Revised Jun 2 2021
TO return to John Adams and his small community. Five or six years had passed since the visits of the Briton and the Tagus, and during that time the fact of the island being inhabited, and by whom, had become more widely known. About the year 1819 the East India Company's ship Hercules, Captain Henderson, made a call at the island and left some useful and much-needed gifts for the islanders, consisting of carpenters' tools, large iron boilers, etc., etc., the last mentioned being used chiefly for the purpose of boiling down salt water to obtain salt.
In the month of October, 1823, an English whale-ship, the Cyrus, Captain Hall, visited Pitcairn Island. John Adams, being now somewhat advanced in years, and beginning already to feel the infirmities of age, expressed to Captain Hall the wish that he could find among the ship's crew someone to assist him in the arduous task of trying to impart instruction to his young people. The captain listened kindly, and promised to do what he could. Calling his men around him, he made known to them the wishes of the old man, and asked if any of them would be willing to accede to his request. After a few minutes' hesitation, John Buffett, a young man twenty-six years of age, stepped forward and volunteered his services. Being bound by no home ties, he counted it no great sacrifice to remain.
Among his shipmates on board the Cyrus was a youth about nineteen years of age, named John Evans, a native of London. For love of Buffett, he determined to remain on the island, and for this purpose he ran away from the ship. Being of very small build, he contrived to hide himself in the hollow stump of a tree until the vessel had sailed, and it was safe for him to make his appearance. As there was no help for it, Evans also was allowed to become a member of the community.
Not many months passed before both Buffett and Evans sought in marriage the hands of two of the island maidens. Buffett met with no opposition to his suit, and, in due time, was united in marriage to Dorothy, a daughter of Edward Young. Evans did not obtain such ready favor when he requested of John Adams the hand of his daughter Rachel. The old man did not approve of the young people's entering the marriage relation at too early an age, and Evans was barely nineteen; besides, the disparity in age of the two young persons was another obstacle in the father's view, the young woman being the older by some years. However, the matter was referred to the daughter for decision. Her answer came, quick, short, and decided, "Try it, daddy." He at length consented, but not without misgivings regarding her future happiness, and his paternal blessing was not withheld when the twain stood up to be made one, being wedded with a ring formed of the outer circle of a limpet shell.
It may prove interesting to some readers to know the names of those others whom John Adams united in the bonds of matrimony. The service was performed according to the rites of the Church of England. The parties were, of course, the sons and daughters of all the mutineers who left children, and their names are as follows: Matthew Quintall to Elizabeth Mills, Arthur Quintall to Katharine McCoy, Daniel McCoy to Sarah Quintall. These two last mentioned young men one day swam off to a rock at a considerable distance from the shore, and there agreed to seek each one the other's sister for a wife. The rock received from that incident, its name, Táné M'á, i. e., "The place of the men's agreement." Thursday October Christian, son of Fletcher Christian, and the first born on the island, married Susan, the girl of fifteen who came in the Bounty. The others were: Charles Christian, married to Sarah McCoy*; Edward Quintall, to Dinah Adams; George Young, to Hannah Adams; William Young, to Elizabeth Mills, widow of Matthew Quintall, who met his death in some unknown manner. Most of the young men went out one day in their canoes to fish. They were mostly within speaking distance of each other, but as Matthew, or Matt, as he was called, was not seen tending his canoe, the others supposed that he was lying down in it. It was afterwards discovered that the canoe was, and had been no one knew how long, floating about without an occupant. The body had sunk, and was never again seen.
∗ [She was Teio's daughter and it was thought by some that McCoy was her father, but researchers claim that she was conceived before the Bounty arrived in Tahiti. She is referred to on this site simply as 'Sarah'.]
The following story is told to show the binding force with which a promise was regarded in those early days: George Adams, the only son of John Adams, had, when quite a youth, "conceived an attachment for Polly Young, but she declared that she would never marry George." On Captain Beechy's visit to the island, Adams referred the case to him and the other officers. Their opinion was that the young girl's determination was made before she was old enough to know her own mind, and would be more "honored in the breach than the observance." Polly, however, viewed the matter in a different light, but confessed that her opinion of her lover was considerably altered since she declared she would not have him. Subsequently they were married, perhaps not "in haste," but Polly repented "in a hurry," for she discovered all too soon that a home with George did not mean a "woman's paradise."
