The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 17, No. 492, June 4, 1831Various
History
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 17, No. 492, June 4, 1831
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
[5] Who does not recollect the delightful narrative published
some years since by Mr. Mariner, in his account of the Tonga
Islands; the poem of "the Island," by Lord Byron; and countless
dramatic representations of this unhappy affair. We remember an
affecting version about seven years since at Sadler's Wells
Theatre: and only a few weeks since a few of its incidents were
embodied in a melo-dramatic piece called "Neuha's Cave, or the
South Sea Mutineers," at Covent Garden Theatre.
In the end, only one white man, old Adams, remained alive of the
mutineers who had landed. Of these, only one died a natural death;
another was killed by accident; six were murdered; and but one remained
to tell the tale.
After the greater number of the party had been murdered off, things went
on pretty smoothly, till one M'Coy, who had been employed in a
distillery in Scotland, tried an experiment with the tea-root, and
succeeded in producing a bottle of ardent spirits. This induced one
Quintal to 'alter his kettle into a still,' and the natural consequence
ensued. Like the philosopher who destroyed himself with his own
gunpowder, M'Coy, intoxicated to frenzy, threw himself from a cliff and
was killed; and Quintal having lost his wife by accident, demanded the
lady of one of his two remaining companions. This modest request being
refused, he attempted to murder his countrymen; but they, having
discovered his intention, agreed, that as Quintal was no longer a safe
member of their community, the sooner he was put out of the way the
better. Accordingly, they split his skull with an axe.
Adams and Young were now the sole survivors out of the fifteen males
that landed upon the island. Young did not live long.
Adams was thus left the only Englishman on Pitcairn's Island. Being
thoroughly tired of mutiny, bloodshed, and irreligion, and deeply
sensible of the extent of his own guilt, he resolutely set about the
only sound course of repentance, by exhibiting an amended life, and by
training up in habits of virtue those helpless beings thrown upon his
care for good or for evil.
He had an arduous task to perform. Besides the children to be educated,
the Otaheitan women were to be converted; and as the example of the
parents had a powerful influence over their children, he resolved to
make them his first care. His labours succeeded; the Otaheitans were
naturally of a tractable disposition, and gave him less trouble than he
anticipated. The children also acquired such a thirst after scriptural
knowledge, that Adams in a short time had little else to do than to
answer their interrogatories, and put them in the right way. As they
grew up, they acquired fixed habits of morality and piety; their colony
improved, and intermarriages occurred; and they now form a happy and
well-regulated society, the merit of which, in a great degree, belongs
to Adams, and tends to redeem the errors of his former life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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