The Lonely Island: The Refuge of the Mutineers Part 43

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.

NEW ARRIVALS AND STRANGE ADVENTURES.

"My dear," said Adams one morning to his spouse, as he was about to go forth to superintend the working of his busy hive, "I'm beginnin' to feel as if I was gettin' old, and would soon have to lay up like an old hulk."

"You've done good service for the Master, John; perhaps He thinks you should rest now," answered his wife. "You've got plenty able helpers to take the heavy work off your hands."

"True, old woman, able, willin', and good helpers, thank G.o.d, but they want a headpiece still. However, there's a deal of life in the old dog yet. If that dear angel, Otaheitan Sally, were only a man, now, I could resign the command of the ship without a thought. But I've committed the matter to the Lord. He will provide in His own good time.

Good-day, old girl. If any one wants me, you know where to send 'em."

Not many days after that in which these remarks were made a sail was seen on the horizon. So few and far between had these visitants been that the excitement of the people was as wild as when the first ship appeared, and much more noisy, seeing that the juveniles had now become so very numerous.

The ship soon drew near. Canoes were sent off to board her. Thursday October, as of old, introduced himself, and soon the captain and several men were brought on sh.o.r.e, to the intense joy of the inhabitants.

One of the sailors who landed attracted Adams's attention in a special manner, not so much because of his appearance, which was nothing uncommon, as because of a certain grave, kindly, serious air which distinguished him. This man's name was John Buffett. Another of the men, named John Evans, less serious in manner, but not less hearty and open, made himself very agreeable to the women, especially to old Mrs Adams, to whom he told a number of nautical anecdotes in an undertone while the captain was chatting with Adams himself. Buffett spoke little.

After spending an agreeable day on sh.o.r.e, the sailors walked down to the beach towards evening to return to their ship.

"You lead a happy life here, Mr Adams," said Buffett, in an earnest tone. "Would you object to a stranger staying among you!"

"Object!" said Adams, with a quick, pleasant glance. "I only wish the Lord would send us one; one at least who is a follower of Himself."

John Buffett said no more, but that same evening he expressed to his captain so strong a desire to remain behind that he obtained leave, and next day was sent on sh.o.r.e.

The sailor named John Evans accompanied him to see him all right and bring off the latest news; but Evans himself had become so delighted with the appearance of the place and people, that he deserted into the mountains, and the ship had to sail without him.

Thus were two new names added to the muster-roll of Pitcairn.

John Buffett in particular turned out to be an invaluable acquisition.

He was a man of earnest piety, and had obtained a fairly good education.

Adams and he drew together at once.

"You'll not object, p'r'aps," said the former on the occasion of their first talk over future plans, "to give me a lift wi' the school?"

"Nothing would please me better," answered Buffett. "I'm rather fond o'

teachin', to say truth, and am ready to begin work at once."

Not only did Buffett thereafter become to Adams as a right arm in the school, but he a.s.sisted in the church services on Sundays, and eventually came to read sermons, which, for the fixing of them more effectually on the minds of the people, he was wont to deliver three times over.

But Buffett could tell stories as well as read sermons. One afternoon some of the youngsters caught him meditating under a cocoa-nut tree, and insisted on his telling the story of his life.

"It ain't a long story, boys an' girls," said he, "for I've only lived some six-and-twenty years yet. I was born in 1797, near Bristol, and was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker. Not takin' kindly to that sort o'

work, I gave it up an' went to sea. However, I'm bound to say, that the experience I had with the saw and plane has been of the greatest service to me ever since; and it's my opinion, that what ever a man is, or whoever he may be, he should learn a trade; ay, even though he should be a king."

The Pitcairn juveniles did not see the full force of this remark, but nevertheless they believed it heartily.

"It was the American merchant service I entered," continued Buffett, "an' my first voyage was to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. I was wrecked there, and most o' the crew perished; but I swam ash.o.r.e and was saved, through G.o.d's mercy. Mark that, child'n. It wasn't by good luck, or good swimmin', or chance, or fate, or anything else in the shape of a second cause, but it was the good G.o.d himself that saved, or rather spared me. Now, I say that because there's plenty of people who don't like to give their Maker credit for anything, 'cept when they do it in a humdrum, matter-of-course way at church."

These last remarks were quite thrown away upon the children, whose training from birth had been to acknowledge the goodness of G.o.d in everything, and who could not, of course, comprehend the allusions to formalism.

"Well," he continued, "after suffering a good deal, I was picked up by some Canadian fishermen, and again went to sea, to be once again wrecked and saved. That was in the year 1821. Then I went to England, and entered on board a ship bound for China, from which we proceeded to Manilla, and afterwards to California, where I stayed some time. Then I entered an English whaler homeward bound, intendin' to go home, and the Lord _did_ bring me home, for he brought me here, and here I mean to stay."

"And we're all _so_ glad!" exclaimed Dolly Young, who had now become an enthusiastic, warm-hearted, pretty young woman of twenty-three summers.

Dolly blushed as she spoke, but not with consciousness. It was but innocent truthfulness. John Buffett paused, and looked at her steadily.

