Recent lUstorij of the Pitcairn Islanders. 269 



only a Bible and some religious books. Thus tliey not only 

 were instructed in the Book of books, but even in ordinary life 

 the biblical phraseology and peculiarity of expression still 

 clung, even to the fourth generation. 



During our visit to Tahiti we heard one day that the 

 schooner Louisa, Captain Stewart, had just arrived from Pit- 

 cairn Island, whither he had transported a number of its 

 former inhabitants from Norfolk Island. We resolved to get 

 speech with this gentleman, in order that we might gather 

 from his o^ti lips the details of his voyage. It so chanced 

 that he stayed in the house of an English settler, who had let 

 to us a small palm-hut during our stay at Papeete. We very 

 soon struck up an acquaintance. Captain Stewart, a genuine 

 Englishman in appearance, character, and expression, ex- 

 plained to us in brief terms that he had at their own cost 

 transported a number of the Pitcairners from Norfolk Isle to 

 their old home, and, during the voyage, which lasted some 

 weeks, had kept a pretty full journal. " But," continued the 

 truthdoving captain, " I am not at present in a position to 

 give you any circumstantial details repecting them. Busi- 

 ness compels me to go over to the island of Eimeo, and by 

 the time I return hither the Novara will be well on her way 

 to Valparaiso. I am likewise bound, however, for the west 

 coast of South America, in fact to Valparaiso, and shall proba- 

 bly arrive there a few weeks after you. I promise you, during 

 my voyage thither, to jot down the most important data I can 

 recall respecting these islanders, and they shall be placed at 



