Tonga earned her wee spot in the history o' mutineers by chance. Tho' the tale would be told again an' again, few would know at whose isles, arrrrrr, the famous events be takin' place. I speak
o' course o' Captain William Bligh and the mutiny aboard the HMS Bounty!After but five short months in the pleasure lands o' Tahiti, cap't Bligh was itchin ta set sail. Deserting crew were recaptured, the blasted bucaneers! They were but flogged, instead a gettin thier due an' dancin the knotted jig. On the'r way to the West Indies, the crew chose to mutiny, curse their hides. Bligh an' eighteen loyal men t'were set adrift in an open boat wit but a wee bit o' supplies, never deliverin' a lash of the cat o' nine tails to their treacherous mates.
Luckily for them, t'was In the Tongan Ha'apai group, arrrrr, off the coast o fiery Tofua, where the treacherous sea dogs did the deed. "Why, shiver me timbers," Bligh said, "These here lands t'were named the 'Friendly Isles' by none other than me matey Captain Cook not 12 years past!" Bligh landed at Tofua to meet them friendly landlubbers. He would later be namin' the landing
point "Murderers' Cove," and be thankful he lost none more than Quartermaster Norton to t' savages. Havin' not time to use the head, much less load rations, an' havin entirely missed the freshwater lake in Tofua's volcanic boosom, Bligh and his men were forced ta cast off.Thanks be to the Powers, the brave souls would survive their 47-moon voyage without a visit to Fiddlers Green. An in tha year 1791 the HMS Pandora would be visitin' Tonga, searching for them treacherous Bounty mutineers. By then they had settled on Pitcairn Island. After a brief stop to see their lasses in Tahiti, of course, yo-ho.
Ahoy bucko! Did ye do a lesson on swashbuckler history, wi' full swashbuckler gear an' peg leg, to celebrate?
ReplyDeleteWhy be ye travelin' around th' americas instead o' sailin' around th' south pacific? Did ye hornswaggel rival seafaring' buccaneers?
Well that explains where I'd read about Tonga in my literary days as an inquisitive youth. Ah the Bounty, if ever there were a classic tale of mutiny on the high seas and a true story it'd be you.
ReplyDeleteLittle do most people know, the Captain went on to become a notable alien abductee while the Quartermaster went on to declare himself Emperor of the United State - but that's another story.