sert that the desertion of the island was complete, and operated as an entire abandonment of titles, which the reoccupation can not revive. The success of the woman's claim, they say, would be the destruction of the prosperity of Pitcairn.

"When we had drawn up a case to be submitted to Sir John Young, our captain made a commercial treaty with the magistrate, who agreed to supply the ships of the new line, whenever daylight allowed them to call at Pitcairn, with oranges, bananas, ducks, and fowls, for which he was to receive cloth and tobacco in exchange, tobacco being the money of the Polynesian archipelago.

"Mr. Young told us that his people had thirty sheep, which were owned by each of the families in turn, the household taking care of them and receiving the profits for one year. Water, he said, sometimes fell short in the island, but they then make use of the juice of the green cocoa-nut. Their school is excellent; all the children can read and write; and in the election of magistrates they have female suffrage.

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"When we went on deck again to talk to the young men, Adams asked us a new question: 'Have you a “Sunday at Home," or a British Workman ?" What was the answer? 'No! Our books and papers having been ransacked, Moses Young prepared to leave the ship, taking with him presents from the stores. Besides the cloth, tobacco, hats, and linen, there was a bottle of brandy given for medicine, as the islanders are strict teetotallers. While Young held the bottle in his hand, afraid to trust the lads with it, Adams read the label, and cried out, 'Brandy! How much for a dose ? Oh yes, all right; I know: it's good for the women.' When they at last left the ship's side, one of the canoes was filled with a crinoline and blue silk dress for Mrs. Young, and another with a red and brown tartan for Mrs. Adams, both given by Lady Massenger, while the lads went ashore in dresscoats and smoking-caps.

"Now that the French, with their singular habit of

everywhere annexing countries which other colonizing nations have rejected, are rapidly occupying all the Polynesian groups, except the only ones that are of value, namely, the Sandwich Islands and New Zealand, Pitcairn becomes of some importance as a solitary British post on the very border of the French dominions; and it has for us the stronger claim to notice, which is raised by the fact that it has figured for the last few years on the wrong side of our British budget.

"As we stood out from the bay into the lonely seas, the island peak showed a black outline against a pale-green sky; but in the west the heavy clouds that in the Pacific never fail to cumber the horizon, were glowing with a crimson cast by the now set sun, and the dancing wavelets were tinted with reflected hues.".

The latest letter from Pitcairn is to Admiral Sir Fairfax Moresby, G.C.B., from John Buffett. He went to pay a visit to his daughter, Mrs. Young, who had returned there with her husband and family, and had been a year in Pitcairn, unable to find a ship to convey him to Auckland in order to return to Norfolk Island. This letter, which contains the following extract, is dated Pitcairn Island, July 27th, 1869:

"The last merchant-ship touched here last August, and a whaler last February, so that they are very short of clothing, and will, I suppose, have to go back to native cloth; in fact, several ladies wear the native skirt now. Mr. Simon Young is school-master and pastor, and attends well to those duties. He also teaches singing without any remuneration. We ought to be very thankful that we are blessed with health, as we have no medicine on the island; meat is scarce, so are fish. We have some sheep and goats, no cattle; and the hogs are diseased. There has been a failure with the yam crops, so that our principal food is sweet-potatoes and plantains. Oranges are plentiful, and bananas, pine-apples, etc., so that we make

out pretty well in the eating line. Moses Young is magistrate this year, but there are not many law cases. Most of them would rather be on Norfolk Island than here."

With this notice of the re-colonization and present state of Pitcairn Island our narrative ends.

We have traced the history of the little community through a period of eighty-three years, from its first origin in tyranny and crime, through a chain of strange and tragical events, to its final settlement in peace and prosperity. A few of the families who composed it have separated from their brethren, and returned to their "Rock in the West;" but the traditions of Pitcairn and of the colony in Norfolk Island are the same; and the early training of John Adams laid the foundation of such Christian principles among them, that the errors and crimes of "The Mutineers of the Bounty" are forgotten in the exemplary conduct of their descendants.

APPENDIX A.

WE have already alluded* to the following letter, written at the request of Rear-admiral Moresby, and relating the sixteen years of Mr. Nobbs's history, previous to his arrival at Pitcairn. Although very interesting, it has no bearing on the affairs of the islanders, and is therefore placed in the Appendix. The letter runs as follows:

TO REAR-ADMIRAL FAIRFAX MORESBY, G. C.B.

"H.M.S. Portland, at Sea, May, 1853. "MY HONORABLE and Benevolent Friend,-In accordance with your expressed desire that I should furnish you with the data of sixteen years of my somewhat eventful life, I submit for your perusal the following superficial, but, as far as memory serves, correct, account of my whereabouts from 1812 to October, 1828.

"November, 1811, I entered the navy, by being placed on the books of H.M.S. Roebuck, through the interest of Rear-admiral Murray. Transferred first to the Chanticleer, then to the Snipe—where I remained until the news of the loss of the Hero in the North Sea-I was then for certain reasons withdrawn from the service; but in 1813 Admiral Murray placed me on board the Indefatigable, a naval store-ship, commanded by a master in the navy named Bowles, and I went in her under the convoy of the Duncan to New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. From New South Wales we had orders to proceed by Bass's Straits to the Cape of Good Hope, but after a vain attempt to beat through the Straits we took a fresh departure from New South Wales, shaped our course for Cape Horn, and from thence across to the Cape of Good Hope, thence to St. Helena, and ultimately to England. I now left the navy, and after residing at home a few months, received a letter from my old commander, offering to procure me a berth on board a ship of eighteen guns, design

* Page 238.