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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H.M.S. “BRITON,” AT PITCAIRN ISLAND.

When Christian had arrived at the island, he found no good anchorage, so he ran the Bounty into a small creek against the cliff, in order to get out of her such articles as might be of use. Having stripped her, he set fire to the hull, so that afterwards she should not be seen by passing vessels, and his retreat discovered. It is pretty clear that the misguided young man was never happy after the rash and mutinous step he had taken, and he became sullen, morose, and tyrannical to his companions. He was at length shot by an Otaheitan, and in a short time only two of the mutineers were left alive.

PITCAIRN ISLAND.

The colony at this time comprised forty-six persons, mostly grown-up young people, all of prepossessing appearance. John Adams had made up for any share he may have had in the revolt, by instructing them in religious and moral principles. The girls were modest and bashful, with bright eyes, beautifully white teeth, and every indication of health. They carried baskets of fruit over such roads and down such precipices as were scarcely passable by any creatures except goats, and over which we could scarcely scramble with the help of our hands. When Captain Beechey, in his well-known voyage of discovery on the Blossom, called there in 1825, he found Adams, then in his sixty-fifth year, dressed in a sailor’s shirt and trousers, and with all a sailor’s manners, doffing his hat and smoothing down his bald forehead whenever he was addressed by the officers of the Blossom. Many circumstances connected with the subsequent history of the happy little colony cannot be detailed here. Suffice it to say that it still thrives, and is one of the most model settlements of the whole world, although descended from a stock so bad. Of the nine who landed on Pitcairn’s Island only two died a natural death. Of the original officers and crew of the Bounty more than half perished in various untimely ways, the whole burden of guilt resting on Christian and his fellow-conspirators.