Tribute To Religions, Customs & Law

Just over 222 years ago (Oh! how Dhiraagu would love to sell me this ‘reethi number’! ) 15 men and 13 women landed on one of the remotest of all islands scattered in the vast Pacific Ocean.. Pitcairn Island is still unheard of by many, though the island got much attention during the birth of this new century as one of the very first islands to witness the sunrise of January 1^st 2000.

When these 15 men and 13 women landed on this uninhabited island they were thousands of miles from the ‘long hands of the law’ to restrict or guide them, some were Christians and many belonged to no major religion known to the West. You see, out of the 15 men, 9 were mutineers from Cap’n Bligh’s ill fated ship the HMS Bounty. They had set Captain Bligh and as many men as a tiny life boat could carry,adrift into the vast Pacific Ocean! The other 19 were Polynesians- 6 men and 13 women.

What happens when  such a diverse group of people are  taken from their natural elements and let loose  to fend for themselves on a remote location is what writers have long imagined. From Robinson Crusoe to The Swiss Family Robinson to The Lord of the Flies.

Let us see what happened to these 28 ‘fully independent’ individuals!  Let me quote from Simon Andrea’s book,  The Secrets of Love & and Lust: “ Each mutineer would have a house, a woman and a plot of land. Other than that there would be no laws and no artificial constraints  on pleasures. Everyone was to do what came naturally, and they did. The men argued, fought and killed each other and the women were divided among the ever dwindling number of victors”

“First the Bounty’s blacksmith, Jack Williams stole a woman from her Polynesian lover Tararo in an effort to replace his own wife, who had fallen from a cliff while collecting birds’ eggs. In response, the  Polynesian men made two retaliatory raids resulting the deaths of two of their own. The second time they killed four English mutineers & and captured their four wives. Then they started to argue as to who would take charge of one of the women, Teraura. Teimua, who believed it should be him, began wooing her with songs. But Minarii, who disagreed, picked up a musket and blew out Teimua’s brains”

“Of the two remaining Polynesian men, one had his head split with an axe when he tried to climb into bed with the widow of the murdered Brown, and the other was hunted down and shot by a rage-fuelled Edward Young. The four remaining mutineers divided the women more or less equally between them, until the irksome Quital lost his drinking companion McKoy (who had thrown himself from a cliff) and decided to stir up trouble by stealing Young’s second consort, Mauatua. Young decided to act first and invited Quintal over for a drink, piled him with liquor, then felled him with an axe”

“ Of the 15 men who had landed on the island, only two would live to see the new century (20^th) In the 10 years they had been there, 12 men had been murdered, one had committed suicide, and one was being buried by the last remaining survivor, John Adams. The last sailor, still aged only 36, looked around with supreme disconsolation at the chaos which had been wrought by both his party and the Polynesians; his only comfort the 10 women who had made it unscathed through the bloodshed and the twenty children who had come into his care.”

What a story! That is why they say fact is stranger than fiction!

Thank You!