PITCAIRN ISLAND.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 19, 22 January 1879, Page 4

PITCAIRN ISLAND.

{Alia California). Horror of horrors ! An American said to bave gone to lire oo tbe Island of Pitcairn, and the only care aod trouble of the inhabitants, their feats and jeopardy, his presence. So says Admiral De Horsey, British Com-rosnder-in Cbief on the Pacific, according to the telegram. Tbis old sea-dog i of a sailor appears to have bean at j Pi tea ir n's Island, and represents the j people tbere as living ss one may suppose Adam and his descendants might bave lived io Paradise bad the old great grandparents of us all not been fooJ of fruit. The old Admiral thicks the Pitcairners form a model community —free from crime, from disease, and disorders of any kind ; have no trade with tbe outside world, no money, no need of any, the island supplying everything tbey need and all tbeir wants. He represents them as religious, moral, peaceable, contented, and only disturbed by tfae ominous circumstance that an American has recently come among them lo live there. Here now is a nest, a horsey-mare's nest discovered by (his gallant British tar. He, no doubt, tells tbe truth about tbe character, virtues and otber graces of those peculiarly isolated people, for we all bave heard such reports before, and have reason for believing them correct. Some of oor people bave been tbere, bave formed acquaintances witb those peculiar peoplo and have given the world similar reports concerning them. But we think the gallaot Admiral rather spins a yarn wben be says the island supplies all they want. It is here known tbat tbey have wanted a good maoy things whieh the island did not furnish. They desired a church organ, whieh was sent from this city and given them. The isiand does not grow organs as well as cocoanuts; and tbe people there— ihe youog, at least —do desire foreign acquaintance and correspondence. We most be permitted to doubt the correctness of Admiral De Horsey'e estimate of the Pit-aimer's fears, touching tbat one American. If he be a good man, be is not likely to do barm to tbeir community. If he be a b.d fellow, cannot that community of some ninety saints, living like tbe sinless Adam, exert influence sufficient to gather bim into tbeir church aod moral atmosphere? Wby should not that hapless American prove as susceptible to the good influences as were those old fellows who went away ioto the uokoown land, amid the waste of waters, and tbere landed, living long j and honestly, reared families, inculcated 'all the virtues, established ! schools and a churcb, and a community tbe simplest, tbe purest, the happiest on the face of tbe earth, in the midst of the far great sea ? There seems to bave been within them that spirit of good whieh was sufficient io create a new Eden in tbe midst of the Great South Sea; a republic, religious snd moral, suoh as none of our churches aod Sunday Soboois of tbe present day appear capable of doiog But because an American, a Yankee, has settled down among those interesting Pitcairn Islanders, tbis brave British Admiral shouts through his speaking trumpet from his quarter-deck, like Hamlet, " A rat, a rat ! " a Yankee, an American 1 and gives tbe world to think that (bis poor fellow is about to turn ths ooesn paradise into, a

Pandemonium. We fear Da Horsey had just tapped a uew cask when he sounded that blast from the laffrail.