In letters received from him he denounced bitterly and in unsparing terms all who had shared in the unworthy strife that ended in his being sent away. Before leaving, Captain Clark, by special request, framed a law which forbade henceforth the marriage of a stranger to any of the islanders, with the intention of settling amongst them. Several reasons were given why such a law should be made, the principal one being that the population was increasing quite rapidly enough without any addition from the outside. The law was afterwards amended by a clause stating that should anyone whose stay could benefit the island, wish to settle there, he might do so. But as the island offered no inducement whatever to anyone outside of its own inhabitants as a desirable place for a home; there was no danger of any addition to the population from outsiders, and the law might have remained as it was originally written.
CHAPTER XXI.
The WRECK of the OREGON
TWO YEARS had passed away after the crew of the Acadia found a haven on Pitcairn Island, when one night, the 23d of August, 1883, as the islanders were about to retire to rest, they were startled by shouts and the blowing of a fog horn from over the waters. That another shipwreck had occurred somewhere near was evident, and the men, hastily mustering, went forth with lanterns into the night, and were soon at the landing place. Having launched a boat, a few minutes’ rapid pulling brought them to the object of their search. It proved to be a boat which had belonged to the bark Oregon, now a wreck on the reefs of Oeno. She had been about a month out from Oregon on her way to Chile when she struck on the reefs that surrounded the low-lying island of Oeno. All the crew, and three passengers, a widowed lady and her two infant boys, landed safely on Oeno Island. The position of the ship after she struck was such as to enable the crew to remove everything they wanted, so that they were comfortably settled during their enforced stay.
When all had been made as comfortable as circumstances permitted, the captain, Hardy by name, and his mate, Mr. Walker, after consulting together, decided that the captain should take their small boat and seek a passage through the heavy surf that broke continuously on the reef surrounding the lagoon, and should he succeed in accomplishing it safely, the rest were to follow in the two other boats, with as much of the goods as they could prudently carry. Captain Hardy, accompanied by one of the sailors and the cook, left the shore. Just when the boat had passed beyond the smooth waters of the lagoon out into the breakers, it capsized, and the poor captain was drowned. The mate’s boat, following almost directly, passed safely through the rolling surf, and in passing, the two men who were clinging to the upturned boat, were rescued. With this addition to his crew, the mate, not returning to tell those behind of the captain’s fate, at once steered in the direction of Pitcairn Island. The weather being fair and the wind favorable, they reached their destined place on the second night out.
Most of the men in the mate’s boat were Chileans, and were scarcely able to speak any word in the English language. All were received and sheltered, a disused little building having been fitted up for their accommodation, and after a rest of two nights and a day Mr. Walker, leaving his own men behind, took a crew of the islanders and returned to Oeno, in search of the remainder of the ship’s company. But these had not waited his return, for, having been left without a word as to what had occurred after the captain’s futile attempt to effect a passage, they had launched their big boat, and, placing therein the trunks belonging to the lady, Mrs. Collyer, who, with her children, accompanied them, they too followed the way that the rest had taken. A big Irish sailor took command of the boat and found some difficulty in managing the rest of the men who were with him, and who certainly showed no disposition to willingly obey his orders. Though he possessed very limited knowledge in the art of navigation, yet, under the guidance of a merciful Providence, their boat came in all right, and the day after the mate had gone, the crew of tired men, who had rowed almost the whole distance, beheld, with a feeling of true thankfulness, the sight of land and the prospect of rest. The poor woman, too, was worn out with anxiety, and the care and attention bestowed on her when she arrived in the midst of friends were most gratifying.
Hers had been a sad experience. Her husband, the Rev. J. W. Collyer, whose field of labor had been in Chile, was going, for the benefit of his health, on a visit to his mother in the United States, and had engaged a passage for himself and family on the bark Oregon, for the State of the same name. Only a few days out from the South American Coast his sickness took a sudden turn for the worse, and unexpectedly and with but a few minutes’ warning he died, leaving not one word to comfort and cheer his almost broken-hearted wife. She had to endure the further pain of having him buried at sea, and in her widowed state, among strangers, she made the voyage to Oregon. She was now returning to her father’s house in Lola, Chile, when the unlooked-for disaster happened, depriving her of the hope of soon seeing her family and friends. But their stay on the island was of short duration, for, ere the return of Mr. Walker from Oeno, all had been again received on board the British ship Leicester Castle, in command of Captain Boag, on his way to San Francisco.