Pitcairn's Island  Notes  Source  Whalesite

      In the first volume of the Gospel Missionary, page 51, our readers were presented with an engraving of Pitcairn’s Island, in the South Pacific. A valuable and interesting book,¹ containing a full account of the Island and its

people, has just been written by the Rev. T. B. Murray. Our readers will find the book. with its beautiful engravings, quite worth purchasing. We extract the following account of a day on the Island: —

      "If it be asked how the people pass their time, and what they can have to do in a spot whose utmost limit is barely four miles and a half in circumference, comprising less of extent than Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens put together, the question may be answered by a description of the Pitcairn Islanders' ordinary day.

      They rise early, generally as soon as it is light. As the difference of longitude between England and Pitcairn is about 130 degrees. or nearly nine hours in time, at seven in the morning with them it is about four in the afternoon with us. Each house has early family prayer, preceded by Scripture reading; two chapters of the Bible being generally selected for the morning, and one for the evening. After some slight refreshment, for they have only two regular meals a day, the business of the Pitcairners' day begins.

      The young people are sent to school, in pursuance of a law of the island, and after the 'graver hours. that bring constraint, and sweeten liberty.' they have their needful food, and their childish amusements. They are fond of flying kites, and of games at ball; though the want of room on the island imposes a limit on the nature and number of the out-door diversions both of young and old.

      The occupation of the men consists in cultivating their

land, looking after their gardens, building and improving their houses, which are neat, clean, and commodious; rearing stock, fencing in their plantations, manufacturing hats from the leaf of the palm, making fancy boxes, &c., which they keep in store for barter with whalers, or other vessels which may call at Pitcairn for refreshment.

      At about twelve o'clock they have a plain and substantial breakfast, or dinner, consisting of yams and potatoes, made into a kind of bread, for which they do not fail to ask God's blessing, and to render Him thanks.

      So strict is their observance of the duty of saying grace before and after meals, that 'we do not know,' says Captain Beechey, 'of any instance in which it has been forgotten. On one occasion I had engaged Adams in conversation, and he incautiously took the first mouthful without having said his grace; but, before he had swallowed it, he recollected himself, and, feeling as if he had committed a crime, immediately put away what he had in his mouth, and commenced his prayer.'

      Fishing for a kind of cod, grey mullet, and red snapper, though no very hopeful pursuit in the deep water round the island, occasionally forms part of the day's employment; nor of the day only; for sometimes they go forth at night among the rocks close to the sea, or row out in a canoe,

and, taking a light, attract the fish, which they strike with a pole, armed with five prongs, and so take.

      Suppose. however. the islander returned from his day's labour to his supper, at about seven o'clock in the evening. Except once or twice a-week, no fish, meat, or poultry will be found to grace the board, but yams, and sweet potatoes, and such humble fare as has been prepared by the females of the family. For the women have their daily tasks to perform; some preparing the ground, taking up yams, and doing other work requiring diligence and strength. There being no servants, the wives or daughters make and mend the clothes, and attend to all the requisite household affairs. They also manufacture tappa, or native cloth, from the bark of the 'anti,' or paper-mulberry. which is rolled up, and soaked in water, and then beaten out with wooden mallets, and spread forth to dry.

      The cooking is performed by the females. Their cooking-places are apart from their dwellings, and there are no fireplaces in any of the houses. Baked, not roasted, meats are the substantial luxuries of the table at Pitcairn.

      They are sparing in their use of artificial light. They have no candles, but use oil, and torches made with nuts of the Doodoe-trees (aleurites triloba.) They have no glass for the windows. The shutters. which serve the purpose of admitting light and air, are closed in bad weather. For the most part pure water, but now and then tea, constitutes their drink. Cocoa-nut milk, and water sweetened with syrup extracted from the bruised sugar-cane, vary the

drinks of these temperate people. No wines or spirits are admitted on the island, except in small quantities for medicinal purposes. The water which they use does not come from springs. (there are none in the island,) but from reservoirs, or tanks, neatly excavated, which collect the rain. Of these there are five or six, holding from three to five thousand gallons of water each, sufficient, not only for the consumption of the inhabitants, but for supplies to wbalers and other vessels.

      When the shades of evening draw on, the islanders, one and all, again remember Him who is "about their path and about their bed. and spieth out all their ways." Nor are they slow to acknowledge His claims, who expects the grateful homage of His intelligent creatures, and whose protection and blessing they beg in family worship before they lie down to sleep. And then, without any thought of locks, bolts, or bars, for they have no such defences, nor any need of them, each may feel at night a happy confidence in the protection and blessing of that gracious Lord, who has guided and preserved them through the day."

      Mr. Nobbs, the worthy pastor of these people, came last winter to England, and was ordained by the Bishop of London, and placed on the Society's List of Missionaries. A letter has been recently received from him, in which he mentions that he is safely returned as far as Valparaiso. We hope to give our readers, another occasion, some farther account of him.

      The Gospel Missionary was the monthly publication of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.

      Rev. Thomas Boyles Murray, M.A., Nov. 16, 1798 - Sep. 24, 1860, was Secretary to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge from 1832 for twenty-eight years.

"A Day at Pitcairn's Island.
      The Gospel Missionary.
Vol. 3, no. 31 (July 1853)
pp. 102-106.

  Notes  Source  Whalesite