The Datafile PD-CD 2/DATAFILE_PDCD2.iso/books/pitcairn_m

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Internet Wiretap Edition of

THE GREAT REVOLUTION IN PITCAIRN by MARK TWAIN

From "The Writings of Mark Twain Volume XX",
Copyright 1903, Samuel Clemens.

This text is placed in the Public Domain, May 1993.


LET me refresh the reader's memory a little. Nearly
a hundred years ago the crew of the British ship
Bounty mutinied, set the captain and his officers adrift
upon the open sea, took possession of the ship, and
sailed southward. They procured wives for themselves
among the natives of Tahiti, then proceeded to a lonely
little rock in mid-Pacific, called Pitcairn's Island,
wrecked the vessel, stripped her of everything that
might be useful to a new colony, and established them-
selves on shore.

Pitcairn's is so far removed from the track of com-
merce that it was many years before another vessel
touched there. It had always been considered an un-
inhabited island; so when a ship did at last drop its
anchor there, in 1808, the captain was greatly surprised
to find the place peopled. Although the mutineers
had fought among themselves, and gradually killed
each other off until only two or three of the original
stock remained, these tragedies had not occurred be-
fore a number of children had been born; so in 1808
the island had a population of twenty-seven persons.
John Adams, the chief mutineer, still survived, and
was to live many years yet, as governor and patriarch
of the flock. From being mutineer and homicide, he
had turned Christian and teacher, and his nation of
twenty-seven persons was now the purest and devoutest
in Christendom. Adams had long ago hoisted the
British flag and constituted his island an appanage of
the British crown.

To-day the population numbers ninety persons --
sixteen men, nineteen women, twenty-five boys, and
thirty girls -- all descendants of the mutineers, all
bearing the family names of those mutineers, and all
speaking English, and English only. The island stands
high up out of the sea, and has precipitous walls. It
is about three-quarters of a mile long, and in places is
as much as half a mile wide. Such arable land as it
affords is held by the several families, according to a
division made many years ago. There is some live-
stock -- goats, pigs, chickens, and cats; but no dogs,
and no large animals. There is one church building --
used also as a capitol, a schoolhouse, and a public
library. The title of the governor has been, for a
generation or two, "Magistrate and Chief Ruler, in
subordination to her Majesty the Queen of Great
Britain." It was his province to make the laws, as
well as execute them. His office was elective; every-
body over seventeen years old had a vote -- no matter
about the sex.

The sole occupations of the people were farming and
fishing; their sole recreation, religious services. There
has never been a shop in the island, nor any money.
The habits and dress of the people have always been
primitive, and their laws simple to puerility. They
have lived in a deep Sabbath tranquility, far from the
world and its ambitions and vexations, and neither
knowing nor caring what was going on in the mighty
empires that lie beyond their limitless ocean solitudes.
Once in three or four years a ship touched there,
moved them with aged news of bloody battles, devas-
tating epidemics, fallen thrones, and ruined dynasties,
then traded them some soap and flannel for some yams
and breadfruit, and sailed away, leaving them to retire
into their peaceful dreams and pious dissipations once
more.

On the 8th of last September, Admiral de Horsey,
commander-in-chief of the British fleet in the Pacific,
visited Pitcairn's Island, and speaks as follows in his
official report to the admiralty:


  They have beans, carrots, turnips, cabbages, and a
  little maize; pineapples, fig-trees, custard-apples,
  and oranges; lemons, and cocoa-nuts. Clothing is
  obtained alone from passing ships, in barter for
  refreshments. There are no springs on the island, but
  as it rains generally once a month they have plenty
  of water, although at times, in former years, they
  have suffered from drought. No alcoholic liquors,
  except for medicinal purposes, are used, and a drunkard
  is unknown...

  The necessary articles required by the islanders are
  best shown by those we furnished in barter for
  refreshments: namely, flannel, serge, drill, half-boots,
  combs, tobacco, and soap. They also stand much in need
  of maps and slates for their school, and tools of any
  kind are most acceptable. I caused them to be supplied
  from the public stores with a union-jack for display
  on the arrival of ships, and a pit-saw, of which they
  were greatly in need. This, I trust, will meet the
  approval of their lordships. If the munificent people
  of England were only aware of the wants of this most
  deserving little colony, they would not long go
  unsupplied...

  Divine service is held every Sunday at 10.30 A.M. and
  at 3 P.M., in the house built and used by John Adams
  for that purpose until he died in 1829. It is conducted
  strictly in accordance with the liturgy of the Church
  of England, by Mr. Simon Young, their selected pastor,
  who is much respected. A Bible class is held every
  Wednesday, when all who conveniently can attend. There
  is also a general meeting for prayer on the first Friday
  in every month. Family prayers are said in every house
  the first thing in the morning and the last thing in
  the evening, and no food is partaken of without asking
  God's blessing before and afterwards. Of these islanders'
  religious attributes no one can speak without deep
  respect. A people whose greatest pleasure and privilege
  is to commune in prayer with their God, and to join
  in hymns of praise, and who are, moreover, cheerful,
  diligent, and probably freer from vice than any other
  community, need no priest among them.

Now I come to a sentence in the admiral's report
which he dropped carelessly from his pen, no doubt,
and never gave the matter a second thought. He little
imagined what a freight of tragic prophecy it bore!
This is the sentence:

  One stranger, an American, has settled on the island --
  a DOUBTFUL ACQUISITION.

A doubtful acquisition, indeed! Captain Ormsby
in the American ship Hornet, touched at Pitcairn's
nearly four months after the admiral's visit, and from
the facts which he gathered there we now know all
about that American. Let us put these facts together
in historical form. The American's name was Butter-
worth Stavely. As soon as he had become well ac-
quainted with all the people -- and this took but a few
days, of course -- he began to ingratiate himself with
them by all the arts he could command. He became
exceedingly popular, and much looked up to; for one
of the first things he did was to forsake his worldly way
of life, and throw all his energies into religion. He was
always reading his Bible, or praying, or singing hymns,
or asking blessings. In prayer, no one had such
"liberty" as he, no one could pray so long or so well.

At last, when he considered the time to be ripe, he
began secretly to sow the seeds of discontent among
the people. It was his deliberate purpose, from the
beginning, to subvert the government, but of course he
kept that to himself for a time. He used different arts
with different individuals. He awakened dissatisfaction
in one quarter by calling attention to the shortness of
the Sunday services; he argued that there should be
three three-hour services on Sunday instead of only
two. Many had secretly held this opinion before;
they now privately banded themselves into a party to
work for it. He showed certain of the women that
they were not allowed sufficient voice in the prayer-
meetings; thus another party was formed. No weapon
was beneath his notice; he even descended to the chil-
dren, and awoke discontent in their breasts because --
as HE discovered for them -- they had not enough
Sunday-school. This created a third party.

Now, as the chief of these parties, he found himself
the strongest power in the community. So he pro-
ceeded to his next move -- a no less important one
than the impeachment of the chief magistrate, James
Russell Nickoy; a ma