264 Voyage of the Novara. 



placid tenure of their existence, and comj^elled them to leave 

 their beloved island. On his return to Europe, the gallant 

 Beechy, intending to confer a real benefit on the gentle 

 people in whom he felt so lively an interest, had laid before 

 the British Government Adams' dying request, in conse- 

 quence of which an English man-of-war and a transport 

 made their appearance from Port Jackson, Australia, in 

 March, 1831, to transport the whole of the inhabitants to 

 Tahiti, whicli European nations regarded as the most suit- 

 able sj^ot for them to be settled in. The Pitcairn Islanders 

 were in despair, for, when made aware of the steps taken by 

 "Father Adams" through Captain Beechy to get them 

 placed under the British Crown, the good folks had long 

 before written to England and urgently entreated that they 

 would not remove them from their own hearth ; but their en- 

 treaties seem not to have reached the proper quarter, or else 

 to have received no attention, and now that the two ships 

 lay off the island, evincing the interest taken by the 

 English Government in their future destiny, they could not 

 venture on refusing to embark. They had to content them- 

 selves with the assurance that they should be restored to 

 Pitcairn Island, in the event of their not finding themselves 

 comfortable in their new asylum. 



By the end of March, 1831, they reached Tahiti. Al- 

 though Queen Pomare had set apart a certain tract of land for 

 them to settle in, and manifested the warmest interest, and 

 though the usually frivolous but hospitable and kindly Ta- 



