Arriving at Oeno Mr. Walker’s first care was to secure the lady’s box of jewelry, which he guarded with jealous care, but reached Pitcairn just an hour too late to deliver the box into the lady’s own hands, as the Leicester Castle was about to make sail when the mate’s boat appeared, the islanders having supplied whatever they could spare from their own slender stock of provisions to help the heavy demands made upon the stores of the Leicester Castle by the addition of a whole crew of shipwrecked men. After a long and tedious passage Captain Boag at length arrived in port, where the crew of the late Oregon were speedily discharged. Mrs. Collyer also left almost immediately for home, where she arrived safely in due time, and where her box of treasures reached her after a few months’ delay. On his arrival in England Captain Boag suffered some inconvenience on account of his having taken so many of the shipwrecked men on board his ship, and drawing so heavily on his own limited resources to supply their wants.
On the 6th of November the last survivor of the generation immediately succeeding the mutineers passed away. Elizabeth Young, nee Mills, and whose first husband was a son of Quintall the mutineer, died at the ripe age of ninety-three. Her struggles with the last enemy were protracted, as if life was so hard to yield up. While speech lasted, she seemed to live over again the days when, as a child, she was instructed by John Adams, and while tossing about on her bed and during her calmer moments, she never ceased repeating the prayer that John Adams taught his youthful flock to repeat before retiring to rest: “I will lay me down in peace and take my rest, for Thou, Lord, only makest me to dwell in safety. Into Thy hands I commend my body, soul, and spirit. Thou has redeemed me, O Lord, Thou God of truth.” The second year following the death of old Elizabeth Young—called by everybody “ma-ma”—saw more deaths than had happened in any previous year since the island was reinhabited, four deaths occurring among the community during the year 1885.
CHAPTER XXII.
ARRIVAL of MR. JOHN I. TAY
OWING to the extremely isolated situation of Pitcairn Island, and the uncertainty that attends every effort to reach it again should one venture beyond its narrow limits, the islanders had hitherto, with very few exceptions, been satisfied to spend all their lives together, rather than run the risk of leaving their lone island home without having an idea when they would see it again. In a period of twenty-seven years only five had left the island to visit other places, all being men; but in January, 1886, for the first time an island woman left her home and family, to begin life anew in a distant land. To leave behind and forever the scenes of earlier years, the fond parents and brothers and sisters, and the old life of simple duties and pleasures, to enter upon a scene of life new and untried—indeed, scarcely dreamed of—needed great courage. This she displayed, being guided by her high sense of the duty she owed her husband, who, after a stay of five years and a half, was about to return to his native land.
The pain of parting from parents, whose tender love had watched over her whole life, and from brothers, sisters, and friends who cherished her, and who prized her love and friendship, was bravely borne. Only a short time, less than a day, was allowed them in making preparations for their departure, and when the hour of parting came, the procession that followed them to the landing place was like that of a funeral, as all knew that the separation would be final. In less than a year after reaching her new home she passed away, the cold winter in a foreign land proving too severe for a constitution always delicate.