Читать книгу The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism (Vol. 1-4). The History of Sea Voyages, Discovery, Piracy and Maritime Warfare онлайн

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“The first young man that sprang with extraordinary alacrity up the side and stood before them on the deck, said, in reply to the question, ‘Who are you?’ that his name was Thursday October Christian, son of the late Fletcher Christian, by an Otaheitan mother; that he was the first born on the island, and that he was so called because he was brought into the world on a Thursday in October. Singularly strange as all this was to Sir Thomas Staines and Captain Pipon, this youth soon satisfied them that he was none other than the person he represented himself to be, and that he was fully acquainted with the whole history of the Bounty; and, in short, the island before them was the retreat of the mutineers of that ship. Young Christian was, at this time, about twenty-four years of age, a fine tall youth, full six feet high, with dark, almost black hair, and a countenance open and extremely interesting. As he wore no clothes, except a piece of cloth round his loins, and a straw hat, ornamented with black cock’s feathers, his fine figure, and well-shaped muscular limbs, were displayed to great advantage, and attracted general admiration. * * * He told them that he was married to a woman much older than himself, one of those that had accompanied his father from Otaheite. His companion was a fine, handsome youth of seventeen or eighteen years of age, of the name of George Young, the son of Young, the midshipman.” In the cabin, when invited to refreshments, one of them astonished the captains by asking the blessing with much appearance of devotion, “For what we are going to receive, the Lord make us truly thankful.” The only surviving Englishman of the crew was John Adams, and when the captains landed through the surf, with no worse result than a good wetting, the old man came down to meet them. Both he and his aged wife were at first considerably alarmed at seeing the king’s uniform, but was reassured when he was told that they had no intention of disturbing him. Adams said that he had no great share in the mutiny, that he was sick at the time, and was afterwards compelled to take a musket. He even expressed his willingness to go to England, but this was strongly opposed by his daughter. “All the women burst into tears, and the young men stood motionless and absorbed in grief; but on their being assured that he should on no account be molested, it is impossible,” says Pipon, “to describe the universal joy that these poor people manifested.”