"The baggage was speedily landed, and an unusual activity prevailed, with the view of getting housed as speedily as possible. It was plain these poor people had never expected again to get possession of a domain which they had abandoned through ignorance and misrepresentation. The reverent air with which they entered their huts and gazed around with keen scrutinizing glance to see if all had been left in its former state, showed with what love and veneration they clung to this gloomy possession of their progenitors, with all its melancholy traditions, which seemed to exercise over them a deeper attraction than the majestic ruins of a princely ancestral castle, with all its world-famous memories, sometimes does upon the youthful representative of its pristine glories.
"The important part played by the women during the consultations held at Norfolk Island seemed anew to be claimed by the fair sex at Pitcairn, and Captain Stewart could not sufficiently wonder at the high social position they occupied in the little community. The ladies for their part made the most of this privilege, and their utmost efforts were directed towards justifying it by their activity in household matters."
Such is the latest that is known as to the Pitcairn Islanders and their singular destiny. It is not at all improbable that the majority of their kindred will gradually find their way back to the original seat of their race, there to end their days.
Making all allowance for their aptitude and their natural preferences, their innate timidity and lack of decision must leave a painful impression upon every impartial mind; but this prominent trait of character seems to have a deep-seated physiological basis. The "Mutiny of the _Bounty_" was followed by a natural reaction. The ever-present dread of discovery, which constantly haunted Christian and his criminal associates, and to their dying day deprived them of all tranquillity of mind, was transmitted, but in a milder form, to their descendants, and struck root in their bosoms in a feeling of dependence and excessive timidity, which prevented even their grand-children from attaining tranquillity, and from becoming not to say intellectual, but even useful, members of society. Will, courage, independence, seem for ever to have fled from the breast of the Pitcairn Islanders, who, on the other hand, have many virtues well calculated to excite our sympathies, and of whom especially the founder of this simple-minded community, the energetic, clear-sighted Adams, has, by his actions, proved anew the truthfulness of the saying, "Whoever has the power to WILL (a thing) can perform miracles!"