The Oscar-winning "Bounty" Riot tells the story of the Pitcairn Islands. Before the film was broadcast, these islands were even "one of the ten least-known countries and regions in the world". One", as the movie became popular all over the world, many stories about the archipelago also surfaced in front of everyone.
Today, among these islands in the south-central Pacific Ocean, only Pitcairn Island, the main island, is inhabited, but there are only 9 families with a total of 45 people. Horrible story.
The mutiny that shocked the world
In the 1760s, it was the period when European countries after the industrial revolution were constantly competing for new land on the sea.
Therefore, all countries are scrambling to search for "unknown islands" in the southern mainland and other regions. More and more ships are sailing on the vast sea, and no one knows what will happen in the next second.
On December 23, 1787, the British government sent the armored transport ship "Bounty" to Tahiti to load breadfruit trees. According to the plan, they planned to transport these fruit trees to the West Indies to serve as food for black slaves there.
On the way back, there were 18 Tahitians on board, including 6 men and 12 women.
Bligh, who was originally the "captain", did not have the title of captain, and there were no sailors on board to maintain order, but Bligh didn't know what to think. He asked his men to "exercise" forcibly. Cleaning is also included.
For that incompetent and lazy behavior, Bligh will always take a violent attack, which is also very easy to hurts the feelings of other crew members.
There was also a lieutenant named Christian on board, who was originally a good friend of Bligh's. As Bligh's temper grew, the lieutenant's feelings were also hurt.
When the "Bounty" sailed near Cape Horn, it encountered a serious storm. Fortunately, the ship was stranded for a month as a last resort. Seeing that the situation had not improved, Bligh drove the boat around the Cape of Good Hope and crossed the Indian Ocean to enter the crossed Pacific Ocean, and arrived in Tahiti in October 1788.
Here, they met at the right moment and stayed on the island for 6 months.
Unexpectedly, many crew members fell in love with the climate and sense of stability here, and some even hoped to establish romantic relationships with local women.
At this time, "Captain" Bligh realized the seriousness of the problem, and he began to rectify discipline, but unexpectedly, he was disgusted by more people.
In January 1789, three crew members abandoned the ship because they could not accept the continuous life at sea. Bligh was very annoyed. In order to "restore his prestige", he spent three months arresting these crew members. They were punished with whipping.
Finally, in April of that year, the ship left the island and continued its return voyage, but at this time the "Bounty" was extremely crowded because it was full of various bread trees.
The mood of the crew members was already extremely bad, and now they have to face endless work, and everyone's mood is even worse.
The "Bounty" sailed all day long, and the crew did not get a good rest. More and more people began to complain and adopt a perfunctory attitude towards work.
Lieutenant Christian was also crushed by the pressure. He always wanted to go back to live on the island. At first, his idea was to sneak away on a raft, but then he thought that the risk was a bit high, so he changed his strategy and prepared to secretly capture the "Bon pedicle".
Bligh wasn't wary of these things at all, and he couldn't believe that someone would do anything under his nose.
A total of 9 people participated in the rebellion, and the remaining 8 were ordinary soldiers.
On April 28, Christian led three soldiers into the unlocked cabin, locked Bligh's hands, and led him to the deck.
Everyone on board understood what was going on, and chose their own teams one after another.
There were 18 people who were loyal to Bligh, so they were sent to a motorboat. The rebels only provided them with minimal sailing equipment, four short swords, a toolbox, and some food and water, and let them go with Bligh. Go and float in the sea.
Shockingly, Bligh actually performed a miracle: he took the group of people after a brief stop on the nearby island of Tofua for supplies, and chose an unlikely route, preparing to go to the colony of East Timor and thinking about it later. way back to England.
At that time, there was only one compass that could tell Bligh the direction, and the rest depended on his own memories of years of navigation.
With almost no maps available, Bligh took everyone on a 3,600-mile voyage and brought the motorboat to its destination in 1789, losing only one crew member in the process. killed by.
In March 1790, Bligh returned to London, England, but a "captain" did not bring back the ship. This was not a trivial matter at the time. However, when he told everything he had experienced, Everyone understood his difficulties, and the court-martial acquitted him, allowing him to continue serving in the colonial government.
On the other hand, the life of the hijackers was not easy.
Christian first drove the boat back to Tahiti and unloaded 16 people there. These people all yearned for life on the island and thought that sunny days were coming.
Soon, two people were killed there, and the rest were all captured by Captain Edward in 1791 and imprisoned on the British Royal Navy ship "Pandora".
Strangely, the "Pandora" ran aground in Australia, and 4 prisoners on board drowned on the spot. The rest of the prisoners were brought back to the UK, and 3 more were hanged.
Christian, who wanted to live a carefree life on the island, was a very smart person. He knew what would happen if he was discovered, so he led 8 rebels out of Tahiti, planning to find a bigger island to hide, At that time, no one cared about their origin and past.
On January 15, 1790, 6 men, 12 women, and a baby landed on Pitcairn Island together, and a more dangerous story began.
A world without laws will always be full of crimes
Christian took everyone to look for the dream "Garden of Eden", but unexpectedly he opened a "Hell World" with his own hands.
