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| John Adams |
I have just
finished a book, “After the Bounty” by Cal Adams. It is the story of what happened to the
survivors of the Bounty mutiny after they arrived on Pitcairn’s Island. It is a fascinating history; freed from the
tyranny of a cruel Captain these sailors return to Tahiti to pick up their
beautiful women partners and six Tahitian men who want to share their
adventure. Nine months of searching led
Fletcher Christian to their new home.
What future
was there for this small group?
They started
settling into their new home. These
seemed good days.
But even in
these early days not every one was happy.
The Tahitian men had grievances about the allocated land and the women.
When one of
the sailor’s women died the sailors took one of the Tahitians’ women for his
own. Pitcairn’s island exploded and became
a hell on earth. The Tahitian men rebelled. They killed many of the mutineers. The women then
retaliated by all killing all the Tahitian men.
William
McCoy perfected a still and things got even worse. Gardens neglected. The women were left to bring up the children,
while the men drank themselves into a stupor.
The brave
Bounty sailors’ story at this stage is one of rebellion, murder, abduction and
probable rape, depression, alcoholism, sexual permissiveness and abuse,
suicides, violence and the exploitation of the Tahitian men. A sad legacy but then a miracle, Ned Young,
suffering asthma, knows he probably does not have long to live starts teaching John
Adams to read and write. In their sober
moments they recognised their responsibility to the children. Ned and John started a school, but Ned was not
well enough to continue and had to leave the near illiterate and constantly
drunk John Adams to take over as teacher.
There was limited
reading material, the Book of Common Prayer and the Bible. God spoke to Adams through these books. Reading them Adams learnt of the freedom he
could have from the guilt he had been carrying around. Adams also received a vision of what life
could be like for his small community. From
that moment Adams made it his life’s work to teach the children, to invest in
their future.
He must have
done a great job. A few years later two
of his Majesty’s warships anchored at Pitcairn.
By rights they should have left with Adams in chains, to be hung in
England, but the two Captains decided the best thing was to leave Adams there,
leading his people.
The Bounty
mutiny and John Adams are part of the story of present day Norfolk Island. John Adams was the leader, teacher and pastor. His dramatic turn around preceded everyone on
Pitcairn finding that same salvation.
Adams’ life was turned around and he found his purpose. Pitcairn was transformed from a hell on earth
to an earthly paradise famous throughout the world as a community of Christian
faithfulness.
God gave
John Adams a choice, would he continue to waste his life in drunkenness and
violence or would he accept the offer of redemption and forgiveness God offered
him? Fortunately for Norfolk Island
Adams chose to follow God.
We have a
similar decision to make. Will we live
as rebels, mutinying against our maker, or will we accept God’s offer of
friendship with him through Jesus his Son?
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