Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

"It must to the islanders have been a beautiful sight, for we were so close in that we could see them all collected under the trees still crying, and we heard their feeble cheers in answer to ours. The parting with the men was worse almost than with the girls; to see big stout fellows crying, and hardly able to look up, was too much. All the officers were deeply affected, and I saw some of the men nearest me, old hardy seamen and big marines, not only wipe away a tear but regularly crying.

"Away! away! we are off for the world again, truly sorry to leave the island. Their happiness in this life consists solely in virtue, and their virtue is their truest pleasure. They think (and how really true is it) that the more religious and virtuous you become the happier you are, deeming every sin to take from your enjoyment in this and the after life. Therefore, if we were to take away the credit due to them for living so good a life from principle, they would still continue, as they know that true pleasure is only to be obtained by obeying the will of God. Their temperance and industry give them health, food, and cheerfulness; gain for them universal esteem, respect, and sympathy; and as in this life they do not seek their pleasures in things below, but in a higher power, and the image of the Saviour is found in their hearts in this world, so we may earnestly hope that they will belong peculiarly to Him in the next. No profligate has ever been known to practise his vicious courses in this island; for their virtue, like a garment in cold weather, completely disarms him and protects them. God protect and bless them!* Both sexes like to dress like Eng

*"Recent visitors declare that drunkenness, the use of bad language, and similar vices, are absolutely unknown among the Pitcairn people. The excellence of their lives, and the harmony in which they dwell together, has surprised every one that has touched at the island, and we

[graphic]

MARIA CHRISTIAN, ELLEN QUINTAL, AND SARAH M'KOY.

lish people, if they can, on Sundays; and the women complain that they can not get shoes, but all the men can get them from the whalers. During the week their dress consists chiefly of a dark-blue petticoat and a white kind of long jacket for the women, a loose shirt and loose trowsers for the men.

"The houses are nice little storied structures, not so neatly kept as one might be led to expect, nevertheless they are far from being dirty. Their food consists chiefly of yams, cocoa-nuts, bread-fruit, plantains, bananas, taro, oranges, etc., a few fish, and in the yam season each family kills a large pig, that during the hard work of digging yams they may have a little animal food. Sometimes

they get goats' flesh, and are trying to rear a few cattle. They have three, and the admiral gave them three more. Both sexes work very hard indeed. They usually rise at dawn, and have family prayers, do the work that is necessary, and about dusk have supper, then go to the singingschool, or Mr. Nobbs's, or meet to have a chat. About nine or ten they go to bed, previously having family worship. Should one of the little ones go to bed or to sleep before its mother comes home, she immediately wakes it to say its prayers. Not a soul on the island would dream of commencing a meal or finishing without asking a blessing or returning thanks.

"Boys and girls swim almost as soon as they can walk;

have met rough sea-captains and hard-headed merchants from California -the most unlikely people, in fact-who declared the Utopian condition of the island to have been such that they quite fell in love with virtue while they staid there, and felt strongly tempted to throw money to the dogs, and to remain and become good, among the descendants of the Bounty mutineers. How so entirely novel a community as one composed of Christians and destitute of rogues will get on upon a larger scale, we have as yet no means of knowing."-Extract from the "ARGUS " (a Sydney newspaper).

consequently they will swim through the largest surf, and play about among the broken water on the rocks, that we look on with terror, and to swim entirely round the island is not an uncommon feat. One of their greatest amusements is to have a slide, as they term it; that is, to take a piece of wood about three feet long, shaped like a canoe with a small keel (called a surf-board). They then (holding this before them) dive under the first heavy sea, and come up on the other side. They then swim out a little way, and wait until a rapid heavy sea is rolling in, the higher the better. They rest their breast on the canoe or surf-board, and are carried along on the very apex of the surf at a prodigious rate right upon the rocks, where you think nothing can save them from being dashed to pieces, the surf seems so powerful; but in a moment they are on their legs, and prepare for another slide. Such as would be death to Englishmen is fun to their women and children. Their method of fishing is equally dangerous. The women walk along the rocks until they see a squid, then watching the retreating sea, they run in and try to pick it up before the advancing surf can wash them off; but frequently they are washed off, and then they have to exert all their skill to land, for they have no surf-board to help them.

"Christmas-day is a grand feast-day, and they keep it up in good style; but the queen's birthday is their grand day. It is observed with feasting, dancing (the only day on which they are allowed to dance on the island), and all sorts of merriment goes on. Among the very first questions every one asks is, 'How is Her Majesty the queen?' Their number is about one hundred and seventy, and they increase very fast. It is, therefore, quite time that some provision were made for their future maintenance. The island would support about eight hundred souls on vege

« ForrigeFortsæt »