The Sabbath on a Round World and Pitcairn’s Island by John Norton Loughborough

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 2, 1871

The Sabbath on a Round World and Pitcairn’s Island.

By John Norton Loughborough

As there has been of late some agitation on the subject of the round world and Sabbath-keeping, I would say, I consider Bro. Andrews’ tract a most successful explanation of the matter. In this tract, some reference was made to Pitcairn’s Island. I read about the same time the accompanying account of the settlement of that island from the San Francisco Chronicle of Feb. 19, 1871.

It seems it was not settled by a Christian community, but that the men tried to reform when they had probably lost track of most everything of a sacred character.

The article explains itself.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.

NEWS FROM AN OCEAN ISLAND.

Recollection of the romance of Pitcairn’s Island and the descendants of the mutineers of the Bounty, has been revived by the receipt of the following letter; addressed to any paper:

PITCAIRN’S ISLAND, Oct. 6, 1870.

Mr. Editor: As many ships pass this island on the route to and from San Francisco, but at too great a distance to board them in a canoe, it is our opinion that they do not know the island to be inhabited. There are no dangers of rocks or shoals, and if they come within a mile, they would most always get a supply of fruit, etc. We number sixty or seventy persons, and we always like to show hospitality to strangers, and to hear the news. This is the third day we have seen ships pass, and this day one is standing in, by which we send this. The landing is on the north side of the island.

If, dear sir, you would have the kindness to give this a place in your valuable paper, you would greatly oblige your humble servants.

COMMUNITY ON PITCAIRN’S ISLAND.

This letter was forwarded by John Purdy, master of the ship Whittington, which vessel touched at Pitcairn on her recent voyage from this city to Liverpool. In this letter, Captain Purdy says: “I found some seventy persons on the island—a healthy and moral people—and obtained several hundred oranges and limes by giving them a little medicine and clothing. The latter they stand much in need of, the women particularly being very short. Some charitably disposed persons coming that way with a stock of women’s and men’s second-hand clothing would confer an everlasting favor upon them. There are plenty of goats, and wild pigs, and water.”

The romantic history of the colony and of the settling of the island has been well-nigh forgotten, so little communication has been had with the inhabitants during the last few years. Late in the last century, a ship was sent from England to the Society Islands for the purpose of procuring bread fruit and other tropical trees and plants, it being desired to introduce them into Great Britain, where an attempt would be made to acclimatize them. The Bounty remained some months at Tahiti, having arrived at a wrong season of the year for transplanting plants. She sailed in April, 1789, and had been out but a few days when the crew mutinied, overpowered the officers, and took possession of the ship. Captain Bligh and such as were not willing to join the mutineers, were set adrift in open boats, and the Bounty was headed for Tahiti. The ringleader, one Christian, succeeded in inducing nine Kanakas and as many native women to come on board. With these and eight companions (the others having landed), the Bounty sailed.

For nearly twenty years, nothing was heard of the vessel, and it was supposed that she had foundered or run into some coral reef and become a wreck; but at last, an American vessel on a sealing voyage touched at Pitcairn and found that it was peopled. Half-casts came alongside the ship, and conversed in good English—they were descendants of the mutineers and the Tahitian women who had accompanied them. When the mutineers left Tahiti, they sailed directly for Pitcairn’s Island. The ship was beached, and after having been stripped of everything desired, was burned. Christian and his companions took the women as wives and made slaves of the men. Houses were built, land cultivated, and for a time everything progressed favorably. But there were elements in the little community which could but occasion trouble.

The slaves rebelled and attempted the destruction of their masters. A long and bloody fight ensued between the whites and the Kanakas, which resulted in three of the former being killed and the extermination of the latter. Christian was one of the victims of the tragedy. One of the survivors committed suicide, another became violently deranged and was knocked on the head with an ax by his companions. Others died natural deaths, but not till two of them had done much to destroy what little comfort was yet left by their disorderly and licentious mode of life. At last, but two of the original mutineers were left of the nine who arrived at the island—Young and John Adams (whose real name is supposed to have been Alexander Smith), the latter being one of the most reckless and desperate of the Bounty’s crew. The two now growing old, and age bringing habits of reflection, talked over their past life, and decided that a reform was necessary. They were near their death, perhaps; a growing community of young people was around them, the members of which needed instruction and example to make them good men and women. By some strange chance a prayer-book of the Church of England had been saved from the Bounty’s wreck, and with this for a guide the two repentant mutineers commenced the work of reform. They taught the doctrines laid down in the prayer-book, and instilled the principles of Christianity into the minds of the younger members of the colony.

In 1825, when Captain Beechey of the British Navy arrived at Pitcairn with his ship, Adams alone survived of the mutineers. He came on board the vessel and gave details of the colony’s history, which were spread through the world. Great interest was taken in the island and its inhabitants by civilized lands; the mutineers and their reformation were the subjects of sermons, tracts, and newspaper articles; and the people the objects of charitable contributions. During later years they have been neglected. The churches have been too busy sending missionaries to China and aiding the project of bleaching Africans (as told by the elderhood) to pay any attention to the descendants of the original settlers of Pitcairn. Curiosity having been satisfied, ships rarely touch at the island, and the little community, deprived of means of communication with civilization and without manufactories, is in a destitute condition, so far as the products of the loom are concerned. The religious sensation has died out, and the helpless Pitcairnians are neglected. No better field for Christian charity than this lone isle in the South Pacific exists, and we hope that the generous-minded of our community may not forget in the midst of their many other charities that this little congregation of worshipers needs assistance.

An interesting point in this connection will be the fact that for nearly fifty years the community has not decreased in numbers. In 1825 there were about seventy inhabitants on the island, and the same number now exist. It is generally supposed that the half-casts, or progeny of white fathers and South Sea mothers, are neither long lived nor possessed of sufficient vitality to perpetuate a hybrid race. As the half-casts of Pitcairn have held their own in numbers, during two generations, this assumption would seem to be disproved, but the data are too meager to warrant any conclusion. The matter is worthy the investigation of ethnologists.