm kits at from Is 6d to 2s 6d. The prices were high for the values offered, but the buyers did not seem to mind. Cargo was taken aboard the boats, including some boxes of clothing and books that had been collected by Mrs. C. H. Burgess, of the £Jew Plymouth branch of the Victoria League, which which the islanders took as a matter of course, and with no exuberant expressions of gratitude, and those of the passengers going ashore, were ordered to get into the boats as quickly a possible. The process was not as simple as it looked, as the range of the sea was fairly considerable, and one had to judge accurately and act quickly in order escape being immersed in the sea or jambed between boat and vessel. It is worth going ashore on Pitcairn if only to witness the skilful boatmanship of the islanders. On our boat, besides the crew of about twenty were twenty-three passengers, and it seemed to be dangerously low in the water. However, that was a triffe which appeared to give the boatmen no concern. As previously stated, there is no natural landing place on the island, which is exposed to the full force of the Pacific on every side. But, all the same, the islanders launch and land their boats quite safely. Their landingplace is between —or, rather, over some big rocks. They wait for a big wave which takes them betw-een and over the rocks, and then, by rapid rowing and backing, they turn at right magics and get behind some covering rocks, and then into smooth water on to the skids. At the landing seemed to be assembled the remainders of the island’s inhabitants. They were the less virile tnd mobile. Old men, old, women, youngs girls and boys, babies, the decrepit and the deformed. They were not a very impressive lot, save for the youngsters, who appeared to be much I’kc the youngsters of a Maori pah, though perhaps better clothed and showing signs of being more eared for. They told an eloquent tale of Nature’s penalties for breaking her consanguineous laws. (To be continued in to morrow’s issue.)