40^ 
FQREST AND STREAM. 
[May 23, 1903. 
A Visit to Pitcairn's Island. 
In Three Parts — Part Two. 
I LOOKED over my shoulder just before we had got 
in, to see when to stop rowing; I was bow oar, and 
noticed that a number of men and one boj' had come 
down to the beach to meet us. I meant to get that 
boy as soon as we landed. The men dragged the boat 
ashore, hardly giving us time to get out of it, then be- 
gan to shake hands with us. I looked around for the 
boy, and saw him some distance up the beach; he 
stood there sticking his toes in the sand; he had run 
off before we landed. The mate saw him and said, 
"Yonder is your boy already. I wonder who told 
him that you were coming?" 
The w'hite members of our crew had a standing joke 
that I would try to steal a boy off of every island we 
touched at, and a mate was supposed to examine my 
cabin and engine room each time before we raised 
the anchor, to see that I did not have both half full 
of boys. This had been started while we were among 
the Society Islands early the last summer. We had 
taken a fine whale one morning, the first one we had 
got in more than two weeks, and just as he was 
brought alongside, the weather began to get thick and 
the barometer was falling. We could not cut in while 
the gale that was coming was on; and if we rode it out, 
with the whale towing astern, we might lose him; the 
nearest island was only, twenty miles away and we ran 
down to it and came to anchor in smooth wafer be- 
tween a reef and the land. This was Sander's Island, 
it is the second largest one of the gronp, Tahiti being 
the largest. 
While we were cutting in and trying out here, I took 
a lot of smoking tobacco, some hooks and lines and 
a few jack-knives, and hailing a canoe, had it take 
me ashore. Always when I landed on one of these 
islands I hunted up the boy.s, and after I had given a 
few of them tobacco and fish hooks they would then 
do the hunting for me. 
This was the i,«land that had those half-breed boys 
on it; they were the descendants of the mutineers of 
the Bounty. I soon had half a hundred of them around 
me, and in a short tiiTiC one-half of them wanted to go 
home with me. I made up my mind to get at least 
one of them if the old man did not stop me. I meant 
to smuggle the boy on board, then keep him out of the 
captain's sight until we had sailed, then as long as I 
had not bought the boy he probably would let me 
keep him. The mates would know that I had him; 
but none of them, except the chief mate, would inter- 
fere; it was not their funeral; and I and four of the 
mates were very friendly. 
I picked out a boy about 14 years old, who was 
dressed in a cotton shirt and a pair of leggings, and 
that w-as all. He told me that he was the chief's son, 
but his father had about thirty boys, and had told them 
that any of them could go to the white man's country 
if the ship would take them. I took the boy to his 
father, and after I had given the chief some tobacco, 
hooks and lines and a large jack-knife, I asked him if 
he needed this boy in his business. 
No, I could have him; and I also might take half a 
dozen of the brothers; he had too inany blanketety 
blanked boys here anyhow, they were in the road here; 
he must have at least thirty of them; he would be 
blanked if he knew how many he had. The blanked 
missionaries had told him that he must keep these 
boys and raise them, and he added: "Do you know 
what else they told me?" 
"No, what was it?" 
"They told me I must send of? all of my wives but 
one; I told them they might go to Hades." That was 
not what he called the country, but it will do. 
"Yes, I told them I was chief here; let them teach 
the boys if they want to; but I need all the wives I 
have; who would feed these boys after I had sent their 
mothers ofif?" 
The missionaries evidently had not converted this 
chief enough to hurt him; he could swear in two lan- 
guages fluently and had five or six wives. I told him 
to keep them. 
"How many chiefs are there on this island?" I asked. 
I knew he was not the only one. 
"Three," was the reply, "just two too many." 
"Well, then, why don't you take these men and boys 
and drive these other chiefs off?" 
