Pitcairn’s Island.  On the approach of the Blossom, a boat came off under all sail towards the ship, containing old Adams and ten of the young men of the island.  After requesting and obtaining leave to come on board, the young men sprung up the side, and shook every officer cordially by the hand.  Adams, who was grown very corpulent, followed more leisurely.  He was dressed in a sailor’s shirt and trousers, with a low-crowned hat, which he held in his hand in sailor fashion, while he smoothed down his bald forehead when addressed by the officers of the Blossom.  The little colony had now increased to about sixty-six, including an English sailor of the name of John Buffett, who, at his own earnest desire, had been left by a whaler.  In this man the society luckily found an able and willing schoolmaster.  He instructed the children in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and devoutly co-operated with old Adams in affording religious instruction to the community.  The officers of the Blossom went ashore, and were entertained with a sumptuous repast at young Christian’s, the table being spread with plates, knives and forks.  Buffett said grace in an emphatic manner; and so strict were they in this respect, that it was not deemed proper to touch a morsel of bread without saying grace both before and after it.  The officers slept in the house all night, their bedclothing and sheets consisting of the native cloth made of the native mulberry-tree.  The only interruption to their repose was the melody of the evening hymn, which was chanted together by the whole family after the lights were put out; and they were awakened at early dawn by the same devotional ceremony.  On Sabbath the utmost decorum was attended to, and the day was passed in regular religious observances.

In consequence of a representation made by Captain Beechey, the British government sent out Captain Waldegrave in 1830, in the Seringapatam, with a supply of sailors’ blue jackets and trousers, flannels, stockings and shoes, women’s dresses, spades, mattocks, shovels, pick-axes, trowels, rakes, etc.  He found their community increased to about seventy-nine, all exhibiting the same unsophisticated and amiable characteristics as we have before described.  Other two Englishmen had settled amongst them; one of them, called Nobbs, a low-bred, illiterate man, a self-constituted missionary, who was endeavoring to supersede Buffett in his office of religious instruction.  The patriarch Adams, it was found, had died in March, 1829, aged sixty-five.  While on his deathbed, he had called the heads of families together, and urged upon them to elect a chief; which, however, they had not yet done; but the greatest harmony still prevailed amongst them, notwithstanding Nobb’s exertions to form a party of his own.  Captain Waldegrave thought that the island, which is about four miles square, might be able to support a thousand persons, upon reaching which number they would naturally emigrate to other Islands.