Dec. 

 1825. 



PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 115 



would add much to his happiness if I would read C1 ?u p 

 the marriage ceremony to him and his wife, as he 

 could not bear the idea of living with her without 

 its being done. He had long wished for the arrival 

 of a ship of war to set his conscience at rest on that 

 point. Though Adams was aged, and the old wo- 

 man had been blind and bed-ridden for several years, 

 he made such a point of it, that it would have been 

 cruel to refuse him. They were accordingly the 

 next day duly united, and the event noted in a 

 register by John Buffet. 



The islanders were delighted at having us again 

 among them, and expressed themselves in the warm- 

 est terms. We soon found, through our intercourse 

 with these excellent people, that they had no wants 

 excepting such as had been created by an intercourse 

 with vessels, which have from time to time supplied 

 them with European articles. Nature has been ex- 

 tremely bountiful to them ; and necessity has taught 

 them how to apply her gifts to their own particular 

 uses. Still they have before them the prospect of 

 an increasing population, with limited means of sup- 

 porting it. Almost every part of the island capable 

 of cultivation has been turned to account ; but what 

 would have been the consequences of this increase, 

 had not an accident discovered their situation, it is 

 not difficult to foresee ; and a reflecting mind will 

 naturally trace in that disclosure the benign inter- 

 ference of the same hand which has raised such a 

 virtuous colony from so guilty a stock. Adams 

 having contemplated the situation which the island- 

 ers would have been reduced to, begged, at our first 

 interview, that I would communicate with the go- 

 vernment upon the subject, which was done ; and I 



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