After arriving in Xanadu, everyone was in a good mood. Before burning down the "Bounty", they removed all usable things from it and established some rules: In order to prevent being discovered by the outside world, all houses It must be built inland, it is forbidden to cut down trees along the coast, set up surveillance posts, and if there are ships passing by, all fireworks must be extinguished.
The initial food was also sufficient because the "Bounty" itself carried a large number of coconuts, fish, seabirds, and eggs, which was enough for everyone to eat for several months.
From the perspective of sustainable development, they also carry the seeds of crops such as bananas, melons, and yams. If everyone can live in peace and harmony, there will be no problem at all living on the island for many years. A large ship on a long voyage is quite well prepared. of.
It is not difficult to see that at that time they also believed that the challenge they faced was mainly the accountability of the British government, but they did not realize that they had fallen into anarchy.
Coming to a brand new world, the first dispute everyone faced was the distribution of land and women.
Since they will hold meetings from time to time and use the relatively primitive "majority agreement" method to make decisions, the people who may be able to participate in the meeting include only European men. Even so, they still have no way to reach cooperation.
Everyone wants to be able to achieve absolute control over their own land and property, which has resulted in continuous private alliances. When everyone does not have a monopoly on the use of violence, they cannot continue to cooperate.
On September 20, 1790, a dispute broke out among the crew, at first because someone died of illness, and his "native" wife became the object of competition among other men.
Originally, those non-British people were not qualified to speak, but on the desert island, the fate of everyone will be rewritten.
In anger, the Tahitians decided to regain power and kill the rebels, who were also sinners to the British government anyway.
But this time Christians quickly discovered the problem, so the Europeans joined forces and forced the Tahitians to kill two people. With murder, order really did not exist, and the subsequent massacres intensified.
Since the number of people decreased greatly and everyone was in danger, the island was considered calm for a while after that.
But after everyone discovered that the plants on the island could extract alcohol, the contradictions escalated again, and murders and accidents followed one after another.
In 1793, Tahitians shot and killed five white men and wounded one while women were working in the mountains and the Europeans dispersed.
And soon, various disputes arose among the Tahitians, which eventually evolved into a new massacre.
The instigator, Christian, was also killed in the chaos. Some people said that he died in a fight, and some said that he couldn't bear his current life and chose to commit suicide. The real situation may no longer be known.
From the point of view of the rebellion, Christian succeeded, and he also succeeded in achieving his goal; but from the point of view of social governance, he was a total failure, and his so-called democratic project was completely bankrupt after just a few years.
In 1794, there were only 4 crew members and 10 Tahitian women and their children left on the entire island.
These people are also fully aware of the seriousness of the problem. In this world without law and order, killing is very likely to happen again.
The two British sailors decided to use the "Bible" they carried with them as a guide to building a harmonious society. Under their leadership, everyone converted to Christianity and taught the children to read and write with the words in the "Bible".
In 1800, the scene on the island changed again: because one of the British crew members died of asthma, and another British crew member named Adams dragged a large group of women and children to survive, the originally imagined paradise, Now even survival is a difficult thing.
By this time, the island has truly achieved a certain balance: 23 people live on the island, and only one person is the "big head".
Eight years later, people came to the island again.
American Captain Mayhew's ship broke down nearby, and in desperation, he came to this off-course island.
Much to Mayhew's surprise, it was inhabited, and not indigenous, as the Union Jack had been raised on the island.
Mayhew was also shocked when he learned the stories of fighting and killing each other here. The situation at that time was: Adams had led more than 20 people to form a subsidiary island country.
In order to convince Mayhew of his story, Adams specially produced the Bible and the observatory to prove his identity. It is impossible for the natives to do these things. If someone does it, it will be a declaration of war on Britain.
Combined with the natural environment of the island, this place can indeed become a small community.
Because there are forests on this land of 10 square kilometers, it provides abundant wood for everyone's survival. In addition, clear streams and fertile soil also make it more than 530 acres of land suitable for cultivation. The precipitation can also reach 2032 mm, which provides a basic natural environment for our survival.
In 1887, the Pitcairn Islands officially became a British colony and began to be under the jurisdiction of the British Commissioner. It was said that it was under the jurisdiction, but in fact, it could only be regarded as occupying a piece of land.
Even so, the world here is still not a "civilized society". There are always people who have to make sacrifices, and in these hundreds of years of history, the main sacrifices are women.
There has always been a "sexually predatory culture" on the island, and the abuse of women has become a tradition on the island. Even in modern society, the situation there seems to have never improved.
Because Pitcairn Island has been almost always isolated from the outside world, it is difficult for the island's residents to exceed 50 people. For a long time, only occasionally some ships will come and send some supplies.
In 2004, a trial caught everyone's attention: many descendants of the defectors were convicted of child abuse and sexual assault. or less violation.
Today, there are still about 60 residents on the island. They are also descendants of the sailors of the "Bounty", and they still maintain the habits of their ancestors.
Every Sunday afternoon, they will worship in the house built by Adams, they will have a "Bible" class every Wednesday, and they will pray for God's blessing before and after eating. One of the few sources of happiness, since life is so pure, they don't need a priest.
The other two islands in the archipelago have never been transformed by humans, and the islands also inhabit unique local birds.
That is, after these stories were spread and made into movies, this formerly unknown island attracted the attention of many tourists, especially after the movie became popular, Pitcairn Island also completely entered thousands of households in the Western world.