"The blanked English won't let me. I tried that, 
but they sent a blanked gunboat here and told me to 
quit fighting, that is what the blanked missionaries are 
here for, to watch me; I am no fool, I know it." 
These people do not care for their children; I have 
had a nearly full-grown girl offered to me for a few 
of our silver dollars, but I wanted a boy; and if I had 
any place to put them I should have taken the chief 
at his word and got half a dozen of his boys; but I 
took this one. 
I stayed to dinner with the chief and as many of his 
boys as could crowd into his shack. Two of them got up 
a fight over this; both wanted to get in; the smaller of 
the two seemed to be "it." He landed on his brother, 
knocking him out, then ran in and took his place on the 
floor alongside of me. His father told him to get out. 
"No, chief," I said, "I want him in here; this boy 
seems to be a fighter." 
"He is; he has half of the boys on the island 
whipped. I wish you would take him." 
"I'll leave him here until he has whipped the other 
half. I am going to taboo him now; he must be let 
do as he pleases here." 
"That is what he does do, now." 
I afterward found out that this boy was his father's 
favorite, on account of his fighting propensities, I sup- 
pose. All these boys spoke good English and many 
of them read it; their father could not read though. 
I had a number of them write their names in my 
note book, 9tr\4 om oi theni wrote the native nanie for 
his island. We ate dinner seated in a circle on the 
floor, while the wives of the chief waited on us; I had 
the chief point out the mother of my boy; he said I 
might take her also if I wanted her; he could get an- 
other one. 
I took my boy on board and kept him there for 
a day; then the gale having blown itself out we got 
under Avay the next morning, and had got about a 
mile off shore when the captain noticed my boy and 
wanted to know what that native was doing on board? 
Some one of the mates told him that I had him. He 
had the ship rounded to and a boat lowered; then he 
sent for me and told me to take charge of the boat and 
land that boy again in his own country. I did so. and 
came back expecting to be landed in a pair of irons 
myself, but I never heard any more about it from the 
captain. I did from the crew though. This is what 
the mate was driving at now here ra the shore of 
Pitcairn. 
"I see him, sir," I told the mate; "I will get him," 
and I started toward him, but the boy began to run 
again. 
"Don't run away. I won't hurt you. Come here." 
He hesitated a mo'-.ent, then ran down to me and 
held out his hand. 
"You can speak English, can't you?" I asked. 
"Oh, yes, I am English," and looking me all over, 
he asked, "You are, too, are you not?" 
"No, I am an American from the United States." 
"Oh. I know where that is; my uncle is there, don't 
you know him?" 
"No, I think not. What is his name?" 
'"Tuesday October Christian." . 
"Oh. yes; I have heard of him, but I have never seen 
him. He may be there though. It is a big coimtry, 
you know; I can't know every one in it." 
He wanted to see my boat, and he examined it all 
over, then wanted to know what I called it. 
I told him it was a whale boat, and showed him the 
two harpoons and the lance, and how to use them. 
"The whales come around here sometimes, but we 
never try to kill them." 
"You could not, your boats are too small, and it is 
dangerous to kill them unless you know how. When 
we put this iron in one he sometimes gets mad and 
tries to do the killing himself. When he does he would 
smash this big boat as if it were an egg shell, but if 
they come while we are here we will kill a few of 
them; we only want a few more, then we are going 
home." V 
"Can't you take me home with you?" 
"Why, yes, I could; I want a boy, but your father 
would not let you go." 
"Oh, yes, he will, if you ask him." 
His name he told me was Johnnie. 
"Is it? My name is John also. What else do they 
call you besides Johnnie?" 
"My whole name is John Adams Christian. Is your 
name John Adams?" 
"No, it is John Anderson." 
"Why every John here is called John Adams." 
"That is because they call you after that old gov- 
ernor who is dead; his name was John Adams." 
He kept examining my clothes; my cap and shoes 
were a great curiosity to him; there was not a pair 
of shoes on the island then. He wanted to know what 
kind of stuff my clothes were made of I told him flan- 
nel out of wool off a sheep. 