What John Buffett thought we are not prepared to say, but it may be guessed, when we state that within two months of that date, he and Dolly Young were united in marriage by old Adams, with all the usual ceremonial, including the curtain-ring which did duty on all such occasions, and the unfailing game of blind-man's-buff.

John Evans was encouraged, a few months later, to take heart and do likewise. He was even bolder than Buffett, for he wooed and won a princess; at least, if John Adams was in any sense a king, his second daughter Rachel must have been a princess! Be this as it may, Evans married her, and became a respected member of the little community.

And now another of these angel-like visits was looming in the distance.

About twelve years after the departure of the _Britain_ and _Tagus_, one of H.M. cruisers, the _Blossom_, Captain Beechy, sailed out of the Great Unknown into the circlet of Pitcairn, and threw the islanders into a more intense flutter than ever, for there were now upwards of fifty souls there, many of whom had not only never seen a man-of-war, but had had their imaginations excited by the glowing descriptions of those who had. This was in 1825.

The _Blossom_ had been fitted out for discovery. When Buffett first recognised her pennant he was in great trepidation lest they had come to carry off Adams, but such was not the case. It was merely a pa.s.sing visit. Three weeks the _Blossom_ stayed, during which the captain and officers were entertained in turn at the different houses; and it seems to have been to both parties like a brief foretaste of the land of Beulah.

Naturally, Captain Beechy was anxious to test the truth of the glowing testimony of former visitors. He had ample opportunity, and afterwards sent home letters quite as enthusiastic as those of his predecessors in regard to the simplicity, truthfulness, and genuine piety alike of old and young.

If a few hours' visit had on former occasions given the community food for talk and reflection, you may be sure that the three weeks' of the _Blossom's_ sojourn gave them a large supply for future years. It seemed to Otaheitan Sally, and Dinah Adams, and Dolly and Polly Young, and the rest of them, that the island was not large enough now to contain all their new ideas, and they said so to John Adams one evening.

"My dears," said John, in reply, laying his hand on that of Sally, who sat beside him on their favourite confabulation-knoll, which overlooked Bounty Bay, "ideas don't take up much room, and if they did, we could send 'em out on the sea, for they won't drown. Ah! Sall, Sall--"

"What are you thinking of, dear father?" asked Sally, with a sympathetic look, as the old man stopped.

"That my time can't be long now. I feel as if I was about worn-out."

"Oh, _don't_ say that, father!" cried his daughter Hannah, laying her cheek on his arm, and hugging it. "There's ever so much life in you yet."

"It may be so. It _shall_ be so if the Lord will," said Adams, with a little smile; "but I'm not the man I was."

Poor John Adams spoke truly. He had landed on Pitcairn a slim young fellow with broad shoulders, powerful frame, and curling brown hair. He was now growing feeble and rather corpulent; his brow was bald, his scanty locks were grey, and his countenance deeply care-worn. No wonder, considering all he had gone through, and the severe wound he had received upwards of thirty years before.

Nevertheless, Hannah was right when she said there was a good deal of life in the old man yet. He lived after that day to tie the wedding-knot between his own youngest child George, and Polly Young.

More than that, he lived to dandle George's eldest son, Johnny, on his knees, and to dismiss him in favour of his little brother Jonathan when that child made his appearance.

But before this latter event the crowning joy of John Adams's life was vouchsafed to him, in the shape of a worthy successor to his Pitcairn throne.

The successor's name was neither pretty nor suggestive of romance, yet was closely allied with both. It was George n.o.bbs. He arrived at the island in very peculiar circ.u.mstances, on the 15th of November 1828, and told his story one afternoon under the banyan-tree to Adams and Buffett, and as many of the young generation as could conveniently get near him, as follows:--

"Entering the navy at an early period of life, I went through many vicissitudes and experiences in various quarters of the globe. But circ.u.mstances induced me to quit the navy, and for a short time I remained inactive, until my old commander offered to procure me a berth on board a ship of eighteen guns, designed for the use of the patriots in South America.

"Accepting the offer, I left England early in 1816 for Valparaiso, and cruised there for sixteen months, taking many prizes. While on board of one of our prizes I was taken prisoner, and carried into Callao, where I and my comrades were exposed to the gaze and insults of the people.

Here, for many months, I walked about the streets with fifty pounds weight of iron attached to me, on a spare diet of beans and Chili peppers, with a stone at night for a pillow. We were made to carry stones to repair the forts of the place. There were seventeen of us.

Five or six of our party died of fever and exposure to the sun, after which our guardians became careless about us. We managed to get rid of our irons by degrees, and at length were left to shift for ourselves.

Soon after, with some of my comrades, I escaped on board a vessel in the bay, and succeeded in getting put on board our own vessel again, which was still cruising in these seas.

"Entering Valparaiso in the latter part of 1817, I had now an opportunity of forwarding about 140 pounds to my poor mother in England, who was sorely in need of help at the time. Some time after that I went with a number of men in a launch to attempt the cutting out of a large merchant ship from Cadiz. We were successful, and my share of the prize-money came to about 200 pounds, one hundred of which I also sent to my mother. After this I took a situation as prize-master on board a vessel commanded by a Frenchman. Deserting from it, I sought to discover a road to Guayaquil through the woods, where I suffered great hardships, and failed in the attempt."