The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1914, Page 42

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42

A Miracle of Grace.

In 1777, the British government sent the sloop
Bounty to Tahiti to procure some breadfruit trees
for the purpose of introducing them in the West
Indies. On the home voyage a mutiny broke out
among the crew, and the officers, together with nine-
teen men, were set adrift in an open boat. In
passing, we may state that this boat reached the
Dutch settlement at Coupon after sailing four thou-
sand miles for forty-seven days. In the meantime
the mutineers returned to Tahiti, procured for them-
selves a large stock of provisions, and after abduct-
ing twelve native women and six native men, set
sail in search of some uninhabited. island where they
might be safe from the law. Such an island was
known to Fletcher Christian, the mate, and bore
the name Pitcairn Island.

This little island, on which the nine remaining
white sailors and the eighteen natives landed, was
only about six or seven miles in circumference. It
had no coral reef around it, but high cliffs made
it impossible to land except at a few points. They
landed in a little bay, which they called Bounty
Bay, and having emptied and dismantled the OND,
they burned her. ” e

The nine white men divided out the land among
themselves, but gave none to the natives. Each
one also selected one of the native women for his
wife. For two years all went well; they lived in
peace, and all had plenty. Then the wife of Wil-
liams, one of the mutineers, died; without any hesi-
tation he appropriated the wife of one of the natives.
This enraged the natives, and they laid plans to
kill the whites. However, the conspiracy was dis-
covered, and two of the natives were put to death.
Now followed two terrible years of endless quarrel-
ing and carousing. No one trusted the other.
Their crimes arose to accuse them, and fear of re-
venge pursued them. The white men became more
and more cruel to the natives, until finally, no
longer able to bear the tyranny of their masters,
the natives once more rose in revolt and killed five
of the whites. This now left but four whites, and
these now murdered all the native men. Of these
four one committed suicide in a drunken fit, another
was killed in a fight about one of the women, and
a third died of asthma in 1800. ‘Thus, ten years
after landing on the island, there remained only
one white man, John Adams, ten women, and
twenty-three children.

Left alone, John Adams eran to think of his

The Lutheran Pioneer.

past wicked life. His many crimes haunted him,
and the memory of the prayers of his childhood
came back to him. He had rescued from the Bounty
a Bible and a prayer-book. ‘To these two books he
turned for counsel and comfort. Not only did their
reading show him the hideousness of the life he had
been leading, but also filled him with sorrow for his
past sins and misdeeds. And from sorrow he was
led to faith in Christ, his Savior. He, however,
became not only a believer in Jesus, but a witness
for Christ and a missionary. THe diligently taught
the ignorant women and children the sublime truths
of Christianity. Each day was opened and closed
with prayer; the fields were cultivated and houses
built. Upon this lonely island a Christian com-
munity grew up remarkable for the gentleness and
simple virtues of its members. As years rolled on,
Adams was called upon to solemnize marriages, and
families of a second generation arose. ‘The noble
trees and high mountains of the island looked down
upon a peaceful village inhabited by a godly people.

Here was a bastard community, a community
bred in mutiny and lust, a community from the be-
ginning doubly cursed, transformed into a Christian
community by the wonderful power of the Gospel
of Jesus!

In 1810, the first ship landed in Bounty Bay; it
was an American sealer. In 1816, a British man-
of-war came. John Adams offered to surrender him-
self for trial, but the officers of the ship concluded
to leave him on the island where he had done such
great work. In 1823, two young Imnglishmen. be-
came permanent members of the little island colony ;
one a schoolteacher. ‘Thirty-five years after the
landing of the Bounty there were sixty-five persons
on the island. In 1828, the colony received an im-
portant addition in the person of George Nobbs.
He first became schoolteacher, but in 1853, at the
urgent request of the islanders, he was ordained in
the Church of England, and thus became the pastor
of the colony. As long as Adams lived, he ruled
as a patriarch over the island, but when he died, in
1829, laws were framed, and a magistrate and a
council of seven were chosen,

In 1831, the British government removed the
Pitcairn Islanders to Tahiti, but in six months they
returned. In 1856, when they numbered almost two
hundred, a population far too large for the small
island, they were taken to Norfolk Island, a beau-
tiful island-about twice the size of their old home.
Here Bishop Patterson confirmed them all in the
same year and received them into full communion