By 25th March we found ourselves about the latitude of Pitcairn Island, from which we were barely one hundred miles distant. This island, so singular alike by its physical features and its remarkable history as the retreat of the surviving mutineers of the Bounty with their families, has latterly had its interesting population removed to Norfolk Island, where there was room for the simple God-fearing community to increase its numbers without the risk of an excess of population over the resources of the soil, as there appeared reason to apprehend had they been left on Pitcairn Island.
The story of the mutiny itself, the escape and subsequent career of Captain and Admiral Bligh, the extraordinary change that came over Adams when, ere ten years had passed, he found himself the sole survivor of the mutineers, all but one of whom died a violent death, and the hardly less marvellous manner in which this primitive community was discovered, after the lapse of nearly thirty years, are themes that need no recapitulation here. Much less known however is their subsequent, hardly less singular, destiny, and it will not, therefore, be out of place if, in the interests of the general reader, we vouchsafe a passing notice of their strange career.
In 1814, twenty-five years after the mutiny, Sir Thomas Staines in H.M.S. Briton visited the island, at which time
the little colony consisted of 46 individuals, 38 of whom had been born thus far from all civilization. Nevertheless the little community were living contented and happy in all the simplicity of a patriarchal family, and in the cultivation of the cardinal virtues of Christian morality, inculcated by the now venerable Will. Adams, such as thankfulness to the Creator of all things, patience, gentleness, and neighbourly love.
The very singular origin of this exemplary race repeatedly attracted passing ships to this little-known island, and this intercourse did not fail to exercise a pernicious effect upon the spiritual-mindedness of the islanders, the more so that there were among these numbers of desperate adventurers, who did all in their power to mislead this simple-minded race.
When Captain Beechy, in 1825, approached the island in his ship Blossom, he perceived a small boat standing off towards him under full sail. On board were Adams himself and several of his pupils. They requested permission to come on board, and hardly waiting for an answer, the little active lads had clambered up and stood on the quarter-deck. Adams had lost his youthful agility, and for a moment seemed to hesitate. The sight of a man-of-war, it may well be conceived, made a deep impression upon him. It called up too many mournful recollections, and when he beheld the cannon and all the "circumstance of war," with which in his youth he had been familiar, he could no longer restrain himself,
and tears of emotion flowed down his wrinkled cheeks and silvery beard. At this period the island boasted 66 inhabitants, and the old man felt deep anxiety lest the little spot of earth to which he was banished apparently without hope of reprieve, should ere long prove insufficient to provide adequate support or even space for its rapidly-increasing population.[100] He spoke to the excellent Beechy upon the subject, and implored the English Government to provide his little flock with a more comfortable abiding-place under the English sceptre, and better adapted to the wants of his rapidly-increasing posterity.
On 5th March, 1829, Adams expired at the age sixty-five, surrounded by his children and descendants. In the latter days of his illness, during the short intervals of ease which his intermittent agony left him, he expressed a wish that the community would during his life select some one to be their head; however, out of respect for the venerable sufferer, this was not carried out officially, but after the death of Adams, Edward Johnny, son of one of the seamen of the Bounty, assumed the Presidency of the little colony, while renouncing the honorary title.
Under him the Anglo-Tahitian settlers enjoyed visible prosperity, when an unexpected event destroyed for ever the
placid tenure of their existence, and compelled them to leave their beloved island. On his return to Europe, the gallant Beechy, intending to confer a real benefit on the gentle people in whom he felt so lively an interest, had laid before the British Government Adams' dying request, in consequence of which an English man-of-war and a transport made their appearance from Port Jackson, Australia, in March, 1831, to transport the whole of the inhabitants to Tahiti, which European nations regarded as the most suitable spot for them to be settled in. The Pitcairn Islanders were in despair, for, when made aware of the steps taken by "Father Adams" through Captain Beechy to get them placed under the British Crown, the good folks had long before written to England and urgently entreated that they would not remove them from their own hearth; but their entreaties seem not to have reached the proper quarter, or else to have received no attention, and now that the two ships lay off the island, evincing the interest taken by the English Government in their future destiny, they could not venture on refusing to embark. They had to content themselves with the assurance that they should be restored to Pitcairn Island, in the event of their not finding themselves comfortable in their new asylum.