'Added to a great share of good humour, we were glad to trace,' says
Captain Pipon, 'in his benevolent countenance, all the features of an
honest English face.' He told them he was married to a woman much older
than himself, one of those that accompanied his father from Otaheite.
The ingenuous manner in which he answered all questions put to him, and
his whole deportment, created a lively interest among the officers of
the ship, who, while they admired, could not but regard him with
feelings of tenderness and compassion; his manner, too, of speaking
English was exceedingly pleasing, and correct both in grammar and
pronunciation. His companion was a fine handsome youth of seventeen or
eighteen years of age, of the name of George Young, son of Young the
midshipman.
If the astonishment of the two captains was great on making, as they
thought, this first and extraordinary discovery of a people who had been
so long forgotten, and in hearing the offspring of these offenders
speaking their language correctly, their surprise and interest were
still more highly excited when, on Sir Thomas Staines taking the two
youths below, and setting before them something to eat, they both rose
up, and one of them, placing his hands together in a posture of
devotion, pronounced, distinctly and with emphasis, in a pleasing tone
of voice, the words, 'For what we are going to receive the Lord make us
truly thankful.'
The youths were themselves greatly surprised at the sight of so many
novel objects--the size of the ship--of the guns, and everything around
them. Observing a cow, they were at first somewhat alarmed, and
expressed a doubt whether it was a huge goat or a horned hog, these
being the only two species of quadrupeds they had ever seen. A little
dog amused them much. 'Oh! what a pretty little thing it is!' exclaimed
Young, 'I know it is a dog, for I have heard of such an animal.'
These young men informed the two captains of many singular events that
had taken place among the first settlers, but referred them for further
particulars to an old man on shore, whose name, they said, was John
Adams, the only surviving Englishman that came away in the _Bounty_, at
which time he was called Alexander Smith.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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