Last Of The Pitcairners

THE accompanying photograph (which is reproduced by courtesy of the “Aus-

tralian Christian World”) shows Mrs.

Selina Buffett (77) and Mr. Parkin Chris

tian (80), the only two survivors of the original Pitcairn Islanders now on Norfolk Island.

These two old pioneers provide one of the few remaining links with that fascinating and historical episode of the South Seas —the Mutiny of the Bounty. The story of how Fletcher Christian and his companions mutinied, set Captain Blight adrift in an open boat, and then sailed in the Bounty to Tahiti, from whence Christian, with eight Bounty men, twelve Tahitian women and six natives set sail for Pitcairn Island—a small island in the isolated section of the Eastern Pacific —and finally settled there, is too well known to be recounted in detail.

The community on Pitcairn Island rapidly grew in number, until it seemed that the island was in danger of becoming overcrowd ed. However, in 1856, the British ship Morayshire removed the 194 inhabitants to Norfolk Island, but subsequently several families returned to Pitcairn. Now, nearly 80 years after the families were moved from Pitcairn Island, the only remaining survivors who actually were born on Pitcairn are the two sturdy veterans pictured here.

Until last year there were two other survivors, Mrs. Rachel Hope Taylor, nee Quintal, who died in August, 1933, at the age of 84, and Mr. Cornelius Quintal, who died aged 92 in February of this year