268 Voyage of the Novara. 



began to indulge hopes that they had at last found at Nor- 

 folk Island the long-wished-for asylum, and as energetic and 

 industrious land-owners would at once benefit themselves and 

 develope the resources of the island. These pleasing antici- 

 pations were the more natural, as for a number of years 

 nothing more was heard of the '' Pitcairn Islanders," except 

 that everything was going on prosperously and quietly in 

 the new colony. 



While the Novara was lying at Sydney, in November and 

 December, 1858, intelligence was received respecting these 

 colonists, in whom, on account of their singular history, the 

 deepest interest was felt there as elsewhere. In the (then) 

 Governor-general's (Sir W. Denison's) residence we saw a 

 photographic group of the islanders, male and female, whose 

 pleasing expression involuntarily excited profound sympathy 

 for the persons thus represented. Since their arrival in Nor- 

 folk Island there had been no more definite news concerning 

 them. 



At New Zealand, in like manner, nothing was known of 

 what they were doing. At St. John's College, Auckland, we 

 quite accidentally fell in with two young well-growTi men, 

 who we were told were Pitcairn Islanders in the course of 

 education for missionaries. There was in their faces a mild, 

 half-melancholy expression ; they spoke perfectly good Eng- 

 lish, but in the most ordinary conversation used Scriptural 

 phraseology. It was known that when he began to instruct 

 tlie younger members of the community Adams possessed 