One gold ring, the property of Edward Young, played an important part in the wedding services performed in those days, and continued to be used until somewhere in the forties.
Only four of the children of the mutineers died unmarried. One of them, Johnny, the only son of John Mills, the mutineer, came to his death by an awful fall from a high, rocky cliff; where he had gone in search of birds' eggs. His injuries were such that he died before he could be conveyed to his home. The poor lad was only fourteen years old when the sad accident occurred. Two of the sons of Edward Young, Robert and Edward, both died shortly after the return of the community from Tahiti in 1831, while Fletcher Christian's only daughter, Mary, died of dropsy, on Norfolk Island, about the year 1865. A daughter of Quintall, having strayed from the path of virtue, was so harshly treated by her brother that when she had an opportunity she left the island. The captain of a passing vessel, being informed of the matter, and learning the wish of the unfortunate young woman, kindly allowed her a passage on his ship. She was taken to the island of Rurutu, where she was most kindly received. One of the chiefs of the island made her his wife, and she eventually became the mother of a numerous family.
Such were the early loves and marriages between the children of the original settlers. Families of healthy, vigorous children were raised, and over them all John Adams presided, much after the fashion of the patriarchs of old, and was looked up to and respected as a father by the growing community, who had the utmost confidence in the wisdom of his counsels and teachings. At the time of Captain Beechy's visit in the Blossom, in 1825, the community numbered twenty adults and thirty-five children, making a total of sixty-one persons. During a period of thirty-five years there had been twenty-seven births, and of the original settlers from the Bounty there remained only John Adams and five of the Tahitian women. These six, with the addition of Buffett and Evans, made eight of the adult population.
When it was first ascertained that the Blossom was a man-of-war, great fears prevailed among the little Community lest the ship had come to convey Adams a prisoner to England. But they were soon reassured. The captain and officers hastened to explain that coming was for an altogether different purpose. When they realized that their fears were groundless, and that there was no danger of the old man's removal, the female portion of the community crowded around him and embraced him in the most affectionate manner. Especially touching it was to see the way in which Hannah Young clung to her father and embraced him, weeping, even, in the fullness of her joy when she understood that he was not to be taken away.
During the whole stay of the Blossom her captain and officers were most hospitably entertained by the simple-hearted islanders. The young women especially, who inherited from their Tahitian mothers a strong love for flowers, made it their pleasant duty every morning to adorn the caps of the officers with freshly-made wreaths of sweet-smelling flowers. The visitors were charmed with the open, simple manners of all the islanders, but observed that "the same marked difference between the sexes prevailed here as in all the islands of the Pacific, notably at meals, the women were not allowed to sit down with the men; and when the captain and officers passed their remarks and opinions respecting the difference observed between the sexes, their words were resented, as seeming to interfere with long-established custom." (It was not so much a "marked difference between the sexes" as a feeling of unaccountable shyness that prevented the women in those early times from sitting down to the same table with strangers. At the present day most of the island women, inheriting the same dispositions from their mothers, when an occasional visitor happens to share their hospitality, would much prefer to "stand and wait" than act the part of hostess by sitting down with their guests.)
The day was invariably begun and ended with prayer and praise to the divine Father for His mercies and His preserving care, each and every family engaging in a short service of worship by parents and children, nor was a day considered as rightly begun if their first duty to their Creator was omitted. This right custom has ever been, and still is, religiously observed by their descendants. Captain Beechy and his officers had the opportunity during their stay of attending divine service on the Sunday. That day was very strictly kept. There was complete cessation from work; no fires were made, all the cooking being done on the Saturday, that nothing of a worldly nature might interfere with the sacred duties of the day of rest. In the public worship on Sundays, Buffett assisted Adams in reading the service, the especial part allotted him being the sermon, "some sentences of which were read over two or three times," to catch the attention of his hearers, and also to help to impress the words on their memory. Buffett also acted as schoolmaster, and "found the children both willing and attentive scholars."
When the Blossom left the island, the tearful, affectionate farewells told how the hearts of all the islanders had been won to their visitors, whose pleasant stay and cheerful companionship had been such a bright spot in their quiet lives, and was to form ever after one of their most delightful and pleasing recollections.