"That captain who came with you had nice clothes. 
I thought he was the nicest man I had ever seen." 
"That is not the captain; he is the second mate, Mr. 
Robinson. When he speaks to you always say 'sir' 
to him; we have to do it; but you need not say sir to 
me, any more, only 'yes' and 'no'; and tell the other 
boys not to do it." 
"The governor makes us say 'sir' to every on"e. If 
I said only 'yes' to him he would whip me." 
"Well you need not say 'sir' to me; I don't want a 
boy to do it." 
Our crew had to address me and my partner as 
"master" and say "sir" to us; the captain kept up his 
gunboat rules in that as he did in everything else; but 
if the men forgot, as they sometimes did, to add the 
sir I never called their attention to it; though a mate 
or the captain, if he heard them, would give them a 
keel-hauling for it right away. 
I took my notebook and pencil and had. him write 
his name, then had him add "Pitcairn's Island, De- 
cember 20, 1874," and told him to write his name and 
address that way for any of our officers who asked for 
it, but I forgot to tell him to change the date, and next 
day when he wrote it for the captain he was a day 
behind. 
He handed me the book but kept looking at the 
pencil, it had a rubber tip, and he asked what this was 
for, and I showed how to use it. 
"Have you got two of these?" he asked. 
"Yes, a dozen of them; you may keep that one, if 
you want it." 
"I'll have to keep it hid though, or I won't have it 
long. The governor will take it from me; he needs 
pencils badly now; he has only two short pieces in the 
school; they are to teach us to write with; when I 
want to write I take a burned stick and write with 
it, and I can make pictures, too." 
"Then I'll bring you colored pencils and white paper, 
and you need not hide that pencil; tell the governor 
that I can get him all he wants, but he must not take 
anything I give you boys from you; I will stop that 
in a hurry if he tries it." 
He came back to the clothes now, and would like 
to have some out of that cloth. All the clothes he 
had on were a pair of knee pants and a small shirt, 
neither of them had any buttons on them, only strings, 
and he had no pockets, his shirt bosom was his pocket. 
"I am going to get you clothes like mine," I told 
him; "there is a man on the ship that can make them." 
Oh, his mother could make them if I got him the 
stuff. 
He stood up and gave the whole beach above us a 
close looking over, as though he were expecting to see 
some one; then asked, "Have you got any tobacco?" 
J handed him small bag Qi §moking tobftcpo, tell- 
ing him to keep it and I would get him some more; 
then I gave him paper to make his cigarette. Next 
he wanted a flint and steel to light it. 
"We don't use them," I told him, and striking a 
match I lit his cigarette, then threw the match away. 
He got it and tried to light it again. 
"It won't light but the one time," I explained; "don't 
you know what matches are?" 
He had never seen one before. 
This boy was 14 years old, but was nearly as large 
a^ a boy of 16 would be at home. He was entirely 
white, the only trace of the native woman being his 
long black hair that hung down on his shoulders. 
He proposed that we go up to the village, keep out of 
the governor's sight, get all the boys and explore the 
island. 
I told him I meant to do that to-morrow, but to- 
day I wanted to see that chapel, and we started, he 
going up in rear of the village so as to hide his to- 
bacco, he said. When half way up he crawled in 
through a hedge, and coming out again said, "It is 
where the governor can't find it now, I have a place 
in there that he knows nothing about." 
The chapel was a long, low, one-story affair, having 
a cross on the roof with the English flag flying above 
it. The old ship's bell off the Bounty was hung to 
a post in front. 
The door stood open, and going in we found a young 
woman who, the boy had told me, was their teacher; 
this was their school. She came forward to meet us. 
