A Story of the Sea

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 18, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 16.

A Story of the Sea

Among the annals of the sea, the story of Fletcher Christian and his associates will never be forgotten. After having headed a mutiny against his tyrant captain, and set him and a portion of his crew adrift in a small boat, Christian sailed to Tahiti, where six native men and ten native women joined him in searching for a small, uninhabited island of which he had seen an account. January 23, 1790, Pitcairn Island was sighted, the ship run ashore, stripped of everything usable, and the hulk burned. Now let us quote from the account as given in "Story of Pitcairn Island:"

"For two years a fair degree of prosperity blessed their efforts, but the comparative peace and success they enjoyed could not be expected to continue. The first real trouble and disturbance was caused by one of the mutineers named Williams. His wife had gone out one day among the cliffs to search for sea birds and eggs. While so doing, she fell and was killed. Williams, wanting another woman, demanded and obtained the wife of one of the native men. Wronged and outraged by this scandalous act, the native men vowed to be revenged on the Englishmen, and a plot was formed to murder them all. The secret being made known to the women, they imparted it to the Englishmen, in a song as follows: 'Why does black man sharpen ax? To kill white man.'

"And now begins a story of oppression, treachery, and bloodshed, that forms the darkest page in this island's history. So constant was the dread experienced by some of the women, that they contrived, in secret, to construct a rude raft, with the intention of returning to Tahiti, or be lost in the attempt. They had their raft launched, and ventured a little way beyond the breakers; but their hearts failed them, and the entreaties of some of the women left behind, who had found out their intention, prevailing, they returned to shore again. Hostile feelings were strong on both sides. The women, however, sided entirely with the Englishmen. In one instance one of the women deliberately murdered her native husband, when they were alone together in a cave where they lived. It is to this that Mr. Nobbs referred when, many years later, in his song entitled 'Pitcairn,' he speaks of the 'ghost that still lingers on Tullaloo's Ridge.' Tullaloo was the man's name."

This warfare continued until all the native men were killed and only two of the white men remained. The details of all this, and the subsequent history of the island and its inhabitants, are told in an intensely interesting way by Rosa Young, the great-granddaughter of one of the mutineers. The latest edition, with appendix, contains 266 pages. Price in cloth $1.00, paper 50 cents. May be obtained of any tract society or the publishers of this paper.