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The Noble Savages
Captain Folger, in the American whaler, Topaz, had fallen across a race of `Noble Savages', a race which would have thrilled Rousseau himself. The people were `tall, robust, golden-limbed and good-natured of countenance'. All were extremely athletic and adept at surf- board riding. They had an engaging simplicity based on unquestioning belief in a Divine Providence. Nobody lied. Nobody stole. All worked for the common good. It is one of the great ironies of history that a legacy of mutiny and bloodshed had produced a model community.
On December 10, 1823, the British Whaler, Cyrus arrived at Pitcairn bearing two men who were to introduce to the island its first (and almost its last) non-Bounty, non-Polynesian blood.
The ship's captain agreed to allow one of his complement to remain on Pitcairn in the role of school-teacher. This was John Buffett, an adventure-toughened sea-dog and yet a mild, soft-spoken scholar. His friend, John Evans, was not invited to stay but jumped ship.
Just nine weeks after landing, Buffett married Dolly Young, who produced a lightish-skinned offspring on 13/1/25. Evans chose Adams' daughter, Rachel and presented old John with a grand-daughter later that year. These were halcyon days for Pitcairn but on that other island, its volcanically-born twin, horror returned.
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