She was dressed in a sort of a Mother Hubbard 
gown of native cloth, while her hair, which was brown 
instead of black, hung down clear to her waist. Had 
she been well dressed she would have passed for a lady 
anywhere. By the way, she was in America only a 
few years ago on a visit; but did not come East. I 
saw a notice of her in a California paper. I should 
like to have seen her again, she is a middle-aged wo- 
man now, but has never been married. Before we left 
the island the governor was making his plans to give 
her to mc and keep me there. 
"Cousin Amelia," Johnnie called out, "that ship is 
from the United States, and here is a man off it who 
can speak English, too." 
"Of course he can, what else did you think he 
spoke? He is English the same as we are," then to 
me: 
"You don't know how glad we were when we saw 
your ship at daylight this morning. We watched to see 
what flag you would have." 
She started to show me what she called their organ; 
it was one of our old style parlor organs. The name 
plate was on it yet, and I told her it had come from 
Nevv- York. She sat down and played it and could 
still get music out of it, but it was rather worn; they 
had been using it for many years. She showed me 
their library, consisting of a few school books, prayer 
and hymn books, Testaments and about two dozen old 
magazines that they had put cloth covers on; none of 
the magazines were less than six years old, most of 
them being dated 1867. Then she brought out a book 
made by sewing illustrated papers, Harper's and the 
London Times, together; hardly a page ot this had not 
been torn and mended again. I felt sorry for them 
when I saw what a poor library they had and how 
much they thought of it, and told her I meant to get 
her new books right away. 1 
We got back to the beach and got the boat into the 
water, and I sculled out to the ship and found the 
captain on deck under the awning, and told him that 
I had come on board to try and get them some books. 
"Go to my cabin," he said, "and take all of my maga- 
zines, and get what the mates have and take them 
ashore. If you see the governor tell him that I will 
be ashore myself this afternoon. I am going to re- 
main here a few days. Any time you want to visit 
the island take a boat and go; you need not ask me; 
tell the mate in charge of the deck that those are my 
orders." 
I thanked him; this was a privilege he had never been 
known to give any one except his mates, and they had 
to notify him before they left the ship. 
Going to his cabin I got all his magazines, then a 
lot from each of the mates; then the first mate gave 
me a big bundle of picture papers; next I got all of 
my own and the steward's. None of these magazines 
were over a year old; we made a practice of buying 
them in every port we called at; the last had been got 
at Hobart Town, only a month ago; it had taken them 
several months to get these though. I made up a 
large bale of them; then began to hunt up the stuff 
for Johnnie. I had not flannel enough, but there 
was a man on board who acted as my tailor, and I 
could get it from him. He went by the name of 
Marblehead, from the port he hailed from down East. 
I had got him out of a scrape last summer when he 
went to sleep up in the crow's nest; and came near 
wrecking us on a reef. I happened to go aloft in 
time to see it and reported it; we missed it; and that 
was all. Then the captain had him put in irons, and 
sending for me a short time after had me give an 
account of the affair, and I asked for Marblehead's re- 
lease and got it. Ever since then this man had made 
my caps, altered all my clothes and never charged me 
a cent for it. Going to him now I got a lot of flan- 
nel, new canvas, thread and buttons, telling him I 
would get enough of these from the steward to-morrow 
to pay him back; but after he had seen Johnnie him- 
self he refused to take any pay. I got a new cap from 
him also. Then I hunted through my books and got 
"Cook's Voyages," "The Life of Columbus," "The 
Swiss Family Robinson" and "Peter the Whaler." 
Then I got the paper and pencils, a jack-knife, about 
200 hooks in a tin box, a ball of lines, some lead 
sinkers, a comb and glass, a box of matches and a 
box of colored crayons. These I made into a bundle 
and took all ashore, where I told Johnnie to open his 
bundle and get his cap out of it. When I next looked 
at him he had all the books out and wanted to know 
whom they were for? 
"For you. Everything there is yours." 
"I must keep these hid, then," he said, "or they won't 
be mine long; the governor yf\l\ take th^w/' 
