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God grant that you may We are so happy to hear

We do not go so thinevery thing; in fact,

great pleasure to hear that you are quite well. long continue to enjoy health and happiness. that our old friend, Fortescue Moresby, is on board the Iris, and we are so anxious to see him; the girls are almost wild with joy. As soon as the ship was reported to be in sight, the girls said they hoped Fortescue Moresby was on board, little thinking that their wish would be realized. And now I must tell you about our new home. You must have heard of our safe arrival. When we first came on shore every thing looked so strange to us, but it did not last long. Some of our people like Pitcairn best, but I think Norfolk Island is much better. We have such beautiful houses and gardens, which give lots of employment to keep them clean, and we have milked the cows and make butter. Our men are employed in the field, and I assure you they have enough to do. Norfolk Island is a much healthier climate than Pitcairn, although it is colder. ly clad as formerly, and I believe we are improving in we are having every thing after the English fashion. It is a great advantage for us to be so near the colonies, for we can easily get what we want. "I must not forget to tell you about my own family. My first little baby survived but a few hours, and then took its flight to a better world. And now I have two dear little girls, one called Kathleen Laura ; the other, who was the first born on Norfolk Island, was called Eliza Louisa, after Lady Moresby. Your friend Esther Quintal is always talking about you; she is quite well. There are lots of children born here. Please tell Mary White that I am so thankful for her kind present, and I hope Mr. and Mrs. White are quite well and happy. The report you heard about our young men going to Sydney for wives is false, for there are many already engaged, and they are still preferring their countrywomen; and I expect when next I write to you I shall have the pleasure of saying that Ann Nobbs has changed her name to Mrs. Quintal, for she is already engaged to my brother."

The next letter, written by Dorcas Young, is a valuable and affectionate tribute of respect to the character of their pastor, some unworthy person in England having spoken injuriously of him.

DORCAS YOUNG to VICE-ADMIRAL SIR FAIRFAX Moresby, G.C.B. "October 13th, 1857. 66 MY VERY DEAR ADMIRAL,-Dear good little Forty has again come to see us. Glad, glad, truly glad to see him were all of our people, not

only for his own dear self, but for that of his (and ours too) dear good father, Admiral Moresby.

“Old times, and old associations and recollections, came vividly to my mind, and I did, in a measure, live over again a few of those happy hours spent at dear little Pitcairn. If you could only fancy to yourself a road some three and a half miles in length, with only two solitary persons upon it at first, and then one, and another, and another, and so on until half the population was hanging around, kissing and shaking hands, and expressing their joy in a thousand different ways, you may form some idea of Forty and his retinue, from his landing at the back of the island to the settlement. The delight at meeting was mutual. We were delighted, and so was Forty; but he had the worst of it-he saw and can learn for himself how all his Pitcairn friends are; but we, poor things, had to press him with a thousand and one questions concerning our very dear friends of the Portland. He was, I am sure, bewildered with the showers of anxious questions heaped upon him, and by the time he went to bed his patience must have been severely taxed.

"There was only one circumstance calculated to throw a shade over this happy meeting, and that is the circulation of certain scandalous and most unchristian reports in England concerning our worthy pastor. There must certainly be persons in existence of whose natures we have never dreamed. Always uniformly kind, not only to our people, but to all strangers visiting us-the meanest as well as the greatest-he is willing and ready to give his advice whenever asked for, helping and endeavoring to promote the welfare of the community in every thing, and doing all in his power to promote the happiness of all around him. It does seem strange to us that such a person should, above all others, be fixed upon for the dart of slander. I have seen him leave his comfortable bed in his own house, and through the rain and the mud go to watch over the sick, to administer relief both bodily and mentally night after night and day after day, until their eyes are either closed in death or they are restored to health.

"You must not understand me, my dear admiral, to mean that he is perfect in every thing. No, we have all our weak points in common with the rest of mankind. The fruits of Adam's fall are here visible too. Natural inborn sin is here, as well as in other parts of this wide world, too plainly developed; but I hope and pray that, led on and favored with so many of this world's goods, we may strive more earnestly to walk in the ways of Him from whom cometh all things.

"Believe me, my dear admiral, when I tell you that we are alive to our

faults; we know that we are far short of what we ought to be; we know, too, that we must be strengthened and renewed day by day with more light and wisdom from on high, or else we must be and are utterly undone.

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"We have been encouraged and cheered on in the path of duty by the approving smiles of some few friends, who have so very kindly interested themselves in our welfare as to bring us from the threshold of heathenism into the broad beams of Gospel light. Foremost among these never-tobe-forgotten friends stands Vice-admiral Sir Fairfax Moresby. Yes, my dear good admiral, as long as the heart of a Pitcairner beats in his bosom you will be remembered and cherished there.

"Forty has been busy all day taking photographs of our people. He will doubtless send you many, if not all of them. I suppose you will recognize your old Pitcairn friends, all of whom still recollect the visit of the Portland as if it was a thing of yesterday's occurrence. Happy times! we love to think and to speak of it. Do you still think of us at times? Yes, I fancy you must think of us, for I assure you we seldom find any amusement that will afford us so much solid gratification as talking of the dear old Portland.

