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Pitcairn's Island.
The most recent accounts received, at Valparaiso, from Pitcairn's Island, describe that little colony as existing in great harmony, and in full contentment with its produce. That which is now grown upon it is plantain, bananas, cocoa-nuts, bread-fruit, sugar-cane, potatoes, ginger, and a plant from which a spirit is distilled. The number of individuals who landed from the Bounty were nine Englishmen; and of natives from Otaheite and Tabouis, six men, twelve women, and one child. The population now comprises of English males and their descendants thirty eight, twenty-six females descended from the same nation, and five females, natives of Otaheite. It is a remarkable fact, that not one individual who landed with Christian, not numbered now with the living, met with a natural death; each arrived at an untimely end, by assassination or other violence, the fruits of internal broils in this little community. The offspring of Christian are represented to be very handsome, their features strongly partake of the English; the beauty of one of them, a girl named Mary Ann Christian, for which she is termed "the Maid of the South Seas," is said to invite the same admiration which is offered to the most favoured of our own country-women. Their habitations, which are thirty feet in depth and twelve feet wide, are constructed with boards. It is computed that the Island is sufficiently extensive to afford, by culture, maintenance for its inhabitants, allowing for their increase, for at least one hundred years. An American, the only stranger among them had lately landed and settled there. He is a carpenter, and one likely to be of the greatest utility to them. He had already begun to teach them to build and to enjoin them to acts of industry, (a work in which he had been very successful,) and had established a school for the children. John Adams was in good health, but rather infirm from age. He expressed a desire to return to his native land. — Hampshire Telegraph. |
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Notes.
This account from the Hampshire Telegraph was published with only slight differences in the following publications:
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Source.
"Pitcairn's Island"
This news note was transcribed from the volume at Google Books.
Last updated by Tom Tyler, Denver, CO, USA, Jul 16 2022.
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