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On April
4, 1789 , the Bounty
embarked on the return journey to England Tahiti .
Three weeks later the crew, led by first mate Fletcher Christian, mutinied
against Captain William Bligh. Bligh and
eighteen loyal sailors were set adrift in a 23-foot open boat, finally reaching
safe harbor seven weeks later.
After the mutiny, Christian and the other mutineers returned
to Tahiti , where sixteen of the twenty-five
men decided to remain. Fletcher Christian, with eight others, their Tahitian
women, and a handful of Tahitian men then sailed in search of a safe hiding
place from the British fleet that was sure to scour the Pacific in search of
them. They arrived at Pitcairn
Island on January
23, 1790 . The island’s location had been incorrectly charted and
was therefore an ideal refuge. The Bounty was burned to prevent detection
and the fugitives settled into their new home.
The British navy spent three months searching for the mutineers but
never found Pitcairn Island . The mutineers who had remained on Tahiti were quickly captured and brought to trial in England
It was not until 1795
that the first ship was seen from the island, but it did not approach. A second
ship appeared on the horizon in 1801. The American trading ship Topaz was the first to visit the island
and make contact in February 1808, eighteen years after the mutineers first
landed.
The Americans discovered that eight of the nine mutineers
had been either murdered, committed suicide, or died of illness during their
eighteen years on the island. Fletcher
Christian had not created a paradise on earth.
Mr. Christian had three children by his Tahitian wife but was killed
along with four of the other mutineers by the Tahitian men who had accompanied
them to the island. The Tahitian men had
grown disillusioned with Christian and the others for treating them little
better than slaves.
The remaining four mutineers and the Tahitian wives of the
murdered men turned on the Tahitian men and killed all of them. Four European men now remained, along with
ten women and their children. In the
succeeding years, one of the men was executed for the “well-being” of the
community, one died a natural death, and one committed suicide by leaping off a
cliff.
Pitcairn flourished under the leadership of the last
surviving mutineer, John Adams. As leader of the community of ten Polynesian
women and twenty-three children the former able seaman, John Adams, showed
himself to be capable and compassionate.
Adams insisted on Sunday services,
family prayers and grace before and after every meal. Adams
saw to it that the land was cultivated and the livestock tended. The small community prospered in amity.
In 1814 HMS Briton and
HMS Tagus rediscovered the island.
The British commanders were charmed by the simplicity and piety of the
islanders. Favorably impressed by Adams and
the example he set, they agreed it would be “an act of great cruelty and
inhumanity” to arrest him.
In 1825, a British ship arrived and formally granted Adams amnesty, and on November 30, 1838 , the Pitcairn Islands British Empire .
Today Pitcairn Island is a
British possession. The eighteen square
mile island has a population of sixty seven, most descendants of the Bounty mutineers. Pitcairn
Island does not have an airport or seaport; the islanders rely on
longboats to ferry people and goods ashore across Bounty Bay Gambier Islands , French Polynesia . The islanders speak a dialect that is a
hybrid of Tahitian and eighteenth-century English.
Phrases in the Pitcairnese Dialect:
I starten. – I'm going.
Bou yo gwen? – Where are you going?
I gwen down Farder's morla. – I'm going down to Father's
place tomorrow.
Bou yo bin? – Where have you been?
I gwen out yenna fer porpay. – I'm going out yonder for red
guavas.
Foot yawly come yah? – Why did you come here?
Up a side, Tom'sa roll. – Up at that place, Tom fell down.
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