Religion?

Religious observance aboard the Dreadful and been in the hands of Captain Stokes. It would appear that Stokes viewed the compulsory services that he lead as just another burden of his office.
Of the men who settled on Tamba- Tamba one can only assume that none was particularly religious. Cock, of course, was an avowed atheist , but the complete lack of religious observance noted by Bentall on his arrival in 1795 cannot have been the result of Cock's influence alone.
In his log Lt. Dixon of The Mercury had noted that the islanders did not keep the Sabbath, a fact that also struck Bentall in his early dealings with them.
When invited by first the Masters of Mercury and Columbine to join them for services, the islanders tactfully declined.
When the garrison was established the matter became more pressing.
The padre, The Rev. Hawsley Rimmer, was confounded by the continuing absence of any islanders from his services.

The Rev. Hawsley Rimmer.

Rev. Rimmer decided that the island needed a church. Bentall agreed, and plans to establish St Mary's Cocktown were tabled. Citizen Rowley discussed it with the council. They didn't want a church. Bentall went ahead and had it built anyway, using labour from the garrison. On the first Sunday on which Rimmer went there to preach no islanders came.
Incensed Rimmer decided that 'if these godless ragamuffins will not come to the Lord, I shall take the Lord to them...'
When Rimmer went into the village in an attempt to return these lost sheep to the fold, he took the precaution of having an armed escort. The islanders resented this, and threatened to throw him off Hooper's Point anyway, armed escort or not.
An outraged Rimmer appealed to Bentall for a show of power in order to bring the islanders back into line.
Exercising the quiet restraint that typified his governorship (and some might say the whole relationship between Britain and Tamba- Tamba during the Imperial period) Bentall declined.
Hawsley Rimmer returned to England at the earliest opportunity. A replacement padre was sent for the garrison, but the islanders remained unmolested thereafter.