Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 127.djvu/778

766 weeks, ingratiating herself with them by kindnesses which easily won their hearts. Norfolk Island, small as it is, was raised to the dignity of a distinct colony, but under the charge of the governor-general of New South Wales. In October of the same year, Captain Fremantle paid them a visit in the "Juno," and was pleased to find them progressing favourably. There were, however, many perplexities in the thoughts of the islanders. The long voyage and the change of scene had somewhat unsettled their habits. They marvelled at the contrast between the past and the present; at the vast size, as they deemed it, of the really small Norfolk Island; at the largeness of the buildings; and at the amount of property made over to them. They were like children, almost bewildered with a sense of magnitude in all around them; and displayed a kind of timid distrust of their own powers of appreciating what they saw.

In the following year, Sir William Denison went over to see how the little colony prospered. He found their simple code of laws inapplicable to their present position, and substituted a new code — a constitution, in fact. It almost excites a smile to hear of so formal an instrument as a constitution for a colony of only two hundred persons, with provisions relating to magistrates, councillors, doctors, chaplain, commissioners, a great seal, oaths of allegiance, public meetings, public works, public receipt and expenditure, judges, juries, legislation, punishments, fines, schools, and schoolmasters. There was a little dark spot, however; the people had become somewhat indolent and improvident. The government had provided them amply with live-stock, seeds, plants, tools, agricultural implements, boats, and fishing-apparatus; and as their wants were simple and easily satisfied, the islanders felt no need for doing much work, nor "saving for a rainy day." He saw evidence that they would be benefited by the instructions of a millwright and smith, a shoemaker, a mason and plasterer, and a gardener or farmer; and he planned the means for supplying these aids after a time. One great advantage was, that the moral conduct of the people remained as exemplary as ever; the lessons taught by old John Adams had sunk deep and taken firm root. The whole adult population assembled to meet Sir William; and he was struck with their general good looks. "There were none who could be called strikingly handsome, but all had good features, well-developed foreheads, and an intelligent expression of countenance." Mr. Lower could have added a new chapter to his "History of Surnames," by a study of those which prevailed among the islanders. A census of the population revealed the names of the original mutineers of the "Bounty" over and over again: Christian, Adams, Young, Quintal, and M'Coy, were one or other of them in almost every house. There were two hundred and twelve souls altogether, forming thirty-four families. Only one bachelor, Samuel M'Coy, lived by himself; and there was an old spinster of sixty-four, Mary Christian. One family comprised Charles and Charlotte Christian and eleven sons and daughters. Matrimony was evidently in high favour, for there were only seven spinsters of marriageable age.

By the year 1859, some of the older people began to have a yearning to return to their first home, Pitcairn Island; and two families, numbering seventeen persons, made the voyage in that year. The women generally showed more of the qualities of their original Otaheitan mothers than of their English fathers, especially a passionate fondness for music and dancing; and were with some difiiculty imbued with English notions of thrift, application, and mental exercise.

Another official visit, in 1862, led to the following report: "On the whole, I am clearly of opinion that as large a measure of success has attended the removal of the Pitcairn Islanders to Norfolk Island as could well have been expected. The people are not much given to steady and continuous labour; but, on the other hand, it must be recollected that the climate indisposes to exertion, and they have not the stimulus of want to prompt them to toil. The people live in security and abundance, attend divine worship regularly, and are free from all those foul practices and baneful superstitions which render the occupants of too many of the lovely islands of the Pacific licentious."

Occasional notices in later years show that there is a little interfusion of new blood among them, by marriage with English persons from Australia and New Zealand. Some, moreover, have gone back to their own tiny island. When Sir C. W. Dilke was collecting materials for his "Greater Britain," he made a brief stay at Pitcairn Island. The union-jack was espied on shore; canoes pulled off to the ship, laden with oranges and bananas; three men nimbly came on board; and one of them, without any embarrassment in 