116 VOYAGE TO THE 



am happy to say that, through the interference of 

 the Admiralty and Colonial Office, means have been 

 taken for removing them to any place they may 

 choose for themselves ; and a liberal supply of useful 

 articles has recently been sent to them.* 



Some books of travels which were left from time 

 to time on the island, and the accounts they had 

 heard of foreign countries from their visiters, has 

 created in the islanders a strong desire to travel, 

 so much so that they one day undertook a voyage 

 in their whale-boat to an island which they learnt 

 was not very far distant from their own ; but 

 fortunately for them, as the compass on which they 

 relied, one of the old Bounty's, was so rusty as to 

 be quite useless, their curiosity yielded to discretion, 

 and they returned before they lost sight of their 

 native soil. 



The idea of passing all their days upon an island 

 only two miles long, without seeing any thing of 

 the world, or, what was a stronger argument, with- 

 out doing any good in it, had with several of them 

 been deeply considered. But family ties, and an ar- 

 dent affection for each other, and for their native 

 soil, had always interposed to prevent their going 

 away singly. George Adams, however, having no 

 wife to detain him, but, on the contrary, reasons for 

 wishing to employ his thoughts on subjects foreign 

 to his home, was very anxious to embark in the 

 Blossom ; and I would have acceded to his wishes, 

 had not his mother wept bitterly at the idea of part- 

 ing from him, and imposed terms touching his re- 

 turn to the island to which I could not accede. It 

 was a sore disappointment to poor George, whose 



* I have been informed since that they have changed their 

 mind, and are at present contented with their situation. 



