Captain Waldegrave says they are so strongly attached to those beautiful prayers that are found in the liturgy of the Church of England, that there is no danger of a dissenting minister being received among them.  It is to be hoped this may be the case; but it may be asked, will they escape from the snares of George Hunn Nobbs?  It would seem, indeed, that this man has already thrust upon them what he calls a code of laws, in which he enumerates crimes, such as murder and adultery, unknown and unheard of among these simple people since the time that Adams was sole legislator and patriarch.  The punishment of adultery, to give a specimen of Nobbs’s legislation, is whipping for the first offence to both parties, and marriage within three months; for the second, if the parties refuse to marry, the penalties are, forfeiture of lands, property, and banishment from the island.  Offenders are to be tried before three elders, who pronounce sentence.  It is quite clear this silly person does not understand what is meant by adultery.  As to the tenure of land, it is fortunately provided for previous to his arrival on the island.  The whole island, it seems, was partitioned out by Adams among the families of the original settlers, so that a foreigner cannot obtain any, except by purchase or marriage.  Captain Waldegrave reckons, that eleven-twelfths are uncultivated, and that population is increasing so rapidly, that in the course of a century the island will be fully peopled, and that the limit may be taken at one thousand souls.

The rate at which population is likely to increase may, perhaps, be determined by political economists from the following data.

In 1790 the island was first settled by fifteen men and twelve women, making a total of twenty-seven.  Of these were remaining in 1800, one man and five women, with nineteen children, the eldest nine years of age, making in the whole twenty-five.  In 1808, Mr. Folger makes the population amount to thirty-five, being an increase of ten in eight years.  In 1814, six years afterwards, Sir Thomas Staines states the adult population at forty, which must be a mistake, as fourteen years before, nineteen of the twenty-five then existing were children.  In 1825, Captain Beechey states the whole population at sixty-six, of whom thirty-six were males, and thirty females.  And in 1830, Captain Waldegrave makes it amount to seventy-nine; being an increase of thirteen in five years, or twenty per cent, which is a less rapid increase than might be expected; but there can be little doubt it will go on with an accelerated ratio, provided the means of subsistence should not fail them.