"I hope, my dear admiral, you will not suffer the reports I allude to to disturb your peace of mind. I know they must materially affect you, but allow me to say that if you only knew how very little truth is contained in them you would not for a moment heed them.

"Please to give my kindest love and regards to all inquiring friends, and believe me, my dear admiral,

"Yours ever truly and affectionately,

DORCAS YOUNG."

APPENDIX B.

MR. NOBBS, in a letter to Admiral Sir Fairfax Moresby, gives the following account of the Gambier Islands:

"MY HONORED FRIEND,-It was in the year 1834 that I first went to the Gambier Islands, in the bark Pomarre, of Tahiti, Thomas Ebriell commander. The first thing you observe in the distance is Mount Duff, situated on the principal island (Mangariva), and which may be seen on a clear day fifty miles distant. The next object most likely to draw your attention is a long and dangerous reef at the north end of the barrier.

This long reef extends several miles from the barrier, or circular reef, which surrounds the islands, they consisting of four inhabited and several other smaller ones. Their names, in the order of size, are Mangariva, Akamarn, Terawai, and Arkana. The natives I found most hospitable and docile, myself and family dwelling among them for the space of nine months in perfect peace and serenity. Animals fit for food they had none. The bread-fruit in its natural state during the season, and for the remainder of the year in an acetous state, constitutes their daily food, with the addition of fish occasionally, which they take in nets. The French have nominal possession of these islands; here they first commenced their insidious and unchristian usurpation in these seas. A few months after my having taken up my abode among these simple and singular people, an American schooner, named Peruvian, arrived there from Valparaiso, having on board two French priests, and an Irishman named Murphy, who was the superintendent of their secular affairs. The schooner was bound to Tahiti, and her calling at the Gambier Islands was quite accidental; but the captain, hearing I was living there very comfortably, and, I suppose, wishing to get rid of his passengers, persuaded them to take up their residence there also. Accordingly, they came to my place of abode to inquire if I had any objection to their remaining, our mutual object-they were pleased to say-being to humanize the natives; and moreover would I use my influence with the king, or some one of the chiefs, in order to their obtaining a commodious dwelling. Not considering myself justified in procuring their expulsion (which I could easily have done), I told them the large island was altogether under my care, and that they must not interfere with my arrangements (I had then, by and with the consent of the chiefs and people, commenced idol-burning); but that, if they would be content to reside upon one of the smaller islands I would see them properly cared for. To this they readily acceded, and selected the Island of Arkana, where the natives provided them with a comfortable house.

"There they dwelt during the time I remained at Mangariva, nor did they trouble or interfere with me in any way, merely coming once a month, in full canonicals, to pay me a visit ostensibly, though from the circumstance of their always making a tour of the islands before they returned home, I presume that to 'spy out the land' was their chief object. However, they gave me no occasion of offense, for they easily saw that my influence with the chiefs was too firm for them to undermine; but the moment I left for Pitcairn they wrote to Valparaiso for a French ship-of-war to visit them, and on her arrival declared the place a French colony,

hoisted the tri-color flag, and commenced building a convent. I am not aware the islands have ever been garrisoned or fortified by the French.

"The natives, when I went among them twenty years ago, though confirmed idolaters, were singularly temperate, peaceable, and hospitable, which, if recent accounts are true, is not the case at present. Another most honorable trait in their character, and one most worthy of record, is that the women enjoyed equal rights with the men; there is no distinction of inferiority. They take their meals together, and in the evening may be seen assembled on the stone platform in front of the houses, father, mother, and children in one indiscriminate group. Now this can not be said of any other island in these seas, while it remained in its primitive state. In my evening walks I have often been reminded of more civilized countries, from the circumstance of hearing women soundly rating their husbands; yet the females in general are very unlovely in their appearance, and the men go without a vestige of clothing.

"There is a small lagoon sand-bank, called Crescent Island, some forty or fifty miles from Gambier, which I believe may be distinguished, by the help of a telescope, from the summit of Mount Duff. At all events, Mount Duff is plainly discernible from this dangerous sand-bank.

"Captain Ebriell, being desirous of ascertaining whether pearl oysters might be obtained there, invited me to accompany him in the search. We accordingly started, working the vessel out through the south-east passage. On our arrival at the Crescent, it was with much difficulty and danger we effected a landing, when to our surprise we found about forty persons, meagre and wretched in appearance, inhabiting it—not tattooed as is the case with the Gambier Islanders. The men approached us fearlessly, but the women kept at some distance. By the help of a Gambier islander, as interpreter, we learned that, fifty or sixty years previous, their progenitors were forced to quit Mangariva on a raft, and that after having been some time at sea they succeeded in landing here. The refugees had all died long since, the people we found there being their offspring. They seemed quite satisfied with their lot, although the only articles of food they could obtain were squid, and small fish taken in the holes of the coral reef, and the kernels of the nut of the pandanus or screw-palm, which is the only tree or vegetable growing on their sand-bank. On our return to Mangariva we related this to the chiefs and others, who came to the determination to go and bring them to the land of their fathers. Having no conveyance of their own, they hired a large boat belonging to Captain Ebriell (who sent with them his mate and some seamen to assist them). Accordingly, they were all brought to Mangariva, and landed

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